Maruti Suzuki India Limited ($MARUTI)

Earnings Call Transcript · April 28, 2026

NSEI IN Consumer Discretionary Automobiles Earnings Calls 47 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

Operator
#1

Ladies and gentleman, good day, and welcome to the Maruti Suzuki India Limited Q4 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pranav. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Pranav Ambaprasad

Executives
#2

Thank you, Dan. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon once again. Welcome you all to Q4 FY '26 Earnings Call. May I introduce you to the management team from Maruti Suzuki. Today, we have with us our Chief Investor Relations Officer, Mr. Rahul Bharti; and CFO, Mr. Arnab Roy. Before we begin, may I remind you of the safe harbor. We may be making some forward-looking statements that have to be understood in conjunction with the uncertainty and the risks that company faces. I'd also like to inform you that the call is being recorded, and the audio recording and the transcript will be available at our website. Please note that in case of any inadvertent error during this live audio call, the transcript will be provided with the corrected information. The con call will begin with a brief statement on the performance and outlook of our business by CIRO and Senior Executive Officer, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Rahul Bharti, after which we'll be happy to receive your questions. I would now like to invite our Chief Investor Relations Officer, Mr. Rahul Bharti. Over to you, sir.

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#3

Thanks. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us. Before I come to the company's financial performance, I would like to briefly share our perspective on the passenger vehicle industry during the financial year '25-'26 and Maruti Suzuki's operating performance in this environment. You would be aware, financial year '25-'26 was a year of 2 distinct halves for the Indian PV industry. In the first half of the fiscal, the passenger vehicle market declined by about 0.4% year-on-year, reflecting affordability pressures, particularly in the small car segment. However, in the second half of the year, led by the government's GST reform, the industry witnessed a sharp turnaround with the passenger vehicle market growing by a whopping 16.7% year-on-year. This rebound was clearly led by the small car segment, vehicles in the 18% GST bracket, where reduction in acquisition cost helped revive demand. For Maruti Suzuki, the rebound in the domestic market was even stronger than the industry. While our domestic sales declined by 5.6% in the first half of the year, the sales volume grew by 12.3% in the second half of the year, generating a swing of about 17.9%. Our domestic sales volume growth during the year was constrained by production capacity. As of the end of the fiscal year, around 190,000 customer orders remained unserved, and we are trying to service them fast, highlighting the strength of the underlying demand. Importantly, near 130,000 of these pending orders were in the small car segment, falling in the 18% GST bracket. In addition, the dealer inventory was at a low of about 12 days [top]. Notably, even in a market largely driven by SUVs, the top-selling passenger vehicle in passenger. In financial year '25, '26 was the Dzire, which is a sedan placed within the 18% GST bracket. During the second half, we observed higher showroom traction from 2-wheeler upgraders as well as an increase in first-time buyers. While rural markets continue to perform well during the entire year, the urban markets also recovered and posted a growth post the GST reform. Alongside the recovery in small cars, Maruti Suzuki also strengthened its performance in the mid-SUV segment during the year. And towards this, the launch of the Victoris played an important role. The Victoris has seen strong customer acceptance and is the fastest model in our portfolio to cross 50,000 cumulative sales. It is no wonder that the Victoris got the Indian Car of the Year Award, where 19 prominent auto publications form a jury and jointly vote for the best car in the country. While GST reforms supported the revival of entry-level demand, the Victoris contributed meaningfully to our volume growth in the mid-SUV segment, enabling us to participate more competitively in one of the fastest-growing segments of industry. In addition, during the year, we also launched our first battery electric vehicle, the e Vitara. The e VITARA represents Maruti Suzuki's first fully electric SUV developed on a fresh dedicated platform and designed for Indian and about 100 global markets. Happy to share that the initial response has been quite encouraging, and the model strengthens our preparedness for the gradual transition towards electric mobility, while we continue to follow a balanced multi-powertrain technology pathway for reducing fleet carbon emissions. Alongside the domestic market, exports remained an important growth driver during the year. Exports volume grew strongly in the financial year, reinforcing Maruti Suzuki's position as the leading exporter of passenger vehicles supported by a diversified presence across global markets. Investors will be very happy to note that your company, just one company among 18 car manufacturers in India alone contributed 49% share of India's total passenger vehicle exports in the financial year. At the same time, in financial year '25-'26, the operating environment for the industry remained complex. You are aware, during the year, geopolitical developments such as supply issues in rare earth metals, the conflict involving the West Asia region, pose risk to supply chains, particularly energy, certain raw materials and logistics. These developments increased uncertainty for the industry and require greater focus on business continuity. The company has been working very closely with its supply chain and logistic partners to ensure continuity of operations and mitigate potential disruptions. We have strengthened coordination across critical suppliers and enhanced contingency planning. However, the situation does remain dynamic and cost pressures do persist. We continue to closely monitor developments and respond as required. Despite the uncertainties posed by the ongoing geopolitical tensions, the company maintained strong confidence in the resilience of India's economy. While acknowledging that war-related challenges may impact the business environment in the short term, the company believes -- these disruptions are temporary and will likely subside as circumstances improve. Importantly, the recent GST reduction is seen as a transformative factor for the passenger vehicle sector in India. By lowering taxes, the reform has enhanced affordability, making passenger vehicles accessible to a broader segment of customers. This, in turn, has set the industry on a path of sustained long-term structural growth by enlarging the potential customer base. Consequently, the company is proactively accelerating its capacity expansion efforts to address the strong demand and fulfill pending orders. In April 26, the second plant at the Kharkhoda facility was commissioned. And the fourth production line at the Hansalpur facility in Gujarat is set to become operational within this financial year. Each of these new units will add an annual production capacity of 250,000 vehicles. To put this in perspective, increasing production capacity by about 0.5 million units in a single year is virtually unheard of in the passenger vehicle industry, at least in India and many countries abroad. This bold move is a clear testament to our unwavering confidence and optimism in the immense growth potential that lies ahead. Besides, the company has put plans in place to increase the production capacity to 4 million units per annum in the medium term. Before we move to the financial results, I would like to share the major business highlights for the company. In this financial year, the company achieved several significant milestones. First, the company recorded its highest ever annual sales of 2.42 million vehicles, which includes the highest ever export of 447,000 vehicles. Maruti Suzuki has set a new benchmark in the industry by achieving cumulative sales of INR 3 crore or 30 million units in the domestic market. Coming to products, demonstrating its commitment to customer safety, the company is now offering 6 airbags as standard in almost all of its PV passenger vehicle product lineup. Volumes going beyond 99% and advanced safety features like electronic stability control, anti-lock braking system with electronic brakeforce distribution as a standard across the entire product lineup. On the same lines, the all-new Dziree, the Victoris, the e VITARA and the Invicto secured 5-star Bharat NCAP safety rating, while the Baleno secured a 4-star rating. Further strengthening the company's robust network of 2,000 exclusive charging points across our sales and service network spanning across 1,100 cities, we have collaborated with 13 charge point operators to offer access to a vast charging infrastructure across the country. Aligned with Suzuki's global vision, we plan to introduce multiple EVs and to support this, our aim is to enable a network of over 1 lakh charging points across India by 2030, along with our dealers and charge point operators. For promoting inclusive mobility in mass segment cars, the company launched the WagonR with an option of a swivel seat. Seemingly a small feature, but extremely customer-friendly, swivel seat is especially designed to offer greater convenience to senior citizens and persons with disabilities, bringing the joy of mobility to them. Drawing inspiration from Suzuki Group's corporate slogan, By Your Side. This initiative aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal that aims to reduce inequality. The company continued to expand its sales and service footprint. During the year, the total sales outlets increased to over 4,600 and service touch points increased to over 5,900 across the country. The company has also set a new benchmark in green logistics by dispatching over 600,000 vehicles through railways in the financial year, which is a growth of about 18.5% over the previous year. Interestingly, in the past decade, Maruti Suzuki's share of rail mode in outbound logistics has grown exponentially, growing from 5.1% in 2016 to 26.5% in financial year '25-'26, significantly reducing carbon emissions, the country's oil imports and easing road congestion. Now I come to the financial results. The company recorded its highest ever quarterly sales of 676,209 units, up 11.8% from quarter 4 of the previous financial year. This is for the quarter. Domestic sales were at 538,994 units and exports at an all-time high of 137,215 units. During this period, the company achieved record net sales of about INR 501 billion compared to about INR 389 billion in the same period a year ago. Operating profit, EBIT, EBIT for quarter 4 of this year increased by 30.4% over quarter 4 of the previous financial year, reaching an all-time high of over INR 44 billion. Despite the growth in operating profit, net profit declined by 6.9% year-on-year to nearly INR 36 billion, primarily due to mark-to-market impact, which my colleague, Arnab will explain in his part. Before coming to explanation of results, I want to reiterate that Suzuki Motor Gujarat Private Limited, which was our wholly owned subsidiary, in Gujarat. It got amalgamated with Maruti Suzuki starting December 1, 2025. The appointed date as per the scheme of amalgamation is 1st April 2025. And so the financial statements for the relevant periods have been restated for the purpose of comparison. Now I'll explain the broad reasons for the financial performance. Investors look out for a sequential comparison. I'll give you the analysis on a sequential basis. The overall sales volume grew by 1.3% and the net sales grew by 5.4%. Sequentially, the operating profit margin EBIT has expanded to 8.8% of net sales compared to 8.1% in quarter 3 of the financial year. There were several favorable factors. Lower employee cost of about 100 bps. If you would recall, in quarter 3, we had a onetime provision on account of new labor codes. So comparing with that, quarter 4 was lower by 100 bps. The discounts were lower by about 50 basis points, favorable foreign exchange movement by 30 basis points, favorable fixed cost incidence of about 50 basis points due to inventory accretion. These were the positive factors. They were partially offset by some adverse factors. The adverse commodity prices of about 80 basis points. higher new model expenses of about 60 basis points. The other expenses were higher by 20 basis points, largely on account of some lumpiness and seasonality associated with other expenses in CSR, R&D. Furthermore, at the PAT level, at the net profit level, the hardening of bond yields resulted in mark-to-market impact of approximately INR 7.5 billion on our invested surplus. I now come to the highlights of the full year '25-'26. The company recorded highest ever annual sales volume, net sales and net profit. The company sold a total of 2,422,713 units in financial year '25-'26, compared to 2,234,266 units in the previous year. The company registered record net sales of over INR 1.74 trillion in financial year '25-'26, a growth of 20.2% over the previous year. The company achieved its all-time high net profit of over INR 144.4 billion in financial year '25-'26 compared to net profit of about INR 142.9 billion in the previous year. Along with profits come dividends. The Board of Directors recommended its highest ever dividend of INR 1.40 per share of the face value of INR 5 per share compared to INR 1.35 per share in the previous year, '24-'25. With that, ladies and gentlemen, we are now ready to take your questions, your feedback and any other observations that you may have. Thank you.

Operator

Operator
#4

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Gunjan Prithyani from Bank of America.

Gunjan Prithyani

Analysts
#5

My first question is on the cost headwinds and thanks for giving that margin bridge. Maybe can you just give us more color on how do we think about incremental cost headwinds? You mentioned it was 80 basis points in quarter 4. But looking at where the commodities are and the steel repricing that is due, how should we think about the cost headwinds going into the next 1 or 2 quarters? And maybe what are the mitigating factors that we are sort of working through to make sure that the margins sort of remain in a range? Or maybe you just give us some guidance on how do we think about margins?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#6

Thanks, Gunjan. So though you asked only about margin, but I'll speak about both demand scenario and margins because just now we had a press conference along with our Chairman. One thing that he mentioned was that fortunately, the impact does not seem to be much. The demand sentiment seems to be good. Margins, of course, some prices like commodity, energy, gas prices do go up in such times, which is possible to understand. But we've been seeing commodity changes in the past also. So -- and we also believe that once the West Asia crisis is over, many of these cost pressures would return would lapse. So yes, there is some pressure, but we are taking it as part of regular business.

Gunjan Prithyani

Analysts
#7

Okay. And I mean, just any sense on -- like do we see a similar sort of cost headwind going into quarter 1 as well, 80 basis points was what we took in quarter 4. So I'm just trying to understand while these are temporary and would get normalized, any sense that you can give? And is there a mitigating action like those discounts are coming down? Any pricing move that can help you offset the commodity impact?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#8

A lot of mitigation actions are in progress. In fact, that management spends a lot of time on this. One, of course, is -- the first thing is we have to ensure that there is no disruption in our production operations. So whether it is gas supplies or alternate fuels, et cetera, and arranging them from the lowest possible source, diversifying our portfolio. That is one part. Second, fortunately, the demand scenario is good. So we have a focus that our utilization should also continue to be high. We are fortunate today, we have pending orders, but we want that situation also to continue and volume buoyancy should be good. That helps a lot. Of course, we are trying to arrange all the commodities at the lowest possible cost, diversify our supply chain. So all those mitigating factors continue. It will be difficult to put a number. But yes, in such a situation, some cost headwinds do come, and it's part of business.

Gunjan Prithyani

Analysts
#9

Okay. Got it. My second question is on the -- more on the emission regulations now. I'm assuming the CAFE norms what we've seen are near final version. Some sense on how are we thinking about the CAFE norms? What does it mean in terms of the powertrain mix, particularly interested in sort of understanding what is the EV savings that we need in the block of 3 years or 2 years, the way CAFE norms define it. And recently, there's also a lot of noise around this flex fuels, E85. If you can talk us through the readiness on this and what sort of portfolio cost impact we see because of flex fuel a bit more on the emission regulations. Okay.

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#10

So CAFE is essentially an energy efficiency. It's corporate average fuel efficiency. So it's an energy efficiency regulation. The final draft is yet to be notified. So it's not right to make a premature commitment. But whatever we have seen till now seems to have a good balance across multiple technologies, powertrain technologies to reduce carbon. So they have encouraged all technologies, which is a positive. And it's showing in the current war where biofuels like CBG or compressed biogas or ethanol is coming to the rescue when crude oil imports come under pressure. I should also tell you that Maruti Suzuki models are inherently far more efficient than any in its peer group. And if you compare any like-to-like model, we would be about 20% more efficient. So that way, the company is always positioned from a technology perspective positively for energy efficiency. Your next question was on flex fuel. We have the technology, whether it is for ethanol blending increase or for flex fuel vehicles. We have the technology, and we'll support the government whenever the need arises.

Gunjan Prithyani

Analysts
#11

I mean what can be the cost increase because of flex fuel in terms of the [indiscernible] for upgrading the engine or complement change, any present idea around that?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#12

First of all, let me tell you, there are 2 distinct movements happening in ethanol. One is all cars on the road, which is something like we are talking about sales of about 5 million cars a year or all the park, which is about 3 crore cars in the population. The government is thinking of increasing the minimum blending from something like E20 to E21, E22, something like that or maybe till all the way up to E25. That is one clear action. The other clear action is launching models that can take any blend of ethanol and gasoline from 0 to 100. So the second one is only a very small -- it won't be a meaningful volume by number because such models, we need dispensing pumps in the country that will span the entire network. We need more models. We need parity between ethanol and petrol price. So all those factors will take some time for flex fuels to develop. So it is like a futuristic plan. The volumes will be minimal at this stage. It will grow, say, 5 to 10 years from now, it will become a meaningful volume, nothing immediately. So it does not affect our cost structure.

Operator

Operator
#13

Our next question comes from the line of Chandramouli Muthiah from Goldman Sachs.

Chandramouli Muthiah

Analysts
#14

My first question is just around the growth outlook for the domestic passenger vehicle industry and also what you think could be the growth outlook on exports just given how the macro seems to be evolving. I think in the SIAM, looking ahead, Conclave 3 months back, the industry had thought that passenger vehicles should be able to grow between 5% to 7% in FY '27, but the macro seems to have changed. But you did mention that the demand remains to be pretty good. There's not been much impact. So I just want to understand how you're thinking about industry growth, both domestic and export for FY '27.

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#15

So our Chairman just mentioned, first of all, this time, we would be thinking of utilizing our new plants. Obviously, the 2 new plants that come up with a steady-state capacity of 500,000 units total, they will need a ramp-up. So effectively, one can expect that we'll have an additional volume of about 250,000 cars available this year over the previous year. So the broad expectation that our Chairman also conveyed is about 10% growth in this year as compared to the last year. And of course, the situation is dynamic. So -- but this is the initial expectation. So this is above the estimates of industry that you mentioned about.

Chandramouli Muthiah

Analysts
#16

So just to clarify, the 10% growth, you think is industry volume expectation?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#17

Domestic. Domestic industry volume expectation by FY '27.

Chandramouli Muthiah

Analysts
#18

Got it. That's helpful. And just related to that, my second question is on the upcoming capacities. I think you did mention that there will be 250,000 units, which will come on board sometime in FY '27.

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#19

Can you speak louder please [indiscernible].

Chandramouli Muthiah

Analysts
#20

Sure. Is it better now?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#21

Slightly better.

Chandramouli Muthiah

Analysts
#22

Yes. Second question is just around capacity. So you mentioned that there will be 250,000 units of additional capacity coming on board in Gujarat later this fiscal and you've already [indiscernible].

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#23

One in Haryana, the other in Gujarat.

Chandramouli Muthiah

Analysts
#24

Yes, yes. So just related to that, last year, when you had put the first greenfield in Kharkhoda, there was, I think, cumulative 60 basis points of start-up costs because you had to build up utilization over a period of time. But at this stage, it looks like you do have good visibility around demand. So I just want to understand if there will be any start-up costs to be expected in these brownfield capacity additions that you're doing in Kharkhoda and in Gujarat.

Pranav Ambaprasad

Executives
#25

Look, there will be some ramp-up definitely for the Kharkhoda Phase 2 plant, but we do not expect anything significant because as Rahul explained, the demand outlook looks good and economies of scale should be able to broadly take care of the start-up cost. So we don't expect anything significant. If anything, the demand outlook stays positive. Of course, we'll have to keep monitoring the macro environment and the other variables [indiscernible] here.

Chandramouli Muthiah

Analysts
#26

Got it. That's helpful. And last question, just bookkeeping questions around the other income outlook. So it looks like you had a INR 750 crores mark-to-market notional impact on other income this quarter. If bond yields were to remain constant, do you think this completely reverses next quarter? And also just the other bookkeeping questions are around export revenue and the retail number, Maruti's retail number for the quarter?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#27

Yes. First, let me answer your mark-to-market question. I think others will also have this question. So overall, if you see because of the hardening of the interest rates and when we talk about hardening of interest rates in our portfolio, there are several kind of benchmark rates, which have a weighted average impact, whether it is the 1-year GSE or the 1-year corporate bond or the commercial paper. But on a blended basis, if one looks at it, we had almost a 46 basis point impact this quarter. And this 46 basis points translates to about INR 750 crores hit in the quarter. Now if you compare it to a sequential, sequential, we were nearly flat. So the entire thing is reflected sequentially. If you compare on a Y-o-Y basis, Y-o-Y, we were positive by about INR 350 crores. So on a Y-o-Y comparison, this is INR 1,075 crores hit, so which is quite significant. That's the reason you see the other income quite significantly down when you are comparing the PBT of this year versus last year on a full year basis. So this is something which you have to keep in mind. As we see as of yesterday, yes, some amount of reversal has already happened. Roughly about 35% of this is already reversed on yesterday's basis, and this is an everyday moving number. So we'll have to keep monitoring it. So that's on the mark-to-market roughly. In terms of our overall credit quality, just to give you a thing, I think our credit quality remains very robust. And I think we are at more than 99.5% AAA-rated security. So that remains quite robust. So the long term, it is completely secured. Short term, of course, we are exposed to the interest rate changes because of the macroeconomic environment. Your second question was on exports, right? Exports revenue is about $1.24 billion for the quarter.

Chandramouli Muthiah

Analysts
#28

Got it. And just the retail numbers, Maruti's retail volume number for the quarter. I think last year, fourth quarter, we did 430,000 units, this year what the retail number is for 4Q?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#29

Last year, which is the figure you have?

Chandramouli Muthiah

Analysts
#30

430,000 units for 4Q, MCL domestic retail?

Arnab Roy

Executives
#31

We have 415,000. This was for last year fourth quarter. This year, fourth quarter was 468,000, about 700 units approximately. So there's a 12.9% year-on-year growth in the quarter in retail sales.

Operator

Operator
#32

Our next question is from the line of Raghunandhan N. L. from Nuvama Research.

Raghunandhan N. L.

Analysts
#33

Sir, firstly, if you can indicate growth or the share for rural urban in FY '26? And also, if you can talk about the trends for first-time replacement additional buyers for full year FY '26?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#34

We've stopped kind of making so hard a line between urban and rural because the boundaries are blurring now. And it's a very heartening thing that the rural India is integrating with the urban India. So there are increasingly consumption trends, which were earlier associated with urban India that are now being seen in rural India. And so we don't monitor that figure anymore. But of course, we keep the distribution network as extensive as possible.

Raghunandhan N. L.

Analysts
#35

Noted, sir. And how are you seeing the trend in the first-time buyers the share increase?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#36

So happy to share that the first-time buyer is about 51% in Q4. 18% is about repeat purchase and 31% is additional car in the family.

Raghunandhan N. L.

Analysts
#37

And how has the share increased, sir? How should we look at it? How has the share of first time increased in comparison to pre-GST cut?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#38

Pre-GST cut. So in H1, the Q4 figure of 51% was actually around 42% H1 was about 42%. Q3 was at 48% and Q4 at 51%. Sorry to interrupt, which is a very clear signal that the government's intended support to the first-time buyer is showing results.

Raghunandhan N. L.

Analysts
#39

And this also aligns with that 130,000 small car orders, which you mentioned is pending. Just a bookkeeping question for Q4. Can you share the discounts -- blended discounts number for Q4?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#40

What we can share with you is that there was almost about 0.5% reduction on account of discounts in the quarter sequentially. EBIT expansion because of this.

Operator

Operator
#41

Our next question is from the line of Kumar Rakesh from BNP Paribas.

Kumar Rakesh

Analysts
#42

My first question was for fiscal '27, the model launch plan that we have and [indiscernible] not speaking specifically about the models. But if you can give some sense on how many new nameplate addition and model refreshes you are targeting across ICE and separately for EV?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#43

We have a good lineup, a healthy lineup, and we'll keep our customers in. We need to improve our market share. but we'll keep the excitement also on. So across categories, we will have new models. We have spoken about 7 more SUVs all the way through the end of the decade. So that the excitement continue.

Kumar Rakesh

Analysts
#44

Sure. But can we imply that going by that run rate, we should be having one new nameplate at the end of the year? Is that a fair expectation?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#45

See, a one model development is about 4 years lead time. So it's not necessary that we space it out equally all the time. There may be lumpiness around it. But there are 7 SUVs and other models all the way to the [indiscernible] till the decade end.

Kumar Rakesh

Analysts
#46

Got it. And on the EV side, e VITARA now is launched in the domestic market as well. I understand earlier you had indicated the aspiration to become the largest EV manufacturer in the country, which would include export as well. But how is the product doing in the domestic market? And what's your aspiration for the domestic market in the EV space?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#47

Thanks for that question. In fact, in my opening message, I mentioned that we are happy that wherever we have sold that car, the customers are very happy. This is both in India and in our export markets. So that bodes well. Currently, of course, we have -- we are constrained by production capacity. Starting July, when our fourth plant in Gujarat comes up and there's a gradual ramp-up, we'll keep increasing our supplies. We are also targeting that the customers to whom we give these cars and we fit home chargers, et cetera, they should be totally satisfied and delighted customers. So till the time we have lower numbers, at least we should focus on customer delight 100%.

Kumar Rakesh

Analysts
#48

Got it. Just one final question on the margin side. I understand you spoke about that there are a lot of moving parts to the margin and things are dynamic. But once we have passed through the Middle East conflict and part of it getting reversed and we potentially taking some price increase as well, in a quarter or 2, we should get back on a trajectory of margin expansion and potentially in the direction of 10% EBIT margin, which we have targeted to reach to by 2030. Is that a fair expectation?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#49

So it's always difficult to give out a guidance on margins. But what I can tell you is the quarter 4 EBIT was to estimate. I mean the Bloomberg consensus estimate was 8.8%, and that was where the figure was -- the actual figure also. So as you rightly said, there are many moving parts. And I would also add to that, that the market leader has the privilege of having multiple moving parts, multiple levers to help margins. So we are very confident and optimistic that subject to these headwinds of the war, the commodities and the energy prices, after that is over, we'll come back to a healthy trajectory.

Operator

Operator
#50

The next question comes from the line of Arvind Sharma from Citi.

Arvind Sharma

Analysts
#51

First would be on a Q-o-Q basis, ASPs have increased a fair bit. How sustainable it is? And what are the drivers for this ASP increase quarter-on-quarter basis?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#52

Sorry, I was on mute. We do believe that there is still headroom for ASP because the upper segment models, there is some headroom. So there is some upward room in ASPs.

Arvind Sharma

Analysts
#53

From the 4Q level as well.

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#54

Yes. For example, EVs have to increase in the future. So that will help ASPs.

Arvind Sharma

Analysts
#55

Sure. And on the balance sheet, just 2 points. What is the CapEx plan for these 2 expansions for FY '27? And also just saw that the inventory was fairly high at this year-end. Any specific reason for that?

Unknown Executive

Executives
#56

Overall, on the CapEx for FY '26, '27, we are looking at a INR 14,000 crores CapEx for the full year. I think -- so it will be primarily driven by these 2 plants. On the inventory, no, I don't think we have a significant increase. If you look at the total stock versus, I think we are at a fairly good level. We are much lower than the industry in terms of our overall network stock.

Arvind Sharma

Analysts
#57

I meant the inventory in the balance sheet.

Unknown Executive

Executives
#58

There will be always small timing issues, but let me just quickly see that once, your question.

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#59

So we'll come back on this while he has a look on the.

Operator

Operator
#60

The next question is from the line of Amit Hiranandani from PhillipCapital.

Amit Hiranandani

Analysts
#61

Congrats for a reasonable set of numbers despite the input cost pressures and other challenges. Sir, my first question wanted to just to reconfirm that you said the domestic PV industry to grow by 10%. So are we right in understanding this?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#62

No, no. We are speaking about Maruti. Not the domestic [indiscernible]. We are talking about Maruti Suzuki expectation.

Amit Hiranandani

Analysts
#63

Understood. That's clear. And sir, secondly, on the export situation. So what are our plans to deal with the present export situation?

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#64

If you can help me predict the war, I can predict the export number. So we are in a healthy position. We have built a good franchise across countries. We are on a steep ramp-up path. And we want to have at least the current numbers. But then there is so much of uncertainty that it's not responsible to give out a figure.

Operator

Operator
#65

Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question for today.

Rahul Bharti

Executives
#66

Sorry, there was one question which needs to be... So let me come back on the earlier inventory question before we close. I think -- see, it's a combination of predominantly various raw material and work in progress, not too much on the FG side of it because I mean the production in the coming period has a quite steep outlook. So there are a bunch of GIs in there, a bunch of kind of a stock which is needed for the production for the coming period because as you know, we are ramping up the capacity in the coming 2 quarters, a lot of preparatory work had to be done, so which is predominantly the composition of the inventory.

Operator

Operator
#67

With that, ladies and gentlemen, it brings our conference call to an end. On behalf of Maruti Suzuki India Limited, we thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.

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