APL Apollo Tubes Limited (533758) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Host, can we start the meeting?

Yes, so recording has been started.

Yes. So -- good morning, dear members and all the panelists. I'm Deepak C. S., Company Secretary of APL Apollo Tubes Limited. We welcome you all to the 37th Annual General Meeting of APL Apollo Tubes Limited. . We have with us our Vice Chairman, Mr. Ashok Kumar Gupta; and other Board members who have joined through VC and in person and also other panelists and also sitting along with me is Mr. Deepak Goyal, the CFO of the company. They have joined all either in person or through VC. I welcome everyone to the meeting. As the members are aware of in accordance with the relaxations provided by SEBI and MCA, this meeting is being conducted through the electronic platform in VC mode. There's a WebEx facility provided by CDSL, which without the physical presence of members at a common venue. The current ala section provided by SEBI and MCA continues still the meetings to be held until 31st December, 2022. The members who have joined this AGM through VC are, by default, kept in mute by the host to avoid any disturbance arising from background noise and for ensuring smooth conduct of the AGM. As you are aware of the remote e-voting facility was provided for this AGM from the 9th 10:00 in the money till 11, that was yesterday, till 5 p.m. And the shareholders who casted their vote in the remote e-voting can still participate in this AGM, but their voting -- they cannot vote at the AGM, and those who have not casted their vote in the remote e-voting, can vote in the e-voting facility provided during the AGM. During the proceedings of the AGM members may raise their queries through the chat box facility which is available on your screen. And depending on the nature of the query, they'll be answered either immediately or subsequently through e-mail. And if any member faces any technical issue during the conduct of this meeting, they can contact help line numbers of CDSL, which was provided by the notice of this Annual General Meeting. And since our Chairman, Mr. Sanjay Gupta, could not be present due to unavoidable engagements, I propose that the Vice Chairman, Mr. Ashok Gupta, be elected as the Chairman of this meeting. Therefore, I request a host to conduct a polling on the proposal for electing Mr. Ashok Gupta as a chairman of this meeting. So I request a host to please put that question regarding election of the Chairman on the screen, and we'll wait for 2 minutes, and thereafter, the results will be announced. Host please do that polling? Host, am I audible?

Yes sir, polling has been open for 3 minutes.

Okay. So all the shareholders are requested to vote on the question that has been put on the screen about the election of the Chairman. [Voting]

Please show the results of the polling?

Yes. A polling result had been displayed on the screen, sir.

Yes. So a majority of the participants have voted in favor of election of the election of Mr. Ashok Gupta as the Chairman of the meeting. So Ashok sir, I welcome you to the meeting. I request you to kindly chair the meeting. And sir, the quorum is present, the presence of 30 members is a requisite quorum, and we have about 40, 45 or so. So the quorum is adequate. So I request you to kindly start the proceedings of the meeting.

Thank you, Deepak. Thank you, members. May I give a very warm welcome to all the members of the company who are present here today, to the directors who are present -- Directors of the Board who are present here. Ladies and gentlemen, a very warm welcome to all of you for this Annual General Meeting of your company. I'm sure you and your loved ones are well and safe in this difficult COVID period. Before we formally proceed with the meeting, I shall request the company secretary Mr. Deepak to conduct a roll call as per the system. Please, Deepak.

Thank you, sir. Now I request ma'am Neeru Abrol, who is also the Chairperson of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee to start the process. Ma'am, please do the process.

Okay. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'm Neeru Abrol, Independent Director of APL Apollo Tubes. I'm joining the AGM from a residence in Lajpat Nagar. There is no one else who has access to this meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Welcome to the meeting. Mr. Ameet Gupta, Independent Director, sir, please do the roll call.

Good morning, everyone. This is Ameet Gupta, Independent Director of APL Apollo Tubes. I'm attending this meeting from my office from Noida, and there's nobody else in the room right now. I can hear and see everybody's here. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Mr. V.S. Jain, Independent Director, sir? V.S. Jain, sir, you're on mute. Please unmute yourself.

I'm V.S. Jain, Independent Director of the company. I'm attending this AGM from my residence. There is nobody else present in the room, and I can see and hear very clearly.

Thank you, sir. Welcome to the meeting. Abhilash sir, Independent Director. Mr. Abhilash Lal.

Good morning, everyone. This is Abhilash Lal here, Independent Director. I'm attending this meeting from Mumbai, I confirm that I can hear and see everything, and I've received the documents related to this meeting. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, sir. Welcome to the meeting. And there are other some -- a few other invitees also who have joined this meeting. Mr. Rashim Tandon, who is the representative of the statutory auditors, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP. Rashim, can you do the roll process?

Hi, good morning. This is Rashim Tandon. I'm joining this meeting and from New Delhi, and I'm here as a representative of the stat auditors. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Welcome to the meeting. Then we have Ms. Sarvari Shah, who is a representative of the secretarial auditors Parikh & Associates. Sarvari, can you please do the roll process?

This is Sarvari Shah from Parikh & Associates. I'm attending this meeting from Mumbai. I'm a representative of Secretarial Audit.

Thank you, Sarvari. Welcome to the meeting. And then we have Mr. Jatin Gupta, who is the scrutinizer for this meeting. Mr. Jatin, can you please do the call.

Good morning. I'm Jatin Gupta, acting as scrutinizer. I'm running this meeting -- am I audible, sir?

Yes, you're audible. Please go ahead.

I'm Jatin Gupta acting as scrutinizer. I'm attending this meeting from Connaught Place and nobody has access to this room except me.

Thank you, Mr. Jatin. Welcome to the meeting. Sir, the process of the panelists is completed. Please go ahead with the meeting.

Thank you. Thank you, Deepak. Now I would like to introduce the panelists. I introduce Mr. Romi Sehgal, Executive Director, who's sitting with me on my left here. I would also like to introduce Mr. Anil Kumar Bansal, who is the Chairman of the Audit Committee and Stakeholders Relationship Committee, who has joined through VC. Madam Neeru Abrol, Chair Person of Nomination and Remuneration Committee; Shri Virendra Singh Jain; Sri Abhilash Lal, Independent Directors, who have joined through VC; Mr. Ameet Gupta, who has joined through VC. Then we also have certain our members Mr. Rashim Tandon; Abhishek Lakhotia, the statutory auditors; Madam Sarvari Shah, who is the Secretarial Auditor as well as Jatin Gupta, who is scrutinizer who is done through VC. Sitting here along with me are Mr. Deepak Goyal, who's the CFO of the company, on my left -- on my right, and also Deepak who is company secretary on my right. I welcome all the panelists who have joined through VC as well as physically. Now may I request the company secretary to please record absence of some of the directors who could only present due to preoccupation or other programs. Further, as you have noted, the statutory auditor, the secretarial auditor and the scrutinizer all have joined through VC. I note that the presence of quorum is there and the mandatory participants are also there. With this requisite quorum being present, the meeting is therefore called to order.

Thank you, sir. I request you to give a brief overview on the performance of the company for the financial year '21, 2022.

Honorable directors and dear members of the company this give me immense pleasure to bring to your notice that performance of the company for the year '21, '22 and also the road ahead. The year was a year when Indian economy reported a sharp turnaround in fortune as the GDP grew almost by 8.7% against a contraction of 6.6% in the previous year. The recovery of the industrial and services segment resulted in an appreciable spike in government revenue. Further, exports touched a new pinnacle even as imports continue to climb. As a result, India's physical deficit remained within the budgeted numbers. Favorable government policies and accommodative fiscal environment facilitate investment by the private sector. The demand for steel and steel products increased. APL Apollo being the dominant player in the structural steel products which is significantly used in construction was able to capitalize on the resurgence to report its best performance in its journey so far. As you all know, we started the financial year within the India in the grip of second wave of pandemic. It hit the nation, it hit the world and the country's health care system was very, very highly impacted. This also impacted the businesses and economy. But by the time we close the year, the Russia and Ukraine crisis assumed center stage adversely impacted economies the supply chain, the prices of food grains, commodities, fuel and almost everything. Company was also affected by these challenges equally. However, we could end the year on a high note. In financial year '22, the company reported encouraging results, both by way of revenue and bottom line. Turnover of the company on a consolidated basis increased from INR 8,500 crores in FY '22 to INR 13,104 crores in FY '22 -- from '21 to '22, registering a growth of 54%. Net profit increased from INR 408 crores in FY '21 to INR 619 crores in FY '22, again, growing by almost 52%. This was largely owing to the combination of factors like significant focus on value addition, building of brand Apollo and market expansion, both in terms of verticals and geographically. We continued our mass branding campaign, which included the outdoor media, print media, IPL sponsorship and TV ads. We enrolled Bollywood celerity Tiger Shroff, as you all know, as our brand ambassador. We launched a massive campaign around our new brand ambassador through TV commercials and social media platforms. We generated a heartening response and enlarged our brand visibility. From this perspective, it was a satisfying year. The company successfully implemented important initiatives that hold the promise of growth in future. The most important among them is the launch of that tubular technology for constructing high-rise buildings. I'm happy to inform you that the company has seen the contract for supplying its high-strength columns for creating the superstructure for 6 very large multi-specialty medical buildings, medical hospitals in India. The other path taking -- pathbreaking initiative was the launch of Aalishaan app, which is a B2C tech connect that will enable the company to come closer to the ultimate consumers. The consumers can directly connect in their app and may choose our company's products. Incidentally, this app has received an overwhelming response from the consumers and promises to be game changers for the company in the medium term, particularly in an era when everything is going digital. During the year, our average working capital cycle improved to 7 days as opposed to 8 days in the previous year. Our net debt position, which had improved considerably in the previous year, remained at comparable levels. Further, return on capital employed increased from 26% to 35%, which I'm sure you will be happy to know. And we could also sustain the debt-to-equity ratio of 0.1% as in the previous year. The company's market share has increased from 50% to 55%. I would like to inform you that we have invested an amount of around INR 100 crores in the equity of Shankara Building Products Limited and another INR 80 crores is to be invested through warrants. This is a very strategic initiative from our point of view. This will strengthen our presence in South India, a large and growing construction market. Shankara Building has a robust distribution network, and we believe that strengthening this relationship will lead to significant volume growth and value accretion both for Apollo and Shankara. Further, the proposed merger of Apollo TriCoat Tubes Limited and an unlisted subsidiary of APL Apollo Tubes is at advanced stage with the honorable NCLT already having reserved its order. This would provide a strong platform for both the companies for growth and pave way for simplification of the structure while achieving synergy of operations and [indiscernible] combined resources. As you all know, the company had invested and continues to invest in its Raipur facility. This facility will manufacture pioneering products which will significantly widen the market size and strengthen its dominance in the structural tube business space. While trial production of Apollo Columns commenced during the year under review, the first phase of this project is expected to commence in the current year. The company targets to increase its installed capacity to 3 million tonnes in FY '23 from 2.6 million tonnes last year. To add this capacity, the management has identified 2 new product lines in the value-added category. First, large size, 500 by 500 diameter tubes and sections under heavy structural tube segment; and secondly, color-coated tubes under home decor segment. Both of these products will have capacity of about 2 lakh tonnes each and will be launched in India for the first time, which is in line with the company's strategy to create new market, new products for structural steel tubes in the long run. The project is being implemented, as you all know, in the new greenfield Raipur facility in Chhattisgarh. The CapEx for this facility is around INR 800 crores being funded partly from internal funds and partly through debt. The commissioning of the Raipur unit should help the company in strengthening its presence in the eastern part of the country. The company is also planning to make strategic investments towards exploring its manufacturing footprint beyond our shores, perhaps in the Middle East. It's also investing in new technologies, which would considerably optimize operating costs. As you know, we are one of the lowest cost product in the country, and this technology will help us to further strengthen this. This will go a long way in sustaining our organization for a long, long time. Not only that, these investments will also increase our sales volume and reduce our cost of production, thus making the overall business more profitable and sustainable. I'm happy to share with you that the company in its first ESG document received a 56 percentile in the DJSI 2021 score. This is a significant milestone. It inspires us up the packing order going forward, and the scoring is expected to be higher this year, in view of the further steps we have taken in improving the ESG standards. The company is laying a lot of emphasis on developing efficient and sustainable products. And processes targeted at reducing carbon footprint, preserving natural resource consumption and fighting climate change. The details of the steps taken by the company in this direction, whether in terms of introducing environmental-friendly technologies, consumption of resources, minimizing harmful discharges, all have been detailed in the annual report. I believe that the company is capable of dealing with the challenges posed by evolving as well as uncertain environment. And we are in a very good position to leverage opportunities, which the economy, the global world is throwing open. As a team, we will persistently explore ways to improve our prospects over the coming year. I did take this opportunity, especially thank the directors of the company who have been steering this company continuously for further improvement. I also express my gratitude to all the executives of the company who are working tirelessly for the benefits which you are seeing and also the workers involved. And I also thank all the stakeholders, the government authorities, the members, the customers, suppliers, the associates, the lenders for their continued support. We hope to get the continued support from all the stakeholders in future as well. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for the speech. Before I continue with the proceedings, the formal proceedings, with your permission, may I request the independent directors if they wish to say a few words.

Sure. Sure. Please we'll welcome it.

Anil Bansal sir, you had some technical issues joining earlier. Sir, can you please do a process before...

Yes, I'm Anil Bansal, attending this AGM of Apollo Tubes from my residence in GK II and I'm able to hear and listen, now everybody. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anil sir is Independent Director and is Chairman of Audit Committee and the Stakeholders Relations Committee of the company. So Anil, sir, would you like to say a few words about the -- as the Chairman of the Audit Committee about the systems and procedures and overall government standards.

Dear stakeholders, the only thing, I feel happy to be part of this company. And this company has been following or complying the letdown norms, guidance and is doing good job, and my other colleague directors are also very scrupulously following the -- whether the company is doing anything which is warranted to be done or not warranted to be done and timely action is being taken by the management of the company, and I'm as a Chairman of the Audit Committee, happy and satisfied on the governance of the company. Thank you. With these few words, I wish all the best to the Chairman of the company and all the directors, and thank you for opportunity. Thank you, Ashokji.

Thank you, sir. Neeru ma'am, would you like to say a few words.

No. I supplement what Mr. Bansal is saying that over the years, we are finding so much improvement across all the compliances and the company is doing so well and the growth has been enormous. And with this merger of TriCoat and Lakshmi, I think we'll be still going up further and exploring all possible diversification and also taking part in CSR activities. so I wish all the best to everyone involved in this company's operations and to the shareholders for participating in the growth of the company. Thank you.

Thank you, Neeru ma'am. And the other Independent Directors, so Ameet sir, Abhilash sir, and V.S. Jain sir, would you like to say something? Ameet sir?

Abhilash here. Thank you, all, everyone. And my thanks to the Chairman for giving some credit for the company's continued success to the independent directors, but I think the real hard work is done by the executives and the Board and down. I also would like to thank all the shareholders for their continued faith in the company, and I can assure you, I supplement what Neeru ma'am and Bansal saab said, we continue to adhere to the highest standards of compliance and we are sure the company will only go to greater places from here. Thank you all so much.

Thank you, Abhilash, sir. V.S. Jain, sir, would you like to add something.

I'm Jain here. I want to assure the shareholders that this company puts a high degree of value creation of shareholders wealth. And the working is -- working with the company is very transparent. And it is on the growth path. And as independent directors, we want to make sure that all compliances are in place. And shareholder value remains in our mind as a foremost priority. And I'm sure the company is moving in the right direction.

Thank you, sir. Ameet, sir, would you like to say something?

Good morning, once again. It's been an honor and privilege to be on the board of APL Apollo Tubes. It's been a year since I've been on the Board and I can share that during all the proceedings, I have witnessed that the Board is very, very transparent and open to accept and discuss things and take the suggestions and move the company forward. So I'm quite pleased with the progress in the last 1 year in terms of the company taking steps towards corporate governments as well as the kind of strides it's been taking in terms of expansion an increase in sales as well as profitability. The overall financial performance, all the shareholders are already seeing is much more disciplined over the last couple of years and it's great. I look forward to continued success in future. All the best for everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. I thank all my dependent directors for expressing their views and sharing their perspective on the company with the shareholders. The Register of Directors shareholding and KMP and their shareholding, that is maintained under Section 170 of Companies Act, and the Register of Contracts under Section 189 are available for inspection by members on the website of the company. And there is also a link for the same shareholders could notice at login itself. After logging in, that is selling for accessing those documents. And with the permission of the members, I shall take the notice of the Notice of the 37th AGM, which was August 17, 2022 as -- and the Board reports and its annexures as read, and the annual report and the notes are available on the website of the company and also that of the Central Depository Services India Limited. As far as the auditor's reports are concerned, the statutory auditor's report and secretarial auditor's report, the statutory auditors report issued by M/s. Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, Chartered Accountants on the financial statements of the company for the financial year ended March 31, 2022 do not contain any qualifications, observations or comments or other remarks and hence is taken as read in pursuance of the relevant provisions of the Company's Act. As for secretarial auditor report, again, there are no qualifications, observations or comments which require any explanation on the part of the Board. And since there are no comments, the secretarial audit report issued by M/s Parikh & Associates, Company Secretaries in practice is also taken as read. Now Chairman, sir, if you permit, I shall take up the agenda item.

Please.

So dear members, there are 4 items in the agenda of this meeting. The first 1 is to receive, consider and adopt the audited financial statements of the company, both stand-alone and consolidated year ended March 31, 2022, along with the reports of the directors and the auditors thereon under annexure. This is an ordinary resolution. This is proposed to be passed as an ordinary resolution. The second item is to declare a final dividend on the equity shares, which the directors had proposed for the financial year 2021, '22 at 175%. That is INR 3.5 per share of face value of INR 2. So this is the second resolution, again, as an ordinary resolution. The third one is to appoint a director in place of Mr. Vinay Gupta (DIN: 00005149), who is liable to retire by rotation and being eligible, offers himself for reappointment. This item is also an ordinary resolution. The fourth one, again, is an ordinary resolution, but a special business. It is for seeking ratification of the remuneration payable to the cost auditors for the financial year 2022, '23. So this is an ordinary resolution. Ashok sir, Chairman sir, there are some persons, who have preregistered for speaking. So if you permit, I'll request that.

The members may raise their queries, if any, in the chatbox. Further, the shareholders, speakers who have registered their DMs may be present speak now. I request the host to unmute the member. The video may also be enabled with his permission. Due to paucity of time, I request the speaker to confine his speech to maximum 2, 3 minutes.

So the speaker number one is [ Mr. Pradeep Sood ].

Sir, Mr. Pradeep Sood is not available in the meeting.

Speaker number 2 is [ Mr. Kaushik Shahukar ]. Is he available?

Sir, Mr. Kaushik have also not joined the meeting.

The third is Ms. [ Celestine Elizabeth Mascarenhas ]. Is she available?

No, sir. Ms. Celestine is also not available.

The fourth speaker is [ Mr. Manjit Singh ]. Is Mr. Manjit Singh available?

Sir, Mr. Manjit Singh is also not available.

So the next speaker who had registered for speaking is [ Mr. Yashpal Chopra ].

Am I audible?

Yes, sir, you're audible.

Yes. On our Chairman sir, and the eminent Board of Directors, I'm Yashpal Chopra call from Delhi with client ID 82570454. Actually, I'm a speaker in almost all the big companies in Delhi, and it was at the suggestion of our friend, [ Mr. Bharat Bhushan Sahni ], who is my financial adviser, I just have tried -- and this is my maiden speech in your company because I was not aware of that. But when I just got the balance sheet, and it is a fantastic balance sheet. And after looking at that, I saw that Mr. V.S. Jain who is my ex box from Indian Oil. And so he is also one of the director over there. So definitely, I made it a point that I must and must and must speak that. Though I did not get the specific link because I have been asking for the link for the last 30 days. So I was expecting that I will be sending some link over there because I'm a person of 83 years old, and I speak only wherever I get the link. But today, just 10, 15, 20 minutes before I was told that link has to be searched out from this CDSL and all that. So then I had a vehicle and went to one of my relations hose and ask his grandson to get me connected. So now I'm speaking from the house of one of my relatives. Sir, I'm very, very, very much proud of the team you are holding it here really the dynamic people and the project in hand that is definitely an excellent project, which is supplementing the dreams of our prime minister that house for everybody because though we are not having that much land as the number of person population and we are having it or we will be having it because there's no control in population. So only the skyscrapers will help us to solve the problem and our company with a very nice and solid project and then they are just making us -- helping us to construct our houses. Those house, which is a dream, dream, dream of a salaried person who is saving throughout his life. Just with all those saving, he will go for a house and then making a house.,, He has to suffer so many problems. He has to run here and there for cements and for other things. And sir, you have just created a -- facilitated the job of just having a house. So now our house through this super structure to be focused this -- our ready-made sector, those we can get it constructed in within a very, very short time. So the economy in the time, there is economy and the investment, there is a comfortable, no running here and there. And sir, as regards the performance of the company, I'm very, very, very much proud of the team because the performance is just for 6 months because the first 3 months were impacted because of the corona. Corona he just put everybody in the lockout and the last 3 months are impacted because of the Russian-Ukrainian war, where there was disruption of the supply and all that. And in spite of all that, when the global economy was in doldrum, when our own economy was suffering, our company has made a way. They have just shown an excellent progress. It's a matter of pride and the credit goes to our Chairman and the team and the eminent directors around that. So I'm proud of the team. I'm proud of the CFO. I'm proud of the company secretary for consolidated their fantastic balance sheet. It is almost -- it is covering in the tabular form in all those forms. And particularly that page of value creation is there, Input, output, outcome that a fantastic thing. So sir, my query is only one thing that when Raipur plant will be just on commission. Because once it is commissioned in full, I think that our company share will cross even INR 2,000 because that will give us an ample profitably. I'm proud of the team and I pray God for the positivity to you all that [indiscernible].

Thank you, Yashpal sir. The next speaker is [ Mr. Vinod Agarwal ]. Host can you check if he is...

Can you hear my single voice. Hello, the host, this is to the host. Hello, this is Vinod Agarwal. Hello, can you hear me? Hello?

[Foreign Language]

Chairman of today's meeting, Mr. Ashok Gupta, our CFO, Deepak Goyal and our CSO Deepak C.S. Certainly, I voted in favor of all the 4 editions sought to be passed in today's AGM. And sir, one thing, even the earlier speaker said, there is no contact from company secretarial department, no link sent to the speaker shareholders to join today's meeting. This is a normal practice by all companies to send the link to join the AGM from the companies. And even the telephone number given along with the notice, 011-22373437, which is there in the notice of the meeting is a nonexisting number. Why do you give fake number so that the shareholders cannot contact. Now coming to the performance. The company's performance has been excellent. The operating revenues were INR 13,063 crores and against INR 8,500 crores last year. The PAT was INR 557 crores and an EPS of INR 22.3 crores against an EPS of INR 14.46 crores. Only thing -- 2, 3 issues. Last year, the capacity of all -- our total capacity was 2.6 million tonne, and we produced 1.75 million tonne, and we sold the 100% of our production that was 1.75 million tonne we sold. That is about 65% to 70% of the capacity utilization was there last year, sir. How will we be streamlining, putting in more capital into all your plants. In Raipur, you putting in another INR 300 million -- INR 300 crores, and you are already put in, and that will be coming functional in '23, '24 for the steel -- construction of steel tubular. And I am sure that it will give good revenues to the company and it will change the -- planning to install a CSR activity of INR 3.07 crore. And even the Aalishaan app, which you have launched is giving us a good revenues in B2C customer. And sir, even the 17,000 tonnes you have done for the 6 buildings of the hospital is a good sign. That will be a showcase project and it will bring us a lot of orders in coming times. And the Raipur facility is when it will come, it will be a multi-product, multi-dimensional it will give us good revenue sir. I'm signing off, Vinod Agarwal from Mumbai. Sir, next year, give a proper telephone number, so that the speakers will know whom to contact. This fake numbers it should not be given. 22373437. It is a big number. It says nonexisting numbers when we dial up, sir. If you want to see you can dial up now and see it, sir, by yourself also. It says it is a nonexisting number. Why give nonexisting numbers to the shareholders, sir. This is for the secretarial department to look into, sir. I'm signing off, Vinod Agarwal from Mumbai sir.

Thank you, Mr. Vinod. Next speaker?

[ Mr. Gagan Kumar ]. Mr. Gagan, you're not audible. I think, host, there is a technical issue. Can we, sir -- there is another person who was not preregistered but he's requesting for speaking.

Please allow.

There is [ Mr. Santosh Mahindra ] In the chat box, if you can see. Host, can you please allow him to speak. Host, you're mute.

Sir, I'm just allowing him.

Mr. Bhutani, you're unmuted, kindly ask your query.

Regarding e-notice and annual report, sir, this was received in time, and I found that the all section has been covered in detail and in transparent manner. I appreciate the efforts of the management for taking the steps for safety of the employees during the pandemic time, second and third wave. We know that was a very bad phase, not only in India, but all over the world. Sir, as a member, I support all the regulation. Sir, I want to know your step to contain cost and reduce the impact of the prevailing issue that is inflation and rupee depreciation. And sir, there is no sign to end of the war between Russia and Ukraine and some issues with Taiwan and China. Sir, how you will addressing this type of issue, sir? And your medium and long-term strategy, road map on the challenges on to counter [ complicated ] platform. Sir, next is the geographical expansion and product positioning, I mean position of QCD parameter compared to other sir. Sir, what efforts has been made on the regulation of bad debts and strengthen the internal legal and collection process. So do we have any major CapEx plan. Sir, Vivad Se Vishwas scheme, we've seen this scheme has been launched by the government, and a good response has been noticed from the other company. Any settlement under this scheme of our -- by your company according to the old matters? Sir, regarding performance, I already spoken over the last 2 years, the company has recorded a well-balanced growth across company portfolio of business or I think this trend will continue and company will enhance the growth level and turnover quarter-to-quarter and year on year in the coming time. Sir, we, as a shareholder, hope and confident that the rich experience of the Board will help the leadership team in achieving bigger milestone, and it will soon reflect all our stock price too in coming time. Best wishes to each one of you ahead of the festival season. Thanking you all, especially Deepakji, you have allowed me even I was thinking [Foreign Language].

Sir, there are one or more person. One is [ Mr. Dinesh Kotecha ]. Host, can you please check if the person can be logged in? Can be allowed as a speaker?

Sir, can you repeat, please?

Mr. Dinesh Kotecha, if you can see in the chat box.

Sir, one more registered speaker, Mr. Kaushik Shahukar has joined.

He had already registered. So whoever gets logged in, please allow him to speak.

Yes, Mr. I'm just unmuting Mr. Kaushik Shahukar, then will unmute Mr. Kotecha.

Good morning, everyone. First off, I would like to thank the Board of Directors for giving me the opportunity to speak in this forum. Many of you would remember me from the conversation of past. So I will keep both my ask and introduction brief. Myself, Kaushik Shahukar, a qualified chartered accountant from Mumbai. I have been suffering from dystonia, which has rendered 55% of my body paralyzed, impacting my right hand on my right leg and feet. While I have not let that come in my way of becoming the chartered accountant and a practicing, I do request support in helping me continue to be self-reliant. Our for after our conversation we had last time about me working for our organization in certification work, including Form 15CB. However, nothing has progressed since. While I understand things have not progressed due to pandemic situation last year. I do hope that after conversation today, our organization will start engaging me in this area as soon as possible. Once again, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. And I hope to see a positive movement forward with my ask. I support all the resolutions. It will be appreciated if you can take some efforts to engage me in this area. Sir, I'm also aware that this is not platform where I should speak, but how else can I reach you. So finally, is there -- how is our company fulfilling our PM's dream of Atmanirbhar Bharat. Is PLI scheme applicable to company?

Thank you, Mr. Kaushik. Host, Mr. Dinesh Kotecha is there.

Mr. Dinesh, you're unmuted.

Good morning to all of you. Sir, I'm very happy at the outset that we have tightened our working capital very nicely. But is it a year-end exercise or throughout the year, we get our debt-equity ratio at 0.1:1. Is it a March year-end exercise? That is what I would like to know. Second, working capital cycle, you said 7 days. Now again, is it a year-end what you've done, or throughout the year we maintained 7 days working cycle? Sir, I would also request you that the entire balance sheet, you should mention only one denominator. You're mentioning millions, then you're mentioning billions, then you're mentioning lakhs and then you're mentioning crores. The entire balance sheet should be only one denominator that is crores. So that will help us to understand the balance sheet better. Again, physical copy is required -- I'm requesting the company secretary to send collection of all of them. Sir, my questions are basically -- yes, you have said that the merger of Apollo TriCoat and Lakshmi Metal Udyog Limited is in advance stage. By what period do you expect that the merger should be completed totally and we get the Apollo TriCoat shareholders and [indiscernible]. What I'm trying to understand is our net profit ratio, which was 4.1% last year, is 4.3%. Now there has been cost rationalization, cost reduction in all areas, so that this profit margin, net profit margin should minimum 7% to 8%, sir. Because 4.3% anytime, it can lack 1%, 2%, et cetera. So that will be a big blow because why I'm saying is because during this economic uncertainty, a lot of things are uncertain globally, internally, policy-wise, government orders, government policies and all that. So I'm a little bit skeptical about growth which you said that from [ 1.5 million, 6 million last year and 3 million ] [indiscernible]. Is there a cost [indiscernible] by 2023. And by which quarter, you will complete the [indiscernible] 2023. Which quarter, you will complete that. [indiscernible]

You're not audible. There are network issues with your thing.

Yes, I'm very clear. Please just give me 1 second, sir.

Sir, you are not audible. Please make it brief sir.

Sir, I would just like to note that we have 6 [ extremities ] out of which 4 are making profits and 2 are making losses. Now how to rationalize these extremities. Why don't you make them the one big unit, one company, everything under one company. What is the need for all these extremities, I don't understand. Our target for renewable energy at all plants for 2025. Again, are we on target for that? Or is there going to be any --. Sir, what feedback suggestions were received by all the shareholders, the suppliers, the customers, the stockists, your end users were received in the previous year, current year for still better performance? What feedback and suggestions have you received? Sir, what is the major speed breaker experienced by the company in the current year, and still needs to be in place. Any horizontal or vertical takeover of any other company plan during the current year. Sir, I would like to have a list of top 10 shareholders from the public shareholding 15.94%, because I'm from the public. So I want the list of top 10 shareholders from the public shareholders, not promoters, not institutions. So that I can understand who are the top public shareholders. Because if I know some of them, and if they have invested, they give you more confidence to invest my money more in your company sir. So please provide me with that also. Sir, lastly, I wish you all the best. And I would request, sir, that one plant visit should be arranged for the shareholders. If I'm staying in Mumbai, the nearest plant for me maybe [indiscernible], for you, Raipur or whatever. I mean you can just take us to that plant. Who are there in Delhi you can take them to other plant so we can see the plant at least and try to get the feel of the working of the company. And sir, lastly, I would like to visit one of your CSR site because I want to see in actual whether the CSR is done or whether it is just on paper and -- so many companies do that. I fully understand that you must be doing CSR properly. But no CSR is a charitable work that we do for government actually. It's a government, you have to do that all CSR. They're collecting tax, they're collecting taxes from us, everything they're leveraging. Now even TDS we have to pay. So even if you increase the dividend, TDS our head. Your company is not paying any TDS. Earlier, the company used to pay the TDS. Now see, that also should be taken into account when you pay the dividend. Other than this, and I wish you all the best. Be blessed for your all your plans that you have made for the growth of the company. And I would expect answers to all my questions. Thank you very much, and wish you all the best.

Thank you, sir. Chairman, sir, there are a few questions which has been put on the chat box also. So shall we take up those or any you'd like to answer.

Is there any other speaker now?

There seems to be no other speaker. There is a [ Ms. Smita Shah ], who is not speaking. She has put questions on the -- so I'm not sure if she wants to speak questions, we can take up those questions. Can we take up these questions now? Or will we pending them?

We will give the answers here itself. So Mr. Yashpal Chopra wanted to know about our the new plant. My dear colleague, Romi Sehgal will give a response to that.

The Raipur plant.

Raipur plant. When it is likely to be commissioned completely.

See the Raipur plant is under commissioning now. And the civil structure is nearly 60%, 70% complete along with the [ PV ] building, and we have started commissioning 1 by 1, the equipments. And 60%, you can say it is commissioned. And by December, all the machines will be commissioned, what we had planned. And the full capacity utilization, I think gradually, we can think of March, the year-end financial year ends. That's the status as of now. Because of the pandemic and because of there's a lot of monsoon rains there and prolonged rains, so that has a little bit delayed the project, but now we are back on the line.

Thank you, Romi. Mr. Vinod Agarwal desired that systems in the company secretary department should be improved upon. We have noted your suggestion sir. [ Mr. Santosh Bhutani ] wanted to know what steps you are taking to contain cost. I'm happy to inform you that I think company is one of the foremost -- my colleague, Deepak may like to say something on containing costs.

Yes. Good morning, everybody. And we are regularly focusing or our cost efficiency. In the last years, we have put up solar plants in all the plants. And we are focusing on the -- especially on the working capital cycle. It's reduced. 2 years earlier, it's around more than 30 days, now it's 7 days. So it's drastically cut down over interest cost, and it's improved efficiency. So we are working well around on the cost efficiency side and our main prime focus on the cost one.

Thank you, Deepak. And he also wanted to know what is the medium to long-term strategies. So as you are aware, we have -- our goal is to increase our production and our capacity and as well as our marketing to a significant level. We have been working on cost reduction, new technologies, new areas, new products. So practically, all that is being done and you have got -- you can go through our report. You will see a lot of new areas, new development taking place in the company. So medium to long term, we hope that the company is already #1 in the country, will further strengthen its position in the structural steel section. We are also looking at geographical expansion beyond our borders to Middle East and other places. And so in medium to long term, I think the company has a bright future. Mr. Dinesh Kotecha wanted to know about the NCLT decision. My colleague, Deepak may like to say on that.

Yes, NCLT has reserved their orders in the last hearing and it's listed for the pronouncement for the 30 September. So we are quite hopeful. The order will be pronounced on 30th of September, both the companies will be merged after that.

Thank you, Deepak. You were talking also about renewable energy. So we are, I think, 1 of the 4 most in using the renewable energy in our plant. My colleague, Romi Sehgal has full facts on that. So Romi, you like to say something on that?

I will...

So basically, on renewal energy, we have got solar panels on our rooftops in our plants. By that method, we are able to reduce our -- the energy that we are taking from the grid. So I think in many of our plants, we have put up solar power plants. In that way, our consumption of both carbon footprint as well as of power from the grid has reduced. Smita Shah wanted to know about the demand outlook. Smita, the demand is good now. As you know, festival season is starting in the country, the season after rainy monsoons is pretty good. And we are already in that, August, September, October is normally good for consumer demand. And as you know, our products are highly used both for industrial, infrastructure as well as consumer needs. So we are seeing a good uptake of demand. The volume is likely to be more than last year. As you know, we have been continuously growing in our volume year after year. And this year also, we expect the growth momentum to be maintained. EBITDA per tonne should remain almost the same range it was -- it has been for the last 2, 3 years. We are continuously striving. We are developing new products. And -- but that impact of improvement in product will come gradually. So EBITDA levels will slowly improve over the period of years. I think these are all the points which were raised by the members. I would like to thank call members for the keen interest you are giving. I'm really happy to see that so many members in the public and the minority shareholders and small shareholders, they're taking so much interest in the company. It gives us a lot of confidence and as well as motivation to even work further in this company and make sure that our shareholders are truly rewarded. With these words, I again go back to our company secretary executive, Mr. Deepak to continue the proceedings.

Thank you, sir. I hope all the shareholders' queries have been answered. If there are a few questions left out, we have the recording of the proceedings. So if there are some questions left unanswered, we'll send it by e-mail, which advised in the notice also. So voting, so the members, as I had mentioned at the beginning of the meeting. Members who have not casted their remote e-voting or e-voting during the proceedings of the AGM, are requested to now vote on the proposed resolutions. So on your link, that voting option is available. Once these proceedings continue, the voting window is available on your log-in will be kept open for another 15 minutes during which all the members present and have not voted earlier through remote e-voting can cast their votes. And scrutinizer, Mr. Jatin Gupta, who is already a panelist year. So once the voting is over, Mr. Jatin Gupta, scrutinizer will present his report to the Chairman. And the results on voting would be declared within the prescribed time lines, which is currently 2 working days. And we'll try to declare it as early as possible. And the same shall be posted on the website of the company and also shall be disseminated to both the stock exchanges. Now I request Mr. Deepak Goyal, the CFO, to propose a vote of thanks to the Chairman.

Now I propose a vote of thanks to the chairman for and on behalf of all the members and the Board of Directors present, all the stockholders present in the meeting.

Thank you, Deepakji. I hope that all the members had an uninterrupted audio and video and had a seamless meeting experience. Now I request Mr. Ashok Gupta, the Chairman of this meeting to formally conclude this meeting.

So again, dear members, I must thank all of you, all of our shareholders, for reposing their faith in us. And it's because of you that the company has grown so much till date. And not only reposing faith in us, you have participated so actively in this meeting that it makes us feel proud and motivated. I'll also like to thank especially our Board members who have taken time out of their such a busy schedule participating here personally. I think it's a great honor to us that we are present here it really strengthens our resolve. I must thank again the Board members, and I thank the auditor, the scrutinizer for attending this AGM and CDSL for providing the platform. With this, I declare the meeting as officially concluded. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. We'll be keeping the voting option open for 15 minutes, isn't it?

Yes, sir.

Okay. So can we log out, the meeting is formerly concluded?

Yes, sir. Voting will remain open for next 15 minutes.

Thank you. Thank you all.