KEI Industries Limited (517569) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, dear shareholders, Board of Directors, auditors and scrutinizers who have joined us today in the 29th Annual General Meeting of KEI Industries Limited through video conferencing and physically. I'm Kishore Kunal, Company Secretary of the company, and I have joined this meeting from the registered office of the company at D-90 Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi - 20. Before commencing the official proceedings, I would like to inform all the attendees about the following points. In order to ensure the safety of all the stakeholders, this AGM is being organized through video conferencing, which is in compliance with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India and SEBI. The company has made all the efforts under the current circumstances to enable all of you to participate in the meeting through virtual mode and to vote electronically. The proceedings of this Annual General Meeting shall be deemed to have been conducted at the registered office of the company at New Delhi. Attendees can post their queries, if any, in the question and answer chat box, and same will be replied to the respective shareholders within a week's time. All the members who have joined the meeting are, by default, placed on mute mode in order to transact the meeting in a smooth and fair manner. Upon commencement of the question-and-answer session, I will announce one by one, the name of the shareholders who have registered as a speaker shareholder. The speaker shareholder, if they are present, will thereafter unmute and then ask their queries and express their views, if any. The shareholders are advised to use their headphones for clear audio and switch off other background applications. If there is any connectivity issue at the speaker shareholder's end, we will request the next speaker to ask the questions. And all the speaker shareholders are requested to limit their time line to 2 minutes for their queries. The company had provided remote e-voting facility to all the shareholders from September 5, 2021, 9 a.m. to September 7, 2021, 5 p.m. on all the resolutions set forth in the notice of 29th Annual General Meeting. Members who have not casted their vote have the option to cast their vote during this AGM. And even after this AGM, there will be a window of 15 minutes where they can vote electronically. So these are the instructions for the shareholders, and I am sure that you will keep that in mind during the course of this AGM. With this, now I hand over the proceedings to the Chairman, sir, Mr. Anil Guptaji.

Thank you very much, Kunal. Good afternoon, everybody, everyone. I welcome you all to the 29th Annual General Meeting of your company. Like the last year, we are once again meeting virtually as the continued impact of COVID-19 pandemic necessitates adoption of safety precautions. To arrest its spread, and, therefore, this AGM today has been convened through video conferencing, in compliance with the Companies Act 2013 read with the circulars issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and SEBI. I'm informed that we have the requisite quorum present through video conference to conduct the proceedings of this meeting. I welcome my other colleagues on the Board of your company to the 29th Annual General Meeting. Now let me ask your Board of Directors to introduce themselves. First, I request all the directors present on the dais to introduce themselves. Now I request Mr. Akshit Diviaj Gupta to introduce himself.

Good afternoon. I'm Akshit Diviaj Gupta. I am whole time director on the Board of KEI Industries Limited. I'm attending this AGM from our registered office in New Delhi.

Thank you. Thank you, Akshit. Now I request Mr. Vikram Bhartia to introduce himself.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm an independent director on the Board of KEI Industries Limited. I'm also the Chairman of Nomination and Remuneration Committee and member of the Audit Committee, Stakeholders Relationship Committee. I'm attending the AGM from the registered office of the company in New Delhi.

Thank you, Bhartiaji. Now I request Mr. Rajeev Gupta to introduce himself.

Yes. Good afternoon, everybody. I am Rajeev Gupta, ED Finance and CFO and whole time director of the company. I'm also a member of the Finance Committee, CSR Committee and Risk Management Committee and QIP Committee. I am joining the AGM from the registered office of the company in Okhla, New Delhi. Thank you.

Thank you, Rajeev. We also have with us our statutory auditors of the company, Mr. Pawan Kumar Agarwal, Partner of M/s Pawan Shubham & Co. I request him to introduce himself.

Good afternoon. I'm Pawan Kumar Agarwal, Partner of Pawan Shubham & Co. I'm attending this meeting from the registered office of the company at Okhla in New Delhi.

Thank you, Pawanji. Now I request Mrs. Archana Gupta to introduce herself.

Everyone, I'm Archana Gupta. I am a non-independent director on the Board of KEI and a member of Finance Committee. I am attending the AGM from Delhi. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Archana. Now I request Pawan Bholusariaji, to introduce himself.

[Audio Gap] Board of KEI Industries Limited. I'm also the Chairman of the Audit Committee, Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, Share Allotment Committee and member of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, Stakeholder Relationship Committee and QIP Committee. I'm attending the meeting AGM from Delhi. Thank you.

Thank you, Pawanji. Now I request Shri Kishan Gopal Somaniji to introduce himself. [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language]

Somaniji, repeat. Can't hear you. Unmute your [Foreign Language]

Yes. [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language]

I'm Kishan Somani. I'm independent director of KEI. And I'm also a member of the Audit Committee and QIP Committee. I'm attending this AGM from my office in New Delhi. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Somaniji. Now I request Shri Vijay Bhushanji to introduce himself.

Good afternoon, everybody. A very warm welcome to all shareholders today. I am Vijay Bhushan. I'm an independent director on the Board of KEI Industries Limited. I'm also the Chairman of the Stakeholder Relationship Committee and member of the Nomination and Remuneration committee as well as the Share Allotment Committee. I'm attending this AGM from my office at New Delhi. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Vijayji. Now I request Shri Sadhu Ram Bansalji to introduce himself.

[Audio Gap] [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language] Okay. So thank you. Now I request Ms. Shalini Guptaji to introduce herself.

Hi. Am I audible?

Yes.

Okay. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the AGM today. I'm Shalini Gupta, an independent director on the Board KEI Industries. I'm attending the AGM from my office at Okhla.

Thank you, Shaliniji. We also have with us scrutinizers of this meeting, Mr. Sumit Kumar Batra, proprietor of S.K. Batra & Associates. I request him to introduce himself.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Sumit Kumar Batra, Proprietor of S.K. Batra & Associates. I'm appointed as scrutinizer of 29th Annual General Meeting of KEI Industries Limited. I'm attending this meeting from my office in New Delhi. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Sumitji. Dear members, the notice convening this AGM and a copy of annual report for the financial year ended 31st March 2021, has already been circulated to the members of the company through email, and notice in this regard was also published in the newspaper. With your permission, I shall take them as read. Dear shareholders, with your permission for agenda item #3 and 4 of the notice, I request Mr. Vikram Bhartia, a noninterested and independent director to act -- of the company to act as a Chairman. Now with your permission, I will begin my formal address to the shareholders. Dear shareholders, an unprecedented year for everyone. Financial year 2020/21 nevertheless demonstrated KEI's resiliency and resolve. Throughout this tough period, our unflinching focus has been towards safeguarding our people, ensuring no major disruption to our customers and consumers, supporting our communities and retaining our financial strength. It was also a year of transformation for KEI as we set out to aggressively grow our Retail segment while gradually reducing the contribution of EPC projects to our overall sales mix. We believe that this strategic shift will enable us to deliver better value in this year ahead. The fiscal year commenced amidst the nationwide lockdown, resulting into all our plants being shut down for almost an entire month, our employees transitioning to a remote working environment, dealers not being operational and supply chain disruption. As the year progressed, the slowdown in economic activities with infrastructure projects facing delays due to shortage of workforce, localized restrictions and widespread uncertainty had a significant bearing on the demand for wires and cables. At KEI, we responded with agility to deliver a commendable performance against this exceptionally challenging backdrop. Our net sales for the financial year 2021 stood at INR 4,181 crores as against INR 4,884 crores in the previous year. This decline in net sales was largely due to the lockdown and business restrictions in the first quarter and the execution of one large export order in previous year. Our EPC sales for the full year were also lower, which is as per the management strategy to reduce our dependence on EPC business and restrict its turnover. Our strong focus on optimizing our costs enabled us to improve our EBITDA margins to 11.49% as against 10.49% in the previous year. Profit after tax stood at INR 273 crores as against INR 255 crores in the previous year. We are also pleased to report that our net debt, including acceptances, have been reduced by INR 514 crores in the year under review, which has helped to reduce our finance cost. The retention money from the EPC debtors is partly expected to be released during financial year '21/'22, which will provide us with sufficient cash flows to meet our working capital and growth requirements. Further, our company's credit rating was upgraded to ratings AA- for long-term bank facilities and A1+ for short-term bank facilities. The revised outlook, along with our strong liquidity profile, will enable us to secure funds at a very competitive costs. As mentioned previously, our Retail segment faced an exceptionally challenging first quarter during which sales declined by nearly 49% from the corresponding period in the previous year. However, with the easing of restrictions and unlocking of the economy, retail sales made a strong sequential revival to almost erase the adverse impact of the first quarter. For the full year, sales through the dealer network or dealer -- distribution market was almost at par with the last year. More importantly, the contribution of our Retail segment to the overall sales mix now stands at 34% as against 29% in the previous year. This is in line with our focused strategy as the Retail business offers better margins and has lower working capital requirements. Going forward, our target is to generate 40% to 50% of our overall sales from the Retail segment in the medium term. To provide a thrust to the Retail segment, we have been strengthening our manpower in various sales branches at different levels all over India. We have also hired a leading consultant for helping us formulate the strategies to increase our sales through our distribution network. We remain focused on growing our dealer network, deepening our engagement with our channel partners and strengthening our brand visibility through increased investments. Plan to foray into FMEG sector are also being carefully evaluated to boost our retail sales. Our Institutional segment continued to deliver a steady performance with our strong prequalification credentials, enabling us to tap the growing opportunities across multiple sectors. Our expertise and capabilities are best demonstrated by the fact that we are among the select few manufacturers globally for manufacturing extra high-voltage cables up to 400 kV voltage grid, which are being used for underground power transmission lines. Our market-leading position and the expanded customer relationships that we have built in this segment make us look to the future with confidence, especially as several of these sectors will be strong growth drivers powered by the government's focus on infrastructure and building a self-reliant nation. As a strategic decision, we are reducing our stake in the EPC business due to the elongated working capital cycle, slow recovery of the payments and the low margin profile. We are confident that our shift from EPC will be more than compensated by our Retail segment in the coming years as we use the freed-up resources to drive the latter's growth. While we will still pursue EPC projects when it satisfies our project selection criteria, we will limit its contribution to overall sales at 10% to 15%, a clear benefit for our shareholders as well as for KEI. During the year under view -- under review, EPC contribution reduced from 15.64% to 11.15%, which has helped us to reduce our working capital requirements. For our Exports segment, we delivered a resilient performance with sales being largely at par with financial year '19/'20 after excluding 1 exceptionally large order that was executed during that year. In a pandemic-hit year, our ability to grow our international business was constrained as travel restrictions limited our business development activities. However, as conditions start normalizing, we will pursue our customer engagements with greater intensity to regain our growth momentum. We are actively looking at developing new export markets by deepening our presence in existing geographies. To support our growth ambitions, we'll continue to invest in increasing our capacity. In the previous years, we had augmented our house wires capacity with the setting up of a new facility. We are now looking at investing around INR 600 crores to INR 700 crores from internal accruals for growing our capacities for manufacturing low-tension, high-tension and extra high-voltage cables. The CapEx will be undertaking -- undertaken over 4 to 5 years period. Meanwhile, the company has sufficient capacity to cater to the market demand over the next year by when the new production lines will also be available. I'm enormously proud of how adaptive and resilient our employees were in the face of a global pandemic. I would like to thank every one of our employees for their hard work during this challenging time. With the health and safety of our people as our foremost priority, we quickly transitioned to work-from-home model for employees, whose role enabled them to work remotely. Regular sanitization at workplace, free distribution of masks, tie-ups with hospitals for COVID-19 testing, hospitalization and other emergency requirements and arranging oxygen concentrators were among the other measures taken for the safety and the well-being of our people. We are pleased to share that we have rolled out vaccination drives across all our locations for our employees and their families. With the pandemic still raging on, we continue to strictly adhere to all COVID-19-appropriate protocols at our sites. Heading into financial year '21/'22, the severe second wave of COVID-19 in India resulted in a renewed lockdown of the economy. While the nation was hit hard with a huge loss of lives, the situation is now under control and lockdowns have been eased with the government's focus on accelerating vaccination rollout, strengthening of health care infrastructure and heightening public awareness on adopting health and safety measures. The improved operating requirements -- environment continued with pent-up demand should boost the market growth for the wires and cables. Projects in the areas of roads and highways, tunnels -- tunnel ventilation projects for highways as well as railways, metro rail, power transmission and distribution, airports, solar power projects and nuclear power projects, among others, are being awarded to spur economic growth. Further, the government has extended its INR triple-1 lakh crore, INR 111 lakh crores, USD 1.5 trillion National Infrastructure Pipeline, which is an umbrella program integrating muni-sector infrastructural projects, to cover more projects by 2025. We are also witnessing capacity expansion and upgradation in various state-owned oil refineries. The Production-Linked Incentive Scheme announced by the government will encourage private players to enhance their domestic manufacturing capabilities. Smart city projects are underway, while the expected pickup in demand for real estate will aid the recovery of the construction sector. All these factors point towards substantial growth for wires and cable industry, and we believe well-organized companies with growth -- with good working capital management will be able to extract better value. At KEI, we have a strong cash flow and balance sheet and substantial liquidity. This, combined with our proven manufacturing and distribution capabilities, positions us to be opportunistic in strategically reinvesting, capitalizing on market trends and expanding our business. I would like to thank all our stakeholders, including customers, bankers, financial institutions, central and state government bodies, channel partners, business associates, suppliers and employees, community and to you -- and also to you, our shareholders, for the continued trust and support in a difficult year. The Board is confident that while the pandemic has created near-term challenges, the business is fundamentally strong to deliver better value in the years ahead. I -- wishing all of you the best in these challenging times. Thank you.

Thank you, sir, for your elaborated speech. I now request our statutory auditor, Mr. Pawan Kumar Agarwal, to read out the auditor's report for the benefit of the shareholders.

In the interest of the time, I would be reading 3 paragraphs -- 2 paragraphs of our auditor's report. We have audited the accompanying stand-alone and consolidated financial statements of KEI Industries Limited, which comprise the stand-alone and consolidated balance sheet as at 31st March 2021 and the statement of profit and loss, including other comprehensive income; the cash flow statement; the statement of changes in equity for the year then ended; notes to the financial statement, including a summary of significant accounting policies; and other explanatory information. In our opinion and to the best of our information and according to the explanation given to us, the aforesaid stand-alone and consolidated financial statements give the information required by the Companies Act 2013 in the manner so required and give a true and fair view in confirmative with Ind AS prescribed under Section 133 of the Act read with the Companies Rules 2015, as amended, and other accounting principles generally accepted in India, of the state of affairs of the company as at 31st March 2021, and there is no qualification in our report. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Dear shareholders, pursuant to the provisions of Companies Act 2013 and the SEBI LODR regulations, the company has provided facility for e-voting by electronic means to all the members. For this purpose, the company has tied up with NSDL as the agency. The company provided remote e-voting facility to all the persons who were members as on the cutoff date, September 1, 2021. Members attending the AGM today who have not cast their vote by remote e-voting are entitled to exercise their right to vote by e-voting during this AGM also. Mr. Sumit Kumar Batra, the practicing Company Secretary, has been appointed by the Board as the scrutinizer for conducting the e-voting process in a fair and transparent manner. The results will be declared on or before 48 hours after considering the e-voting done today by the members and also remote e-voting already done by the members earlier. The result declared, along with the scrutinizer's report, shall be placed on the company's website and also on the website of NSDL immediately. The company shall simultaneously forward the results to all the stock exchanges where the shares of the company are listed. As the meeting is convened through VC today, resolutions have already been put to vote through remote e-voting, and the requirement to propose and second are not applicable for this meeting. Dear shareholders, thank you for joining today and for taking time to participate in today's AGM. Before we go live with the question-and-answer session, there are some points to note for your convenience. Kindly turn on your video when you are projected on the broadcast screen. Kindly unmute yourself and proceed to ask the questions or express your views. Please mention your name, folio number and the location from where you are joining. You are requested to limit your time line to 2 minutes per participant. Once you have asked your questions, you can log off and continue to watch the proceedings of the meeting.As per the information which the shareholders have sent to us, there have been certain registrations regarding speaker registration. So first, I request Mr. Arvind Waikar to express his views or ask your questions. Mr. Arvind Waikar, please, if you are in the meeting, unmute yourself.

Yes. Yes, I have done that.

Thank you. So you can go ahead with your views or the query or whatever you have.

Yes. First of all, I must thank you accepting my request, agreeing to register me as a speaker for KEI's AGM. I congratulate KEI management for good performance in spite of pandemic crisis. Again, as explained by our Chairman, Mr. Anil Gupta, I would like to further congratulate KEI for upgrading the credit rating, plus reducing the substantial amount of loan which is definitely going to benefit the shareholders. See, actually, I have some suggestion, but it is like showing tours to the sun. Let me tell you that Mr. Anil Gupta is so knowledgeable and a so powerful person in this particular field. I know him. Actually, I have worked in Cable Corporation of India as the General Manager of Western Region. So I personally feel that my suggestion is not going to be in that grade knowing him, but still I thought that as a shareholder, I must contribute from my side. I'm sure the company will be doing much better in the coming years and make shareholders happy by delivering excellent profit. You see, the company is doing really well, especially in the Retail portfolio, and the management is targeting to increase the share of revenue to 40% to 50% from the Retail segment, as mentioned by the Chairman's speech -- in this speech. Also, I really like the strategy of strategically reducing the EPC portfolio due to elongated working capital cycle. And basically, he is open that in case he'll get a good opportunity, I'm sure Mr. Anil Gupta will think of adding that at the appropriate time. Reduction -- in addition to that, I wanted to tell you that in financial year 2021, the profit after tax of the company has increased to INR 237 -- INR 273 crores from earlier profit of INR 255 crores, again this was also mentioned by the Chairman in his speech, despite decline in the revenue to INR 4,181 crores from earlier figure of INR 4,884 crores, which is 6.5% of the revenue. But let me just share one apprehension, that we should not be happy. We should be better than the best. From that point of view, I must tell you that our percentage or profit, PAT, of 6.5% is not that good compared to other -- our competitors. To be honest with you, if I say Polycab has done 9.5% -- 9.9% PAT of the revenue, and hence I feel that we need to relook into our product portfolio, and we need to enrich our product mix to get better margin. This is my suggestion. Again, I'm not an authority. Couple of things you are already doing, couple of things, maybe repetition, what had been told by the Chairman. But still, I would like to insist on that. One is FMEG. You are almost not visible. You have mentioned, at least, in the Chairman's speech, that you are working on that -- on this. But I want that we should really definitely add this immediately because housing industry is growing very fast now, and FMEG will increase manyfold. You may acquire, you may subcontract to vendor or tie up with FMEG, but FMEG must be added for better and better margin, which, of course, Mr. Anil Gupta has mentioned in his speech. Second thing, I just want to say that the Government of India initiative like BharatNet and other huge demand for digital infrastructure, hence demand for optical fiber cable, the OFC, land, CCTV cable is going to go fantastically very high. Almost - -I think more than 5 lakh kilometer cable -- OFC cable has been laid down in the last about 1 year back. So this is where you seriously study the market. I personally feel that you seriously study the market and think of adding this in the product portfolio if it is feasible. Third point, the export, actually you had mentioned that -- in the speech that there was some big order. But it has declined to INR 609 crore compared to INR 899 crore of the previous year. We must attempt more export orders for better margin and faster working capital cycle. This is my suggestion, and I'm sure you are working on that. How about adding submersible cables, solar cables, inverters, electric vehicle EV wiring and cables, flexible cable? I think you may be manufacturing this cable. But more aggressive in the sales and marketing is required or some modification in the manufacturing may be needed to suit to the manufacturer's requirement. Last point is increased capacity utilization. Of course, one good point, you, Mr. -- mentioned that you are already spending about INR 600 crore to INR 700 crores in expansion of capacity of LT, HT and EHV cable in the next 4 or 5 years. That is a very good thing. But even I personally feel that you must increase the existing capacity utilization to more than 85%, and you are doing really well in as far the FS wires are concerned. Our equity investment in 2017, which I had invested in 4 years back, has almost gone 4x up. I can tell you that I'm very happy on that. Your last 5 years' and 10 years' profit performance had been really good. Even today, the market has gone up by almost 4%, 5% today. You seem to have healthy order booking. But last quarter, Q1 of '21/'22, was not very encouraging. Revenue at the PBT was lower on Q-o-Q basis and Y-o-Y basis. How do you plan to achieve the profit growth in the future? Also, I want you -- if you can comment on my suggestion. Sir, thank you so much for giving time. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mr....

Arvind.

Arvind?

Arvind.

Thank you for your suggestions. I'll pointedly give you some answers. We are already manufacturing some submersible cables, solar cables and inverter cables. And we are also manufacturing entire range of flexibles and wiring for electrical vehicles. Of course, you -- we have noted your suggestion that we should be marketing it more aggressively, and I'll put my marketing team to be focused on that. Your suggestion of increasing capacity utilization to more than 85% will definitely come through this year because we are seeing a good growth of capacity utilization and resultant achievement in the revenues in the -- from quarter 2. Quarter 1 was low because of the April and May lockdowns in various states, and the revenue was impacted. However, our revenue on year-on-year basis from last year was up by around 35% to 37% in quarter 1. Of course, on quarter-on-quarter basis, it was lower because of the lockdowns and pandemic. We are very focused on exports. Present efforts are impacted because of the nontravel -- travel restrictions across. We are not able to develop new customers and reach out to new markets. Our export declined mainly because we executed a INR 450 crore worth of order from Dangote oil and gas refinery of Nigeria in year '19/'20. So the base of the export became very high, which could not be replicated in the year 2021. Your suggestion about the digital infrastructure and optical fiber cables, let me mention we are manufacturing LAN cables and CCTV cables and selling it through our dealer network, but we will definitely enhance our visibility in these products. So far as optical fiber cable is concerned, it is a different line. We will consider it for aligning it with our dealer network products. But we do not want to go in OFC cable manufacturing to this telecom infrastructure players at the moment because it requires a different level of investment. Regarding your suggestions on FMEG, this matter is under consideration. We are already very focused on improving our presence in trade or through our retail network for our house wire. And once that visibility becomes more -- better in next 6 to 8 months, we will consider adding some new more -- some more products like lighting, et cetera, into our kitty. So for your suggestion about improving our revenues and profits, I can assure you that we will continue to grow by minimum 18% to 20% on CAGR basis year-on-year and with consequent improvement in the profits because of the better capacity utilization and better liquidity flows through the retail channels. So we will definitely give a good growth in revenues and profit before tax and after tax quarter-on-quarter and year after year. So I think I can reassure our shareholders that the company is heavily focused on growth of revenue and profits and will give good reward to the shareholders. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. So our next speaker is [ Jasmeet Singh ]. Mr. [ Jasmeet Singh ], if you are in meeting, you can unmute your line.

Yes. Mr. Anil, well, please allow me.

Yes, Mr. [ Jasmeet ], we are hearing your voice. And can you please...

So am I visible?

Yes.

Yes. Yes. So let me start my note. Dear Chairman, Anilji, ED Akshitji, other directors, CFO Rajeevji, Company Secretary, Kishore and [ Prakash ] and everyone attending this AGM, a very good afternoon to you all from [ Jasmeet Singh ]. We are fortunate to connect from our comforts of our offices and homes to -- and interact with you, thanks to the technology and everyone in the team who have made it possible for me to connect today. Sir, the working shared by you about our company has provided us fair amount of information, which is reassuring of our bright future. I'm thankful to the management for giving us dividend, which is very valuable in these taxing times, though the declared dividend of INR 2 is too small in the backdrop of INR 30 per share earnings. And so I request the management to formalize a better dividend-paying policy, distributing 1/5 or at least 1/6 of the earned profits every year. On business operations, I'm compelled to mention here that despite a lower top line of about 20%, we ended up with higher bottom line. This is highly praiseworthy as it would not have been possible without your astute leadership and guidance, sir. Hopefully, we will see economic recovery much faster, and so I'm looking forward to see some of the following milestones in the few -- in the next few years such as 5-digit top line, 4-digit bottom line, 4-digit share price with INR 1 face value and market cap in 5 digits. Now, sir, I have couple of concerns, and I would like the management to give its views upon. First, there is enough headroom to work upon the operating margins and EBITDA. However, the rising input costs for our products are wrecking havoc, which may continue to impact our margins. My question is that, are we going to pass on the increased cost? Or so as to remain competitive, are we going to absorb it? Number two, as I read the annual report, that we intend to focus on the Retail segment, which is quite right. But I see an equally exciting opportunity, rather more significant, that is in broadband fiber cables, which is at a relative nascent stage and offers huge, huge opportunity going ahead. Equally exciting is the opportunity to focus upon overseas markets. While -- during the COVID, if I read correctly in the annual report, we exported wires and cables worth INR 600 crores to about 50 countries, which worked out to an average export billing of INR 12 crore per country. Now this figure is too low and needs to be addressed. It would be unfair on my part to finish my note without mentioning the high standards of corporate governance maintained by our company. Do keep it up. On CSR, I must praise the efforts of our company to contribute its bet to the society, especially during the current adverse times of pandemic. Our efforts for eradicating hunger, poverty, promoting health care, animal welfare are all noteworthy. But what I like most was the support extended towards education thereto for the girls child. I applaud the creation of Shiksha Jyoti portal, which helped several girl childs to continue with their education online. I am again compelled to say that we would have appreciated it more if this online education kit would have been distributed to even shareholders' children, who are also part of the KEI family. I request the team, Pawanji, Archana, ma'am, and all other CSR Committee members to facilitate shareholders' children now and help them in the best way possible by sponsoring them with the online education kits. To close, I wish everyone very good health, wealth in the coming months ahead and times to come. Thank you.

Thank you very much, [ Jasmeetji ]. It is highly encouraging. We are really encouraged to listen to your suggestions. And I reassure you about your suggestions of 4-digit share price and a 5-digit sales volume and the profits. So it will be highly encouraging for us as a promoter and also all our shareholders. We will -- we are all striving for it, and we will work on it. And we will definitely give good performance of the company. And definitely, we have noted the suggestions about adding new products, and we'll work upon it. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. So our next speaker is [ Vilmal Jain ]. Mr. [ Vilmal Jain ], kindly unmute yourself.

Hello? Am I audible?

Yes, we are hearing you. You can continue.

Okay. Very good afternoon, respected Chairman, all the Board of Directors and my fellow shareholders joining this e-meeting. I'm [ Vilmal Jain ] and I joined this e-meeting from Delhi. I hope everyone associated with our company is healthy during this pandemic. I would like to congratulate the Chairman, sir, and his entire management team. KEI is doing financially well, and our rating has also improved to AA category, which is a very commendable task. I always get all types of information for my queries in reply from the company on time. However, I have a couple of small queries. Firstly, I would like to know that our exports were down last year. So what is the plan of our company to improve our exports? And secondly, I also want to know that what is the comparison to the domestic business in the margin to the Exports business? Lastly, I would like to thank the management team for arranging this e-meeting and providing me the opportunity to connect directly to put forward my questions. And I hope that when we'll meet the next time, our share value will set new highs. Thank you.

Welcome. [ Vilmal], sir.

Yes. Thank you, [ Vilmalji ]. I mean, as explained, that we are quite focused on improving our exports, and the -- we'll see great visibility and improvement in export figures. We have been impacted mainly because of low customer contact -- connect due to this pandemic. For doing new business development, we need to visit customers. And during this last 1.5 years, travel is completely restricted on international destinations. That is one of the reason that we have not been able to bring new customers on board. But definitely, as we are doing very well with the existing customer base, and we will definitely improve our export performance in -- month after month and quarter after quarter from here. Thank you.

So our next speaker is [ Suvas Badhwar ].

[Foreign Language]

There is some background noise. Can you new mute that? Yes.

Yes, sir.

[ Badhwarji ], now you can ahead.

[Foreign Language]

Please mute...

[Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language]

Mute [Foreign Language] So now I request the next speaker, Mr. [ Mahendrapal Bhutani ]. [ Bhutaniji ], please.

Hello?

Yes?

Sir, Honorable Chairman, Shri Anil Guptaji, Board member and management team, my name is [ M.P. Bhutani ], client ID number is 02044054. First of all, I would like to thank the Company Secretary and his team for sending me annual report well in time and responding to our queries and helped us to join this meeting, sir. Sir, my question is medium- and long-term strategy on the challenges due to the impact of the pandemic situation, of the second wave, and also the fear of third wave as well as a code red already, U.N. said, on climate change. Sir, this Vishwas Scheme was launched last year to settle pandemic disputes. The biggest part there that the scheme has been a good success. Is there any benefit we have taken from this scheme, sir? Next, in balance sheet, there is a sufficient room for improvement. Therefore, I want to know the future step to increase the asset quality and the capital improvement to strengthen the balance sheet and your value creation road map. Sir, we are happy that the company is doing very well under CRS (sic) [ CSR ] and our credit rating upgraded by ICRA here and India rating, all the -- or this India most -- rating company to AA-. and company has taken step to reduce the debts and our step to increase the turnover in Indian and overseas market. Sir, since we are looking about the Afghanistan and hear about that, the position is not good. And how you will react? And the traveling is almost banned. And how you are addressing the issue? Next, sir, after going through the recent journey of the company, sir, we are shareholder are happy but not fully contended because we feel the company has much more potential than what it has delivered. We feel that the company management is very competent in its thinking and its approach. And to achieve the target, systematic. And it's working and stronger in its commitment more responsible. Sir, physical meeting [Foreign Language]. Sir, shareholder [Foreign Language] Sir, [Foreign Language]

Thank you, [ Bhutani ]. [Foreign Language] encouraging words [Foreign Language] second wave of [Foreign Language] because we are not God. But doing precautions [Foreign Language] business is [Foreign Language]. [Foreign Language] political matter [Foreign Language] performance [Foreign Language] Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Our next speaker is Raju Verma. Vermaji, if you are in the meeting...

Yes, sir. Am I audible? Am I audible?

Yes.

I am Raju Verma. My client ID is 10079634, and I have joined from New Delhi. Good afternoon, everyone. Hope your family members are fine. The COVID is not yet over, and I congratulate management of KEI, our -- KEI for organizing this meeting virtually. Our [ CS ] department is providing required information on time. I have following query. What is our plan to increase sales revenue this year? From which segment there will be growth? Thank you. Thank you, sir, for the opportunity.

[Foreign Language] Let me address [Foreign Language] Key major growth [Foreign Language] vertical growth [Foreign Language] are too -- sectors too many, but I [Foreign Language] railways, metros, highways projects, major tunnel ventilation projects [Foreign Language], power transmission and distribution, solar power projects. [Foreign Language] growth area [Foreign Language] sectors [Foreign Language] directly [Foreign Language] institutional marketing teams [Foreign Language] sector main are construction sector main [Foreign Language] [Foreign Language] guidance [Foreign Language] growth [Foreign Language] continued basis [Foreign Language] Thank you.

Thank you, sir. So Mr. Raju Verma was the last speaker. And now with this, we conclude the question-and-answer session. Questions asked through chat box will be replied to the respective shareholders within a week's time. I have seen that there are 2, 3 queries on the chat box. So I'll reply to those shareholders on an individual basis. Members who have attended the AGM today and who have not cast their vote by remote e-voting may cast their vote on the e-voting platform now. Even after the AGM, there will be a window of 15 minutes during which the members can vote. So thank you, shareholders, for attending this Annual General Meeting virtually. I once again thank you, our Chairman, Board of Directors, auditors for their participation. And now they can log off who has joined virtually from the meeting. And now we conclude the meeting from here. I propose vote of thanks to our Chairman, sir, and the entire Board of Directors who are present here on the dais. Thank you so much, dear shareholders.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.