Apollo Pipes Limited (531761) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Host, have you started the recording of the meeting?

Recording is started, sir.

Thank you. Since the quorum is present, you may proceed with the proceedings of Annual General Meeting -- 36th Annual General Meeting. Good morning, dear members. I am Ankit Sharma, company Secretary and Compliance Officer of Apollo Pipes Limited. I welcome you all to the 36th Annual General Meeting of Apollo Pipes Limited. Along with us, we have our Managing Director, Mr. Sameer Gupta; other Board members; other panelists; and Mr. Ajay Kumar Jain, Chief Financial Officer, who has joined either physically or through the VC facility provided by Central Depository Services India Limited, CDSL. In accordance with the relaxations provided by Ministry of Corporate Affairs and SEBI, our company is conducting this Annual General Meeting through the Webex facility provided by CDSL without the physical presence of the members at a common venue. All members who have joined this AGM through VC are by default placed on the mute mode by the host to avoid any disturbance arising from background noise and ensuring smooth and seamless conduct of the AGM. The remote e-voting facility was provided to the members to cast their votes electronically on all the resolutions set out in the notice. Commenced at 10 a.m. on Saturday, September 24, 2022, and ended at 5 p.m. on Monday, September 26, 2022. The company is also providing e-voting facility during the AGM to enable members to cast their vote, who have not voted through electronic e-voting. During the proceedings of AGM, members may raise query through the chat box facility provided by CDSL Depending on the nature of the query, they will be answered either immediately or through the registered email of the shareholder later. If any member faces any technical issues, kindly contact helpline members of CDSL as provided in the notice of AGM. Since our Chairman, Mr. Sanjay Gupta, could not be present due to other unavoidable engagements, it is proposed that Mr. Sameer Gupta, Managing Director, be elected as the Chairman of the meeting. Therefore, now I request the host to initiate polling on the same, so that the members present may express their assent to the proposal. Host, please start the polling. Host, am I audible? [Voting]

Probably 30 second is remaining, sir.

Host, what percentage of members have consented or dissented?

Twenty second is remaining for closing the window.

Okay. What is the percentage, host? So as per the results present on the screen -- host, can we proceed?

Go ahead, sir.

It is noted that the members present have consented to the proposal. Hence, it is declared that Mr. Sameer Gupta is elected as the Chairman of this AGM. Now I welcome Mr. Sameer Gupta to the meeting. Welcome, sir. Sir, as a requested quorum is present, I request you to kindly chair the proceedings of the meeting. Over to you, sir. Thanks.

Welcome. Good day, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to everyone present here to the [indiscernible] AGM of the company. I hope you and [indiscernible] are well and safe during this time period of COVID 19 pandemic. Before we formally proceed ahead with the meeting, I request the company Secretary to conduct a roll call of the panelists who have joined the meeting.

Thank you, sir. As a requirement -- statutory requirement, all the panelists have to undergo our roll call process. Now I request the panelists to kindly do the roll call process. Neeru, ma'am, please do the roll process -- roll call process.

Thank you. [Foreign Language], everyone. I'm Neeru Abrol, Non-Executive Independent Director of the company. I'm chairperson of the NRC, SRC of the company, member of Audit Committee and Risk Management Committee. I'm attending the meeting from my residence at New Delhi. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Prateek Jain, sir, please do the roll process. Prateek Jain, sir? Prateek, sir, please unmute yourself.

I'm now -- okay, fine. Good morning, everybody. I am Prateek Kumar Jain. I'm Independent Director on the Board of the company. I'm attending this AGM from my residence at Gurgaon. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Abhilash Lal, sir, please do the roll call process.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Abhilash Lal, Independent Director, attending this meeting from my residence in Gurgaon. Thank you all so much.

Thank you so much, sir. Prateek -- Praveen Jain, sir, please do the roll process.

Good morning, everyone. Myself, Praveen Jain, [ shareholder ] of the company. I'm attending this meeting from my office from Southwest, New Delhi. And thank you very much.

Thank you. Anjali, ma'am, please do the roll call process.

Good morning, everyone. I, Anjali Yadav, Secretarial Auditor of the company, attending this meeting from Rohini, my office address. Thank you.

Thank you. Jatin Gupta, sir, please do the roll call process.

Am I audible, sir?

Yes, sir. Audible. Jatin, sir?

Yes?

Yes, please do the process.

Yes. I'm Jatin Gupta, company Secretary and presently acting as a supervisor on the meeting. And I'm attending this meeting from my residence in Delhi.

Thank you so much. The roll call process has been completed.

Okay. We have with us Mr. Abhilash Lal, Independent Director and Chairman of Audit Committee; Ms. Neeru Abrol, Independent Director and Chairperson of Steel Products Relationships Committee and Nomination and Regulation Committee; Mr. Prateek Kumar Jain, Independent Director; Mr. Praveen Kumar Jain, Statutory Auditor; Ms. Anjali Yadav, Secretarial Auditor; and Mr. Jatin Gupta, Scrutinizer. Sitting here with me along with me are -- on my left is Mr. Ajay Kumar Jain, CFO; and on my right is Mr. Ankit Sharma, he's company Secretary and Compliance Officer. I welcome all the panelists who have joined through VC as well as physically. The other directors could not be present here today because of their preoccupation or travel programs. Further, as you have noted, statutory auditor, the secretary auditor and the scrutinizer have joined through VC. Now I note the presence of quorum and also presence of mandatory participants like independent directors, auditors, et cetera. Requisite quorum being present, the meeting is hereby called to order. Over to Ankit.

Thank you so much, sir. Now I request the Chairman, sir, to kindly deliver a brief speech to our shareholders. Chairman, sir?

Dear shareholder, it gives me immense pleasure to connect with you at a time when your company has bettered its performance a few notches higher. We have registered all-time high numbers across key financial parameters. This is demonstrated by relevance of our business strategies and their timely allocation. EBITDA -- in the last 5 years, our top line EBITDA net profit has more than doubled, which is very satisfying and considering the growth competitive intensity in our business space, it throws light on the fact that our products are delivering value to customers and, hence, are building [indiscernible] traction. Our performance was strong and substantial, which yielded superior growth. Our revenue operations scaled up by 51% over the previous year. EBITDA increased by 26% and as did the profit after tax, which increased by 12%. Our return on capital employed stood at 16.5%, which is highest in the last 5 years. For me, this is especially satisfying as it communicates an important message, every rupee invested in the business is generating higher returns for the company and creating superior value for its stakeholder. FY '22 was a milestone for Apollo Pipes. As we operationalized our greenfield facility at Raipur, there was a milestone for me and the -- this was a milestone for me and the entire team. Helps us to [ strengthen ] our East and Central India, which are significant consuming markets. Also establishes Apollo Pipes as a pan-India manufacturer, which gives us some competitive edge over peers in our business space. Going forward, this unit will emerge as an important business driver for the company. An important standout initiative was the addition of our latest stage of water storage tanks and plastic bath fittings. We marketed deals aggressively through the physical and digital platforms. I'm particularly pleased to mention that this product range experienced a stronger acceptance in the domestic market. Our dealers experienced frequent stock out situations. Hence, we doubled the capacity for water storage tanks at our Sikanderabad unit and added 1 unit each at manufacturing storage -- for manufacturing storage locations at our facility at [indiscernible] Karnataka and Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Similarly, we are planning additional capacity for the plastic bath fittings in FY '23. In terms of making business operations more cohesive and agile, we are making substantial investment in sophisticated and business-relevant IT solutions. We have widened the use of ERP across the organization. We have added some critical processes onto the ERP platform, which allows us to make smarter and informed decisions. We introduced a comprehensive channel management system which allow us to fortify our relations with our channel partners. Even as I share my thoughts, we are brainstorming on launching newer solutions that will make the organization more free footed to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Further, we have increased the brand awareness, considering it as an important [indiscernible] initiative. We engaged with the Bollywood celebrity, Tiger Shroff, as a brand ambassador. We developed [indiscernible], which were aired on all the national and -- national and TV news channels. We intensified our presence on all social media platforms and below-the-line initiatives. These efforts have helped us generate passion for our products. Moving forward, our guidance for FY '23 can simply be answered in a single phrase that we would be indeed making the business more efficient and profitable. We have [indiscernible] ourselves for an even superior performance. With enough capacities and excellent capabilities, we hope to sustain our commitment to deliver high returns. We aim to strive higher, reach our product to every corner of India, launch India-wide awareness campaigns, and implies our competitive moat to generate superior returns from every rupee invested in the business. We will continue to make prudent investment in capacities and capabilities. We will widen our database. We will invest in IT solutions to make the organization more cohesive even as these spread wide. In a nutshell, we will strive for more. The future [indiscernible] indeed exciting. We have [ John ] the [indiscernible] on our value maximization strategy. Our team has taken up the mantle with [indiscernible] and [indiscernible]. I am confident that barring unforeseen challenges, this should be better our performance going forward. I -- On our behalf of Board, express my wholehearted gratitude to Apollo Pipes teams for their continued efforts in uplifting of the company. I thank all my stakeholders for their continued support in our journey, without which it would have been difficult to reach the position where we are today. I take the opportunity to thank all our shareholders for their unwavering belief in our abilities. We continue to solicit your trust and support. Okay. Ankit, you can take over the meeting.

Thank you. Before taking up notice and auditors reports, et cetera, I request our Chairman, sir, provide me the permission and ask all the other independent directors who are present to say a few words at if they wish to. Chairman, sir?

Of course.

Thank you. Neeru, ma'am, I would request if you wish to say a few words to our speakers.

Yes. Thank you. It's been almost 5 years since I joined Apollo Pipes Board. It's been a very good journey. I've seen it grow tremendously over the years in terms of physical and financial performance, market cap, corporate governance aspects. It has faced the COVID period in a very effective and efficient manner without compromising the restrictions as well as taking care of the employee wellbeing under the dynamic leadership of Mr. Sameer Gupta and his team. I wish its vision, achievement, higher and higher success, which would benefit all the stakeholders. My best wishes to the team and all the stakeholders. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you so much, ma'am. Abhilash Lal, sir, I request you to say a few words for the shareholders.

Good morning, everyone. There is very little to add from what Neeru ma'am said, except, of course, the period we have spent on the Board, but she has been a lot more experienced here. All I can say is that we have been focusing entirely on stakeholder relationships, making sure that the interest of all parties are protected. I have been privileged to be part of a Board with such a -- people with lot integrity. But I think more important is also the fact that our suggestions are taken in the right spirit by the management and executed accordingly. And given this combination, I'm only confident that this company will grow even faster, even greater now. Best wishes to all of us. Thank you.

Thank you so much, sir. Prateek Jain, sir, I would request you to say a few words to our stakeholders.

Good morning, again, everyone. I am also associated with this [ public ] company for the last 5 years, almost at the same time when Neeru ma'am joined. And I feel that the company has grown very well, almost doubling in all aspects of financial systems. And my experience with over 5 years is really satisfying. And as about the future, I can only say that the theme of current year's annual report, which says more, [Foreign Language], that describes it very aptly, the vision and the capabilities of our dynamic MD, Mr. Sameer Gupta. So I only wish everyone, Mr. Sameer Gupta and his team all the best to grow much more in future years. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you so much, sir. I thank all the directors to express their views about the company. Now to proceed with the proceedings in terms of notice and auditor's reports, et cetera. The register of directors and key managerial personnel and their shareholding maintained in pursuance of Section 170 of Companies Act 2013, and the register of contracts as per Section 189 are made available for inspection by the members on the website of the company. There is a link appliable on the login for inspection of documents, which can be clicked for accessing the available documents. May I, with the permission of the members, take the notice dated 26th July 2022, containing the 36th Annual General Meeting, along with the Board's report and its annexures as well. Annual report and notice are available on the website of the company and also on the website of CDSL. The auditor's report issued by [indiscernible], chartered accountants, on the financial statements of the company for the financial year ended 31st March 2022, do not contain any qualifications, observations or comments or other remarks and, hence, are taken as read in pursuance of the relevant provisions of the Companies Act 2013. Further, there are no qualifications, observations or comments or other remarks in the secretarial audit report for the financial year ended 31st March 2022, issued by [indiscernible] associates, companies secretaries in practice. Now with the permission of Chairman, sir, I take up the agenda items.

Ankit, please.

Thank you sir. Item #1, to receive, consider and adopt the audited financial statements of the company for the financial year ended 31st March 2022 and the reports of Board of Directors and auditors thereon. The proposed resolution is placed before the meeting to be passed as an ordinary resolution. Item #2, to declare a final dividend on equity shares of the company. The proposed resolution is also placed before the meeting to be passed as an ordinary resolution. Item #3, to appoint a director in place of Mr. Sanjay Gupta, [ 100023188 ], who is liable to retire by rotation and being eligible offers himself for reappointment as a director. The proposed resolution is placed before the meeting to be passed as an ordinary resolution. [indiscernible] businesses. Item #4, ratification of [indiscernible] auditors of the company for the financial year 2022/'23. The proposed resolution is placed before the meeting to be passed as an ordinary resolution. Over to you, Chairman, sir.

Now, the members may raise their queries, if any, in the chat box. Further, the shareholder speakers who have pre-registered their names, may, if present, speak now. I request the host to unmute the member. The video may be enabled with his or her permission. Due to scarcity of time, I request the speaker to confine their speech to maximum 1 to 2 minutes. Ankit, speak on this.

Thank you, sir. Host, I request you to kindly unmute Mr. [ Sarabjit ] Singh, first speaker share.

Sir, he is not available in the meeting currently.

Okay. Ms. [ Reena Jain ], another share -- speaker shareholder?

[indiscernible] is also not available in the meeting.

Okay. The last speaker shareholder on my list is Mr. Praveen Kumar. Please unmute him if he's available.

Hello, I'm audible, sir? Hello, I'm audible?

Yes, Yes, you are very much audible.

A very, very good morning to my respected Chairperson, [indiscernible] shareholder on this meeting online [indiscernible], Praveen Kumar joined this meeting [indiscernible], sir. Sir, a, thank you very much for -- respected Chairman and Board of Directors for their views and express -- I think this is one of a kind, which I saw in our [indiscernible]. That really boosts that, yes, this management is very, very focused and dedicated to bring sustainable growth to the retail investor like us, sir. I am with the company for such a long time when you set up physical meeting. Sir, it's always a part a welcome for retail investors and the management is very, very keen to have a healthy discussion with the session before we start the meeting. That really shows that this management has very, very grounded approach to bring sustainable growth for the long time from investors, sir. My hard-earned money into the [indiscernible] brand, and I'm privileged to be part of such a legacy, sir. [Foreign Language], sir, [Foreign Language] over the period of time [Foreign Language]. Sir, for a retail investor, [indiscernible] of the company is also decided by the corporate governance in this regard. I'd love to thank our company secretary, and he and his entire team for bringing excellent corporate governance, sir, during COVID time also, anything you ask, they will promptly by e-mail. So hats off to you. He's a big asset to our company because he is the face of the company for us. So I just -- I don't have any query. I just have the compliment, compliment, compliment because you deserve it, sir. You proved yourself, sir. I just pray to the god that he will bless you, the entire workforce, you will take our company to the newer height in the business. And thank you very much, sir, giving me the platform to share my views and express, promote them through the AGM. I wish you all the very, very best. Have a great period ahead. Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you so much sir...

For inputs.

Sir, there being no other requests for the speaker shareholders, we are proceeding with the proceedings of AGM. E-voting, members who have not cast their electronic e-voting or e-voting during the proceedings of AGM are requested to kindly vote on the proposed resolutions. Once these proceedings conclude, the voting window, as available on your login, will kept open for 15 minutes, during which all the members present and have not voted earlier through remote e-voting can cast their votes. Once the voting is over, Mr. Jatin Gupta, the scrutinizer, will present his report to the Chairman. And the results on voting would be declared within 2 working days of conclusion of this meeting. And same shall be posted on the website of the company and shall also be disseminated to the stock exchanges. Now I request to Mr. Ajay Kumar Jain, the Chief Financial Officer of the company, to propose a vote thanks to the Chairman.

Good morning, everyone. And I'll now propose a vote of things to the Chairman, for and on behalf of all the members and others who are present.

Thank you. I hope that the uninterrupted video volume was available during the meeting to the panelists, the members present, through VC. Now I request the Chairman to formally conclude the meeting. Chairman, sir?

I extend my special thanks to the members present, the group members, auditors, the panelists, who are attending this AGM, and CDSL for providing a platform for successfully conducting this meeting. And I declare this meeting has officially concluded. Thank you all, once again.

Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone, for joining this meeting. Host?

Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thanks.