AWL Agri Business Limited (AWL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

February 8, 2023

National Stock Exchange of India IN Consumer Staples Food Products earnings 46 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Adani Wilmar Q3 FY '23 Results Conference Call hosted by ICICI Securities. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Manoj Menon from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Menon.

Manoj Menon

analyst
#2

Hi, everyone. It's a wonderful -- good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on the part of the world you are joining this call from. Representing ICICI Securities, it's our pleasure to host the 3Q FY '23 results conference call of Adani Wilmar Limited. The management is represented today by Mr. Angshu Mallick, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director; Mr. Shrikant Kanhere, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Saumin Sheth, Chief Operating Officer. Without much ado, over to the management for the opening remarks, post which we'll open the floor for questions and answers. Thank you.

Shrikant Kanhere

executive
#3

Yes. Thank you, Manoj, for the introduction. This is Shrikant Kanhere, Chief Financial Officer for the company. A very good evening to all the participants joining from India, and good afternoon and good morning, depending upon the territories from where you investors are joining. As a ritual, we will take you through a very crisp 15-minute presentation, just to talk about the performance for quarter 3. And post that presentation, we will open the floor for question and answers, and we would be happy to answer the question coming in from your side. To start with macro context, the edible oil prices softened. I mean, last time when we spoke in November, that was the time when the edible oil prices started softening from July. And more or less, now, they are stable for the entire quarter between November to -- between October to December. CPI food inflation is something which we keep always eye on because that is something which has got some or other impact on the business parameters as far as Adani Wilmar is concerned. It has been softened, 7% -- as high as 7% in October to 4.7%, and now 4.2% as far as December is concerned. So it's a good story for us that, on a macroeconomic level, the CPI food inflation is softening and coming down. As far as the industry is concerned, the ROCP industry for edible oil, it contracted by 1% between December '21 and December '22. Of course, this has got a multiple impact of COVID, multiple impact of a lot of geopolitical issues and disruption of demand which came the way. As far as the market for rice and wheat flour is concerned, on a MAT basis, December '22, wheat flour grew by 4% -- industry grew by 4%, and rice grew by 6%. This is a little bit of snapshot and overview for all those who are joining the call first time and hearing out about Adani Wilmar first time. We are the -- one of the largest food FMCG company now in India with INR 54,000 crores turnover recorded for last financial year, #1 player in edible oil #2 and 3 player as far as the wheat flour and Basmati is concerned. With a good retail reach of 1.6 million outlets and 50-plus manufacturing location, 1 in every third household today use the Adani Wilmar product. For the 9 months ended, 62% of volumes came from edible oil, 16% from Food & FMCG, and 22% from industry essential. Our whole focus -- that is what we were speaking for last couple of years, that whole focus is to grow the food basket. Last year, it was 13%. Now it is good 16% of the volumes coming in from the Food, and that is what we would be growing as we go forward. Edible oil is steady at 62%. The revenue mix though keeps changing on the basis of the inflationary pressures or deflationary pressures on the [ pricing ]. As far as the brands are concerned, today, Adani Wilmar holds portfolio of the brands, including Fortune, which is our premium segment brand. Then we have lot of popular segment brands in edible oil. And, of course, we have premium brands in rice. We just recently acquired Kohinoor. So if you look at this slide, 20 -- so Fortune today is now INR 20,000-plus crores brand, which is quite a significantly big brand to talk about. King's and Raag which are our popular brands -- fighter brands for -- to support the Fortune in various markets, is good INR 4,000 crores plus brand. Rupchanda, which is our Bangladesh subsidiary branch, it's a brand -- basically a brand in Bangladesh, which is again a INR 1,000 crore plus brand. And all the other food brands, including Kohinoor, now today are the INR 100 crore plus brand. So, overall, the brand portfolio of Adani Wilmar has got good concentration as far as not only the markets are concerned, but in terms of the value is concerned. So brand portfolio growing very steadily, and today, close to 73% of our revenue come from the branded segment. Little bit on our results highlight. So when we talk of the 9 months volume, consolidated volume grew by 13%. We would able to hold on the similar growth story as far as the gross profit is concerned. Absolute gross profit grew by 16%. EBITDA flattish. And, of course, the PAT [ degrew ] by 14%, and that is basically an overhang of quarter 2 numbers, which -- we didn't had a very good quarter given too much of volatility in the market. Similarly, on the standalone, more or less similar numbers as we speak for consolidated one. Volumes grew by 12% and PAT [ degrew ] by 13% against -- here also overhang of quarter 2 continues. When we talk of quarter 3 numbers, a good story to talk about. We are quite satisfied with a reasonable performance which we have been able to showcase. Overall consolidated volumes grew by 16%. Absolute gross profit grew by 23%, which is more than the volume growth. So we have been able to -- this also shows that we have been able to consolidate the gross profit per tonne basis, and that's why the gross profit -- absolute gross profit grew more by -- more than by volume growth. EBITDA, 20% growth, and PAT, 16% growth. Between EBITDA and PAT, of course, we had to take a hit of interest cost which is due to the rising rate of interest for last 2 quarters. On standalone, again, similar performance as far -- as compared to consolidated. Volume grew by 17% and PAT also grew by 15%, more or less in line with the volume growth. On a segment performance, for the quarter and for the 9 months, edible oils grew by 9% on volumes when it comes to the quarterly performance, and 4% as far as the 9 months. Food & FMCG grew by 26% and on 9 months basis, it grew by more than 39%. Industry essential at 38% and 28% steadily growing. So, overall, when we look at volume for the quarter, 16% growth, and for the 9 months, 13% growth. Similarly on the segment revenue per se, of course, the revenue is a result of price variables. So on a Y on basis, again 16% volume growth. Our revenue grew by close to 8% and for the 9 months, revenue grew by 13%. On all the segments, we performed quite well in terms of quarterly as well as yearly performance. Yearly, of course, I want to add here, is that it's also have overhang of the quarter 2 numbers. But when we look at a quarter 3 number, edible oil and Food segment consolidated their margins. Industry essential basically got impacted because of the price volatility that we saw in the raw materials which we source for the Oleo and Castor Oil. This slides give you a brief on how the realization per tonne and gross profit per tonne moved from -- on a quarter basis and on the 9-month basis. I think the basic highlight of this slide is just to show that we have been improving on a gross profit per tonne, whereas PBT per tonne basis -- and that's very important for us, whether prices move up or down. If our margin profile per tonne keeps growing, that's how you are able to showcase an absolute margin growth in your performance. So gross profit grew by close to 5% on a year-on-year basis, when you look at quarter 3 numbers. Similarly, PBT per tonne for the quarter 3 grew by, close to 2% for the quarter. Just to give little update on macro context for the quarter 3. So we had a macro tailwinds in the form of strong demand on the back of festivities and weddings that actually gave us more demand in terms of edible oil as well as the food. The profitability and per tonne margin -- on a standalone basis, the gross profit per tonne improved by 5%, resulting into absolute gross profit growth of 25%, which is a combination of volume growth as well as per tonne margin improvement. Our Bangladesh operation, which is our wholly owned subsidiary, suffered a loss of INR 47 crores in quarter 3. Bangladesh -- as we know, right now, the country is going through a very crisis situation in terms of ForEx reserves, or, also in terms of the balance of payment conditions in the country. Currently, the government is -- government has taken all the steps there to ensure that the coming festival season of Ramadan goes well without any food inflation, and that's add to the worry to us because, while on the one hand we are facing a problem on a currency crisis because there are also more than 70%, 80% of the raw material is imported -- So on one hand, you have a crisis on currency. On the other hand, the government has put in a cap on the pricing, so you can't raise the price. And that actually combined effect has resulted into our performance, but -- so we are quite hopeful. And in fact, as we speak today, the liquidity has already started improving in Bangladesh. So as we go forward, we are quite optimistic that this operation will turn around and we'll start adding to our bottom line. The good story is about our alternate channels. All the alternate channels, whether it's e-com, with farmers or a modern trade, registered a very strong Y-on-Y growth of 32% and 26% in Q3 and 9 months respective. And this is very encouraging for us because, these are the channels where you are able to penetrate the food products quite easily. On a market share, AWL continues to gain the market share in edible oil as -- and witnessed a satisfactory volume growth portfolio. On a portfolio part, the growth was enabled by portfolio approach of having both the premium as well as our popular brands. And that is what we always keep saying, that Adani Wilmar, per se, doesn't have any risk in terms of down trading because we do have all kind of brands in our portfolio, whether it's a premium and popular. So whenever there is a -- downtrading things happen, the customer usually falls in our net only because we do have other popular brands to service the customer. The mustard is the next growth story in edible oil. In fact, we have seen a tremendous growth in this segment. So mustard volumes grew by 50% year-on-year in quarter 3, and we are very, very bullish on this particular oil. And not only we, but I think the government of India is also bullish and they are putting in a lot of incentives for farmers to grow mustard crop. So that -- and that is also one step in the direction of making India a self-reliant as far as the edible oil is concerned, and therefore, we are also betting very big. We are #1 player in the mustard category, whereas the next largest player is being on [ distant ] #2. So we do have a lot of plans for the mustard, and it is a very good oil in terms -- not only in terms of volume, but also in terms of the margins. So, our Food FMCG business is now contributing on a consolidated basis 16%, and has delivered 26% volume growth for the quarter 3. The key categories, of course, both our top product categories remains wheat flour and rice in which we are growing very, very strong. On wheat category, our next level focus -- because we are now more or less stabilized on a wheat flour, which is called Chakki Atta in India, our next focus is, of course, on the SRM, which is Sooji, Rawa and Maida. And of course, we would be betting big on Maida in terms of the institutional supply. We want to become a big Maida player as far as India is concerned. Going forward, the company will keep leveraging its extensive oil distribution network to increase the penetration of its Food & FMCG product. The Food & FMCG basket as such clocked close to INR 2,900 crores of revenue, a very significant number to talk about for any company. And therefore, we expect that this basket, when we close this year FY '23, would be close to INR 4,000 crores of basket. On industry essential, our Oleo Chemical continues to grow on volumes, while we had some hiccups as far as the pricing is concerned in this particular quarter. But Oleo Chemical is a very, very premium business for us. We have now close to 800 tonnes per day of Oleo Chemical capacity, which makes us India's largest Oleo Chemical complex. We are also betting on various value-added products in Oleo which are used in home and personal care category. As far as the Castor is concerned, we remain leader in this category with 32% market share. 32% of Castor exports out of India is done by Adani Wilmar. Quick business update. As far as the market share is concerned, we continue to consolidate our market share. Basmati rice market share now going up from 6.5% to 7.5%. If I add Kohinoor into it, which we have just launched in August '22, our market share is now close to 8.5%. Edible Oil, our consolidated market share, along with our JVs is now 19.5%. Again, there is a gain of 10 basis points. Wheat flour continues to grow from 4.3% to 4.8%, and now wheat flour basket is good -- close to 30,000 tonnes monthly basket for us, which includes wheat flour, Maida, SRM and other products. Some marketing activities which you can see on the slide, more to do with marketing activities that we did in most of the e-com and [ modern ] format stores. So strong on-ground execution. And -- so we keep doing such kind of marketing activities to promote our new products, particularly Khichdi and our ready-to-cook products so that we get good traction in these markets. Enhanced -- okay, next, ESG. On ESG, our mission -- of course, we are quite conscious of environment, social and governance dashboard. Our mission called SuPoshan, which is one of our premium project, to eradicate malnutrition and anemia among the lactating mothers and children under age of 5. Now we reach our reach to -- close to a good 1.6 million people. We have impacted lives of 1.6 million people. And this project continues, and we want to keep growing and going into new areas where we can put this in place. Next. On the green energy part, we have successfully announced today, 7 out of 23 of our plants do have for solar energy, and our plan is to continue such installations across all the plants over the years. We continue our efforts on water conservation through a 0 liquid discharge, which has been installed in 9 major plants, and we continue to work on this. On sustainable [ plant ], palm oil -- responsible palm oil sourcing continues. So more than 90% of our palm oil is today traceable till mill, and all our plants today are RSPO certified. When it comes to recycling of the packaging material, more than 98% of our packaging material is recyclable. Of course, we do have a plan to take it to 100% maybe in the next 3 years of time. So just to harp upon what is the advantage of AWL, why do one invest in AWL. I think, without reading too much into this slide, the crux of this slide basically is that, the business in which AWL is, which is Food FMCG, a huge amount of potential is available in India, given the fact that today still 90% of staple food business is unbranded. So there is a huge potential to grow for anyone who is into this business. And if you have a brand in place, manufacturing in place and the distribution in place, which we have, and with such kind of potential, you have -- you can grow manifold in coming years. And that's the message of this slide. And beyond that, if you have the support of 2 of the big promoters -- the deep pocketed promoters, one side on Adani and other side on Wilmar, you have practically 0% risk of failing. And that's we are gunning for, and we are -- we have been able to showcase such kind of performance for last couple of years, and we are very much sure that, as we go forward, we will become the largest Food FMCG company of India. So this is it from my side. The next are more of annexures which are -- talks about the result and talks about the financial numbers. I think I have done with the presentation. And now I hand it over to moderator to open the floor for question and answer. Mr. Mallick and Mr. Saumin Sheth also with me, and we will try to answer the questions as they come. Thank you.

Operator

operator
#4

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Manoj Menon from ICICI Securities.

Manoj Menon

analyst
#5

I got a bunch of, I would say, clarifications. One, on the market share in edible oil, could just give some -- it's a credible performance to know, 17-odd percent is now 19%-ish, right? So 2 things there. One, in your view, what's driving these shares? Is it essentially the pricing volatility, your better marketing mix? Or is there also an element of increase in numeric reach?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#6

Manoj, 2, 3 things have happened. First is that, for the first 9 months of the calendar year, the market was not growing, and that is why you see, as the industry MAT December figure is showing almost 1% drop in consumption. That is because of the high edible oil prices. After October, we have seen, as the prices have cooled down, the consumption coming back and out-of-home consumption also going up. As far as the AWL is concerned, we have consistently built our rural distribution because we always felt that the consumption, potentially rural, is higher because of the population. So we have -- since last almost 12, 18 months, we have put a new team. We have extended the rural distribution. We have made sub-distributors. And today, we have added at least 7,000, 8,000 new towns -- potential towns in the rural, and that is why our numerical distribution has increased. In urban also, you will find that we have increased our direct reach, and that is why our market share has improved.

Manoj Menon

analyst
#7

What I was trying to understand is 2 things here. One, what is the further headroom based on the activities which have already done -- let's say, for the next 12 to 24 months or maybe 36 months of sales driven revenue growth? And secondly, you may also want to bring in this angle of South India being a market where your market shares could potentially be much, much higher than where it is today, and what are the actions there on both marketing and sales side?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#8

Okay. Unlike other competitors in South who always -- who only has edible oil -- and each of the state has one leader, we will play with our strength of Chakki Fresh Atta, because, in Atta, there is only one competitor across South who holds around 80% market share, and there is more than 5,50,000 retail outlets which sell packed Atta. We see a great opportunity in becoming the second largest brand of Atta in entire South. And because of Atta's distribution, we can enlarge our edible oil distribution as well. And both edible oil and our Atta and food, rice, particularly Basmati rice put together, will be a good combination to reach more number of outlets. So that is one strategy that we are going to take, and which we have started working on in South. Rest, in West also we see, rural Maharashtra, rural Madhya Pradesh has great opportunity to increase. And our Hazira plant is going to play a very important role in catering to this part of the market. Put together, we feel, going ahead, we will have enough scope to increase our market share. And you will see in the next 4 quarters how things are changing slowly, because the edible oil prices have now come to a level where the brand Fortune is growing. So we see a good opportunity for AWL.

Manoj Menon

analyst
#9

Just, sir, quickly moving on to the Foods business, INR 700-odd crores last year to INR 1,000 crores, again, a credible growth year-on-year. But sequentially, largely thus INR 1,000 crores -- So is there some seasonality? Or should we not look at sequential at all?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#10

Presently, there is good opportunity for us to grow, because everywhere we see great opportunity, and we are pushing. This year, what has happened, I will tell you, in wheat flour, as the wheat prices have gone up, a lot of local players have lost the [ steam ], and it is the big national players like us who have strength of inventory and strength of -- going ahead, we could get that market. Second, the GST normalization of brand and -- registered brand and unregistered brand has helped us. So we have now much more fair in terms of fair pricing. So we have that opportunity that is coming our way. Seasonality is there in food. Summer is bad for Atta and good for rice, whereas winter is good for Atta, bad for rice. So that way, if you see, we have both rice and wheat, so we are getting the advantage of all 4 seasons. Apart from this, out-of-home consumption is giving us lot of advantage now after October, as you see lot of weddings and lot of out-of-home consumption, people moving out. Tourism is increasing. So Basmati rice is doing well. Atta is doing well. Maida is doing well, and Besan is doing well, all the 4 products along with edible oil.

Manoj Menon

analyst
#11

But actually, what I was trying to understand was, let's say, December quarter, the 3Q FY '23 Foods is around INR 1,000 crores. September the last quarter was also ballpark, similar number. What I was trying to understand is, given the -- still the reasonable necessity of your Foods business I was expecting -- I mean, the sequential growth should have been higher? Or is it not the way to think about this?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#12

It should have been higher, but what has happened is that, new tax -- some extra tax of 20% export duty on rice slowed down our rice export. Otherwise, our sequential growth would have been better. The order came on 8th of September, and all of a sudden when 20% duty was imposed, the buyers were reluctant to take on 20%, and we were trying to discuss it. So we lost 1, 1.5 months on it. So that is why the rice exports slowed down in 45 days, at least up to 15th of November. So you see sequential little less growth. But given the situation, every quarter you will see Q-on-Q growth.

Manoj Menon

analyst
#13

One last question for the moment from my side. Honestly, we are also -- at least I am still learning the nuances of the edible oil as a category. So one philosophical question here is, someone has seen this for multi-decades. Would you prefer inflation? Or would you prefer deflation?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#14

Deflation.

Manoj Menon

analyst
#15

If I may ask, sir, just, why would you say so?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#16

Brands like Fortune would strive more when the commodity prices are stable or little lower. Consumers then buy more. And as you know, in rural India, people buy more on rupee value rather than quantity. So the buying becomes more. So we as the largest player, get a lot of advantage. And we have both premium brand as well as the popular brand, and largest reach. So everywhere you go, you will get Fortune or Kings either way. So we have lot of advantage. And I can tell you, the performance of the company will improve as the prices have come down, and now it is much more reasonable.

Manoj Menon

analyst
#17

But as far as your P&L is concerned, it's largely a profit per tonne approach, right? So to that extent, it should not -- except for the, let's say, operating leverage you could have got during inflation, the profit per tonne aspect doesn't really change?

Shrikant Kanhere

executive
#18

No. So, Manoj, just to answer -- or just to add what Mr. Mallick said is that, in case of the deflation or a bearish market or a falling market, whichever way you want to look at, generally, what happens is, your sourcing cost goes down, whereas, as far as the brand is concerned, you are able to maintain the kind of prices which they are in the [ brand ]. So you are not reducing your brand prices, but you're sourcing goes -- and therefore, the per tonne margins improves, and that's the point where Mr. Mallick is coming that deflation also always good for us.

Manoj Menon

analyst
#19

So basically, your volume propensity to consume also gets better, that your penetration gets better, plus profits also.

Operator

operator
#20

The next question is from the line of Latika Chopra from JPMorgan.

Latika Chopra

analyst
#21

So couple of questions. The first one is on the edible oil space. For the 9 months, you've done a 4% volume growth. How you think about sustainable volume growth as you move into FY '24, which is going to come off a more normalized base, and hopefully, edible prices will stay stable. How should we -- what kind of target you have in mind for edible oil volumes?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#22

See, Latika, the first 9 months of this year has been bad in terms of the prices coming from the top and slowly coming down. So consumers were surely -- wait and watch policy, so buying less inventory, consumption going down, out-of-home consumption also going down. Now the industry was not growing. After 2 years, we have seen the first upshoot in consumption from October onwards. October, November, December itself, the industry has seen almost 6% to 8% consumption growth, and we have seen double-digit growth. Now this is because you have seen how many marriages are there. More than 3 million marriages they are saying between November and April, and then out-of-home consumption, tourism has increased and everything. So that is a big consumption for India. In-home consumption because of the prices going down, has also improved. So overall, edible oil consumption is now growing for the first time after 2 years. For the coming year FY '24, we see at least 6% to 8% volume growth at all India level industry growth, but AWL should grow at double-digit.

Latika Chopra

analyst
#23

And you just said that your consumption growth was double-digit, but for Q3, your volume growth is 8%, right? So are you talking about retail volume growth instead of primary?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#24

See, what has happened is, when we give you the figure, these are all consolidated figures for our in-home consumption as well as out-of-home consumption, which includes our sales to industry, particularly baking industry and frying industry. In baking industry mainly comes the biscuit manufacturers, whether it is ITC, Britannia, Parles of the world, and then frying industry can be Lays, Bikaji, Balajis of the world. Now they are also potential edible oil consumers, and we are one of the largest suppliers to them. This industry did not do well in the quarter O&D, and that is why that consumption was less. But when you look at packed oil consumption in our general trade, modern trade and all that, it has been more than 15%.

Latika Chopra

analyst
#25

So it's more like B2C kind of a volume growth?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#26

Yes. B2C has done very well.

Latika Chopra

analyst
#27

And the second thing I wanted to check was realizations in edible oil. Are these stabilizing now? Or there is a little more correction that's anticipated in the current quarter, depending on your selling prices, et cetera?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#28

See, the prices, more or less has corrected downwards at, say, INR 95. Only wholesale price per kilo is one of the most affordable price, which used to be earlier INR 120. So, at these prices, market is very stable, and consumption is back in action. I feel consumers are -- have accepted INR 100 -- between INR 100 and INR 120 a liter of price is acceptable to the consumers. Mustard season is coming next month. So obviously, mustard will bring lot of pressure in the prices. And because mustard crop is a bumper crop this year, so it will cool down the prices, which will improve consumption. And B2C or packed oil volumes is surely going up, and AWL will stand to gain because being the leader in almost all the categories of [ oil ].

Latika Chopra

analyst
#29

So average realization could come off, which basically means the overall revenue growth could still be lower than the volume growth. Is that the right way to think about it?

Angshu Mallick

executive
#30

Yes, you are right.

Latika Chopra

analyst
#31

And how should we think about margins then? Because this quarter for edible oil you did 2%. Do we benefit -- as you just said in the earlier question, you benefit more in a deflating environment. So should we anticipate these margins to move to -- close to 3% odd levels which you were doing in -- probably in FY '21?

Shrikant Kanhere

executive
#32

Yes. So Latika, I think, yes, absolutely right. So, if the prices are stable and -- or may correct little downward, I think, our margin profile should improve. And in fact, there is another angle to it also, that all the downtrading that we witnessed in quarter 2 and quarter 1, and to some extent, quarter 3, I think that downtrading should now get corrected and the customers who have dropped from the, let us say, Fortune network, and have gone to the popular brands, will -- they will again come back. So, to that extent also, the margin profile per tonne in terms of gross margin or EBITDA per tonne should improve.

Latika Chopra

analyst
#33

And then, on industry essentials, this year did see benefits of adding of capacity, at least on volumes and top line, but we did not really see much benefit on EBIT. So this is a little complex cohort for us to understand. I know there are a lot of moving parts here. But could you help us with some kind of target that you've been mined for FY '24? How should we think about revenue and EBIT margins for this segment?

Shrikant Kanhere

executive
#34

So this is a very steady state business. This is the first time this is -- I mean, you can say is a one-off case where industry essential vertical has got a hit because of, of course, the price volatility and to some extent overhang of the quarter 2. But, since it's a extension of edible oil only -- I would say, extension of palm oil refining, so, overall, the complete value chain, it should be able to deliver the margins little better than the edible oil because, as we said, it's more of a extension and forward integration, and it delivers a product which are basically used in [ HPC ] category. So it does have some level of better margins as compared to the palm refining or edible oil. I think, as we go forward, next year we should not face such kind of margin drops which we have witnessed in this year.

Latika Chopra

analyst
#35

And the last thing I wanted to check was increase in interest expenses sequentially. What is that on account of? Is there any one-off sitting there?

Shrikant Kanhere

executive
#36

No, it's typically rate hikes, which we have witnessed for last 3 quarters. So, I mean, last year same time, the LIBOR or a SOFR was close to the 50 basis point. Today, it is [ 4.75% ]. So on a quarter-to-quarter basis, last year quarter versus this year quarter, the dollar interest cost has gone up by a good 3.5%. Similarly, on a 9-month basis, the dollar cost -- interest cost has gone up by close to 2%, and that is a very big chunk of interest increase for us. And that's why the interest costs has gone up, which I think should remain at this level because, what the commentary which we are hearing from the Fed as well as most of the central banks, that while hiking cycle is peaked, but rate cuts are not going to happen sooner, at least for a next 1, 1.5 years. So, these interest levels will more or less remain same. So the interest which you see for this quarter, I think, to some extent, it is a representative for -- as we go for the next financial year.

Latika Chopra

analyst
#37

And what would be your short-term borrowings as of 9 months ended?

Shrikant Kanhere

executive
#38

See, Latika, there is no -- so we don't have a borrowings per se, because, if you look at a definition of borrowing, we don't have any cash back drawing or a cash -- or a fund-based drawing. At max we have close to INR 1,000 crores of borrowings sitting on our balance sheet rest. Rest everything is a supplier credit. So to give that number to -- if you want that number, it is close to $1 billion.

Operator

operator
#39

The next question is from the line of Smitesh Sheth from Raedan Securities.

Smitesh Sheth

analyst
#40

All my questions have been answered.

Operator

operator
#41

[Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to management for closing comments.

Angshu Mallick

executive
#42

Good evening to all. First is that, thank you for attending the call. We could explain, as you have asked for, looking forward, we, as a company, always feel that we have -- we are in a business which is food, and we are in basic foods. Basic Foods, as you know, are most required products such as rice, wheat flour, Dal, Besan, sugar, oil, and these products are always in demand. The branded part is hardly 15%, not even 15% in case of rise. So we have a big opportunity of going ahead. Edible oil is a matured category, but other categories are coming up. It's very exciting. It has also taught us many things which we have now understood, how to build infrastructure to handle such vast volumes. We do now more than 5 million tonne, and we would like to grow fast on this volume. So supply chain management and all this we are working on. And I'm sure, in days to come, you will find Adani Wilmar as one of the most efficient FMCG and Food player in the country. Thank you, everyone.

Operator

operator
#43

Thank you very much. On behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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