Bigbloc Construction Limited (BIGBLOC.NS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, and welcome to the Bigbloc Construction Limited Q3 and 9M FY'26 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now hand the conference over to Mr. Mohit Saboo, the Chief Financial Officer, for opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Good afternoon, everyone. It is my pleasure to welcome you all to Bigbloc Construction Limited's earnings conference call for the third quarter and 9 months ended December 31, 2025. Thank you for joining us today. I'll take you through our financial and operational performance for the quarter and 9 months, followed by key business updates. The third quarter marks a notable improvement in our overall performance. Construction activity gained strong momentum during the quarter as post-monsoon demand recovered across key markets. This favorable environment, combined with improved execution across our facilities, enabled us to deliver our best quarterly performance to date. For Q3 FY '26, consolidated revenue from operations reached INR 728 million, marking the highest quarterly revenue in the company's history. This represents a growth of 28.1% compared to the same period last year and 8.2% sequentially. This growth was driven primarily by a 38% increase in sales volume compared to the same period last year, which reached 2,14,643 cubic meters for the quarter. For the 9-month period, revenue from operations was INR 1,965 million, reflecting a growth of 22.8% over 9 months FY '25. On the profitability front, the quarter delivered a [ substantial ] margin. EBITDA for Q3 FY '26 was INR 81 million, up 31.8% year-on-year with margins expanding to 11.1% compared to 2.8% and 10.8% in Q2 FY '26 and Q3 FY '25, respectively. The margin expansion was primarily driven by improved capacity utilization, better price realizations and a more efficient cost structure. Furthermore, the company also returned to profitability during the quarter, reporting a profit after tax of INR 4 million. From an operational standpoint, capacity utilization improved to 67% in Q3 FY '26 compared to 62% in the previous quarter and 53% in the same quarter last year. Higher utilization levels across facilities has lowered fixed cost per unit and supported margin recovery. At our JV facility, Siam Cement Big Bloc Construction Technologies, capacity utilization has continued its upward trajectory, reaching 51% in Q3 FY '26 as compared to 43% in the previous quarter. Acceptance of the large-format wall panels is steadily increasing among contractors and developers, particularly for industrial and commercial projects. We are also witnessing a growing pipeline of inquiries and we expect to receive new order flows in the coming quarters. We have also been able to click a few big clients and customers in the wall panel segment. On the strategic front, I am pleased to share that the company recently secured a significant purchase order from Larsen & Toubro for the supply of AAC blocks. This order not only reflects the quality and consistency of our products, but also strengthens our presence in large infrastructure and institutional projects. Additionally, trial runs for our construction chemicals facility at Umargaon have commenced in successfully, and we expect to begin commercial production soon. This will mark an important step in diversifying our product portfolio and tapping into complementary segments within the building materials industry. Sustainability remains a core focus area for the company. The contribution of renewable energy to our total power consumption has increased to 36% during the quarter, up from 26% in the previous quarter. This increase is the result of enhanced solar power installations across our facilities and reflects our commitment to reducing carbon emissions while also lowering energy costs for the overall long term. At the industry level, construction activity is expected to remain supporting in the upcoming quarters. The government's continued emphasis on affordable housing, infrastructure development and urban redevelopment is driving demand for modern building materials. Looking ahead, our priorities are centered on sustaining momentum in capacity utilization, scaling up AAC wall panel operations and commencing commercial operations across our construction chemicals manufacturing setup. With demand conditions improving, we are confident of maintaining this positive trajectory and delivering improved performance in the quarters ahead. With that, I conclude my remarks, and we can now open the floor for question and answers.

[Operator Instructions] We take the first question from the line of [ Prashant ], who is an individual investor.

Sir, am I audible?

Yes, you are audible.

Sir, so congratulations on these sets of results. I think EBITDA margin has improved significantly over the quarters. I had very specific questions. One is that has the realizations improved in the last quarter? And how are you looking at it going ahead?

So I also mentioned in my earlier con call that our first focus is towards improving capacity utilization. And across all our 3 block facilities, our capacity utilizations have almost reached 70% plus utilization levels. Only at the JV facility, the utilization is around 51 percentage. And in the last quarter, Q3, we have been able to improve our realizations as well. And going forward, looking at the demand trajectory, we might be able to further improve on our realizations.

And sir, can you give us some flavor as to what are the current prices which you are seeing? Because -- so before that, sir, can you clarify what percentage of the revenue in this quarter was from construction chemicals?

So from the construction chemicals, around 5% to 7% of the revenue was contributed by the construction chemicals. And your query about increase in realization, so I think the average realization has just gone up by around 2 to 3 percentage for this quarter.

Okay. Okay. Got it, sir. Sir, so I wanted to understand, so our revenue has increased by only INR 5 crores, but our EBITDA has increased by almost INR 4 crores. So is there something on the cost front as well which has changed versus last quarter?

So apart from the increase in revenue, there has been an increase in realizations as well. And as we improve our utilization levels, our operation costs also consequently goes down. We are able to save on the overall variable cost also to a certain extent and fixed cost to a big extent. And from Q1 to Q3, we have seen almost a 10% to 12% jump in capacity utilization. And that's how our realization as well as EBITDA margins have improved drastically over the last 2 quarters.

Yes, sure. Okay, sir. And currently, can you let us know what is the capacity utilization in the Vapi plant?

So for the last quarter, I think the Vapi plant capacity utilization was approximately at around 70 percentage.

Okay. 70%, okay.

And I think the same numbers are mentioned in our results as well. For Q3, it was around 68 percentage for the Vapi plant.

Okay. Vapi plant percentage, I thought was not mentioned, sir. But okay, I'll just check. That's in the holding company only, right, the Vapi plant?

Yes, it's just in the parent holding company.

Okay. Noted, sir. Noted. So right now you are saying... [Technical Difficulty]

Sorry, you are not audible now.

Sir, the participant has left the question queue. [Operator Instructions] We take the next question from the line of Ashvath Rajan from Arihant Capital.

I hope I'm audible.

Yes, you are audible.

Yes. Sir, my question is the NXTBLOC brand. Where do you see capacity utilization levels across our plants...

Sorry to interrupt, but your voice is not very clear.

Is it better? Am I audible now? Hello?

Could you speak a bit louder?

Yes. Am I audible now?

Yes, that's better.

Yes. I just wanted to understand what kind of utilization level are we looking at, especially in our Ahmedabad and Ramosadi plants going ahead?

So Ahmedabad Starbigbloc plant, last quarter capacity utilization was around 80, 81 percentage. And the Ramosadi plant, last quarter capacity utilization is around 51 percentage. I think on a quarter-on-quarter basis, on a long-term annual basis, the average utilization for this sort of industry, we calculate 80%, 85% as the optimal. And Starbigbloc, which is the Ahmedabad plant, is already at around 85% for the last quarter. And the Ramosadi plan, we intend to get to 80 percentage in the next 1 or 2 quarters.

Okay. And any reason why we see the jump in utilization in terms of...

So we are able to -- we had increased our capacities by a drastical level, going from 550,000 to almost 1.3 million. And if we see on a quarter-on-quarter, I think Q1, our capacity utilization on a consolidation basis was approximately 53%, which went up to 62% in Q2 and 67% in Q3. So we are just targeting newer markets as well as existing markets with more client penetration. And for the wall panel space as well, we have been able to cater to lots of new different customers and are continuously seeing an increase in customer base as well as inquiries. So looking at that, going forward, we should be able to better scale up our utilization levels.