SRF Limited ($503806)

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to SRF Limited Q4 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by ICICI Securities Limited. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sanjesh Jain from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We at ICICI Securities are pleased Q4 and FY '26 results conference call. We have with us Mr. Ashish Ram, Chairman and managing director, Mr. Samir Kashyap, President and Chief Financial Officer at SRF Limited. I would now like to invite Ms. Nitika Dhawan, Head of a Communications at SRF, to initiate the proceeding for the results. Thank you to you, ma'am.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to SRF Limited's Quarter 4 and Financial Year 2026 Results Conference Call. We are pleased to have you join us today. On the call, we have our Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Ashish Bharat Ram along with our President and CFO, Mr. Samir Kashyap; and Mr. [indiscernible], Senior Vice President, Treasury and Investor Relations. To begin, CMD will share insights into the company's performance during the financial year 202n6 followed by an overview of our strategy, business outlook and growth plans. After these remarks, we will open the floor for a Q&A with our CFO and IR Head. Please be reminded that any statements made regarding our outlook are forward-looking and are covered by the streamer included in the earnings presentation shared with you earlier. Without further ado, I invite our CMD, Mr. Ashish Bharat Ram, to deliver his opening remarks.

Good morning to all of you. I extend a warm welcome to you, and thank you for joining us today for the earnings call. I trust all of you have had the opportunity to go through our results and the presentation shared with you earlier. The global operating environment remains defined by volatility, uncertainty and complexity, a true VUCA world. Compared to this time last year, conditions have not materially improved. If anything, they have become more challenging. Persistent geopolitical tensions, particularly the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, have continued to disrupt global trade flows and supply chains. As a company operating in Chemical Intermediates, we have felt the impact of these disruptions across logistics, supply chains and market access. Having said that, the company has made tremendous efforts in finding answers to the challenges that we are facing. I believe that we will navigate through these due to the resilience of our team. Our focus has remained firmly on disciplined execution, operational excellence, strategic investments across our businesses. Let me now share with you my thoughts on the business performance in the fiscal year gone by and the growth opportunities that lie ahead. Fiscal year 2026 unfolded against a challenging backdrop, testing resilience while opening avenues for long-term growth. During this period, SRS revenue increased by 7% to INR 15,787 crores compared to the corresponding period last year. The company's operational EBIT rose by 29% to INR 3,008 crores over the current period last year, and the company's PAT increased 47% to INR 1,835 crores over the current period last year. I'm proud to share that this has been our second best performance on an overall basis in our history. Moving to my viewpoint on the performance and outlook of each of our 3 market-leading businesses now. I'll begin with the Chemicals business. During the fiscal year 2026, the Chemicals business achieved a 16% increase in revenue, amounting to INR 7,779 crores. Despite challenges, our Fluorochemicals business delivered a record year in terms of both realizations and volumes. Across plants, operating performance remains strong with optimal utilization. This is despite our sales into the Middle East, where we traditionally have a strong presence, which were impacted in the fourth quarter. As a derisking strategy, we have developed new markets, and I am hopeful that in the near future, the Middle East situation will improve. SRF is a leading global player in HFCs and HFC blends. We are undertaking incremental capacity enhancements to strengthen our market position aligned with the potential HCFC quota under the Montreal protocol. The required environmental clearances are already in place as communicated earlier. This will take our HFC capacity beyond 65,000 metric tons per annum. Last year, we spoke about our investment in the next-generation reference gases. Based on the tremendous work done by our in-house technology team, I'm pleased to say that we have developed a global benchmark process, both on capital and operating expenditure side that will be non-infringing. In view of the anticipated transition to the next-generation gases and the interest shown to us by potential customers, the Board has revised the CapEx approved in October 2024. We will now be investing approximately INR 2,300 crores at our new site in Odisha over the next 2 years. This investment envisages fourth-generation gas capacity of 20,000 metric tons per annum and includes backward integration into 30,000 tonnes of hydrofluoric acid, along with investments in electronic grade hydrofluoric acid. The product mix will comprise HFO 123 for YF, HFO123 for Z and HFO1233-ZD. This reinforces our strong commitment to building a globally significant refrigerant gas business. I'm also proud to state that just as we did with the launch of our HFCs many years ago, our investment in the HFO portfolio will ensure that India remains self-reliant in this critical segment. The Chloromethane segment delivered stable performance during the year. In fluoropolymers, sustained efforts to ramp up PTFE capacity have begun to yield positive outcomes, including key account approvals from leading global customers. We are pleased to note that our investments in specialty fluoropolymers are progressing as planned and represent a meaningful long-term growth opportunity. To support this strategic direction, we have further strengthened our leadership and technical teams by onboarding experienced industry professionals, enabling a continued move up the value chain. I believe that we'll see a significant change in the product mix as the year unfolds. Furthermore, our project with the Chemos Company is progressing well, and we expect to complete this high-margin project on time. In my view, this investment is a start of a relationship that can develop into a far more significant opportunity for us. I'm confident that the new CapEx investments in fourth-generation gases and specialty fluoropolymers position the Fluorochemicals business to sustain and further accelerate its strong growth trajectory. In the Specialty Chemicals business, the year was marked by stress in the innovative agrochemical value chain and muted offtake impacting demand visibility. Pricing pressure was seen across value chain with aggressive participation from Chinese players impacting both our markets and customers' end markets. Even in this environment, we were able to sustain our business base through a continued focus on cost control, operating efficiencies and disciplined execution. Our approach has been to defend market share in a rational manner and avoid losing business to overseas competitors as we believe industry pricing will normalize to more sustainable levels over time. I would like to take this opportunity to also share my perspective on how I see the macro elements of this business. The pricing of a specialty product over time will always move to a more commoditized level. There have been a lot of questions about the drop in pricing for DFPA. While pricing levels may have reached unsustainably low levels, we continue to generate healthy returns through ongoing process improvements and technology interventions implemented over time. The key for this business is to ensure a strong pipeline of intermediates and AIs, which can replace high-impact molecules such as DFPA. Today, our pipeline remains extremely robust across both AIs and intermediates, which have the potential to replace products like DFPA in its early stage. However, the pace of rollout for these products will depend on customer market assessments, progress in the registration process and the pricing dynamics of their end products vis-a-vis generic alternatives. That said, industry cycles inevitably evolve over time. We must, therefore, remain patient, yet agile, positioning ourselves to effectively capitalize on this opportunity as it unfolds and unfold it will. On our pharmaceuticals investment intermediate strategy, our focus has been on -- our focus on this segment continues. And while we will grow our agrochemicals business, we remain committed to scaling up our Pharma segment faster and increasing its share in the overall portfolio. Against this background, we have our Pharma intermediates plant Summer 2 coming up. Moreover, our pipeline of molecules has expanded meaningfully over the past year. Importantly, we are moving up the value chain with participation not only in key starting materials, but also in regulatory starting materials. That said, as is typical in this industry, the pace of commercialization will depend on our customers' product launch time lines. Our announced CapEx projects at Dhej in both pharma and agro are progressing as planned, and we expect to start seeing the benefits during the year. Going forward, we'll also continue to focus on operational improvements to build a more competitive cost base. SRF's Chemical Technology Group has consistently demonstrated its ability to overcome complex technological challenges, enabling timely scale-ups, improved operational outputs, cost efficiencies and successful new product launches. As product complexity increases and development time lines continue to compress, CTG has strengthened its capabilities and support systems to remain future ready. During the year, R&D activities covered over 50 molecules, many of which progressed into product process development and more than 35 molecules advanced to scale-up studies with over half successfully commercialized across multipurpose and dedicated manufacturing facilities, reinforcing CTG's role as a key enabler of business growth aligned with evolving customer and market requirements. SRF continues to invest strongly in R&D to build future-ready value propositions with capital and revenue expenditure of INR 160 crores incurred during financial year '26. SRF's dedicated R&D facilities, including development labs and pilot plants, bring together a robust pool of scientists and engineers to drive innovation and technology-led leadership. In fact, FY '26, CTG filed 40 patents, taking the cumulative total to 521 patents filed, while 5 patents were granted during the year, increasing the total number of patents granted to 156. We have a fundamentally strong outlook on our Chemicals business. Looking ahead, while the operating environment remains volatile, we believe that the company should be able to deliver growth in the range of 15% to 20% in the coming year. Turning to Performance Films and Foil. During fiscal year '26, the business reported revenues of INR 5,764 crores, registering a growth of 4% over the previous year. The quarter 4 saw a recovery in the business across all geographies with operating performance demonstrating steady improvement. Just like other businesses, PFP faced significant supply challenges in quarter 4 arising from the ongoing geopolitical situation that led to extreme volatility in raw material prices. Despite these headwinds, SRA was able to secure supplies and capitalize on select market opportunities arising from the volatile environment. In quarter 4, BOPET margins have begun showing early signs of recovery, supported by price improvements in select Southeast Asian markets following China's recent anti-involution measures. Operations in South Africa continued to perform well and remain stable, while Hungary also exhibited initial signs of recovery during the quarter. Overall, I believe the industry cycle has largely bottomed out, though competitive pressures persist. Our value-added products journey continues. I'm happy to announce the successful start-up of prior runs of a [indiscernible] plant, marking our entry into the capacitor-grade BOPP films, which will be capitalized shortly. The BOPE line remains on track and is expected to commence production in July. This project strengthens our existing BOPP substrate and VAP portfolio while opportunities in the innovative polyolefin BOP substrate. Based on the current demand-supply outlook, we have decided to indefinitely defer the second BOPP line that was earlier planned for 2027. Instead, we are investing INR 180 crores in a state-of-the-art PA line, that's polyamide line expected to be operational by September 27. This will be India's first of its kind [indiscernible] line based on simultaneous stretching and will benefit significantly from import substitution. This will be the first. In our aluminum foil plant, the ramp-up has gathered pace with a sharper focus on exports to Europe and the U.S. We are also progressing well towards approvals for high-end applications, including aseptic cartons. Sustainability continues to be a core focus and is embedded across all aspects of operations. The business is expanding its range of sustainable products, including solutions for mono family structures, pam structures and PCR-based films. We remain firmly committed to advancing sustainability initiatives anchored in the 3R framework of reduce, reuse and recycle. In financial year the Technical Textiles business recorded a revenue of INR 1,877 crores. Within Technical Textiles, NTCF continues to remain a stable cash generator. We are seeing growth in the polyester tire fabrics segment and the new dipping line at Manali is expected to be commissioned shortly. Post commissioning, we intend to ramp this business more aggressively. The Belting Fabrics business has now begun showing traction again post the rationalization in U.S. tariffs. This should bode well for the future. Advancing sustainability remains a key focus for the technical textiles business. During the year, the business increased the share of renewable power in its overall energy mix, further strengthening environmentally responsible operations. In financial year '26, the coated and laminated fabrics business reported revenues of INR 366 crores. SRF continued to maintain its leadership in the domestic coated fabrics segment during the year, while demand softness in food-grade liners presented near-term challenges. The impact was offset -- effectively offset by increased sales of other value-added products. The business also sustained its price leadership, reinforcing its competitive positioning in the market. On ESG, corporate citizenship and sustainability are firmly embedded in SRF's business strategy and decision-making. This integrated approach drives efficient resource optimization while enabling meaningful participation in the circular economy. A strong emphasis on transparent and robust sustainability disclosures allows the company to systematically identify and assess ESG risks, track progress and implement a structured long-term road map for continuous improvement. SRF sustainability efforts have received international validation. In FY '26, the company's facilities in Gundeipundi and Viral Mala in Tamil Nadu were awarded the EcoVadis Silver Medal by one of the world's most respected business sustainability rating agencies, reinforcing SRF's commitment to responsible and sustainable operations. Further detail on SRF's ESG journey, priorities and progress will be provided in the annual report. During the year, financial year '26, the SRF Foundation strengthened its education and skilling efforts through an integrated model spanning school transformation, digital inclusion, institutional education and employability enhancement. Education initiatives covered 327 government schools across 38 locations in 13 states and 1 union territory, benefiting over 130,000 students through model school interventions, digital programs, capacity building of more than 3,000 teachers and 190 headmasters and early childhood development reaching over 25,000 children across 314 Anandwadi centers. A key milestone was the completion of the SRF school in Bharuch with the first phase commencing by June '26 and a planned capacity of around 1,600 students alongside continued operations of SRF Vidyalaya Manali and SRF Vidyalaya Gurugram serving over 800 students. In parallel, employability was strengthened through vocational and green skilling initiatives, including the basic electrician training program across 13 centers in 7 states, training 1,180 youth. In conclusion, we are in an increasingly VUCA global environment. Currency movements have remained particularly dynamic. On ForEx, the company has followed a prudent strategy of covering future exports through long-term hedges. However, the sharp and unprecedented depreciation of the Indian rupee during the year has led to mark-to-market losses on these forward positions impacting financial year '26 results and will extend over the near term as well. However, this short-term pain should be seen in the context of our higher export and domestic pricing, which is generally based on import parity and will continue to -- will thus continue to benefit from a weaker rupee. Our planned CapEx for financial year '27 stands at approximately INR 2,500 crores, aligned with our long-term growth priorities. Reflecting on financial year '26, I'm extremely proud of how the company has positioned itself across businesses and geographies. The business models we have built are resilient and well designed to create sustained value for our shareholders. Despite all the uncertainties, I remain optimistic for the year ahead. Thank you to all our shareholders for their continued trust and confidence in our long-term vision.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Arjun Khanna from Kotak Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

How do you see the impact to our business in terms of.

Sorry to interrupt Mr. Khanna, can you please repeat your question?

Sure. I said congratulations for a great set of numbers. I think we have closed the year very strongly as we had indicated in the conference calls earlier. The first query is regarding the availability of raw materials, et cetera. How do you see that impacting our business on the chemicals, technical textiles and packaging side? Do you see envisage any disruptions from the same? I know we have talked of 15%, 20% to 20% growth in the chemical side of it. But how much have we assumed as the impact from this?

Arun, thanks for your question. A couple of things we've got going here together. So let me just try and take them one after another. So in terms of impact of raw material across the businesses, I think the first indicator I point you to is just the Q4 outcome. Despite all the disruption we've seen, I think we've had a fairly standout result. And I think that just speaks strongly of the team's ability to be able to ensure supply chains have remained unimpacted for the large part. Potentially the single biggest area of impact we could have seen was in our Performance Ss and soils business. And that's where I think the team scrambled really quickly and early as soon as the first indicators appeared. -- to ensure that we had alternate supply chains in place. These have been robust and held strong for SRF for quite some time and our ability to continue to leverage that just ensured we had absolutely no impact. We were able to run through Q4 with literally flat out. So we've had no shut days. Our expectation is even in the current quarter, we don't see impact to that business, which is probably the most severely impacted potentially across raw material supplies across our portfolio of businesses. So that's the view on Performance [indiscernible] on chemicals as well. I think we've seen some disruption in terms of our ability to sell less gas into the Middle East. So for about half of the quarter, we did see some impact in our ability to ship to those markets. But outside of that, there's been really nothing else from a chemical standpoint that's impacted us at a margin level. Pretty much -- I think our expanding global footprint also puts in place the ability to counter such measures. And I think the outcomes we've seen overall on the RCA side, just kind of pointed to the fact that despite the Middle East disruption, we were able to find countermeasures in other markets. Possibly, if we were in a place where the shipments weren't impacted, we would have seen an even better quarter. Having said that, in terms of outlook, I think the current view is that we believe there are some solutions showing up in terms of ability to ship back into Saudi. So that will hopefully ease off in the coming weeks. And that should probably take care of about more than half of what was going into the Middle East market. So yes, I would urge you to look at it as a portfolio set of markets that we are kind of supplying into. And therefore, the Middle East impact has kind of got well offset by our ability to ship to other customers.

So Samir, can you bring out in the -- yes, just on the first question. Could you talk about how much business we lost from the Middle East in the fourth quarter FY '26?

Yes, I don't think we've lost anything. If you heard my comments completely, we lost -- it's a shift from the Middle East into other markets. Our ability to reposition, I think, has ensured that we stay strong in terms of the outcome for Q4.

Sure. The second query is regarding the CapEx we have announced on HFCs. So we have announced a INR 88 crore debottlenecking exercise. Could you comment because the document available online suggests what we have put to the exchange says capacity is beyond 65,000 metric tons per annum. So what is it that the rated capacity would be post this expansion? And what was the capacity before this expansion?

Okay. So I think what you've seen in the communication to the exchange points directionally to where we believe we will land in terms of capacity. We believe we will be north of 65,000. That's our current estimate. As you probably are well aware, to precisely compute where debottlenecking will land us it's fairly difficult to be overly precise. But I think we are reasonably certain we're going to be north of 65,000, and I'll leave it at that. You guys have a bunch of models already, I think, in terms of where you believe we are. I'll leave you all to compute that math out. Suffice to say that we will land at 65,000 and north of that once we're done with this exercise. I also want to call out the fact that we've been debottlenecking for some time. It's not something new. You've heard us talk about this in previous calls in other sides of the chemicals business. So this has been an ongoing activity. The only reason we called this out specifically is that this is a significantly larger investment than what we've typically made in that space. And therefore, we went to Board to seek approvals.

Sure. And in terms of the allowance of HCFC '22 or R22 during the year baseline years, essentially, calculation suggests we would have about 20-odd thousand tonnes available to us. Is that the right understanding if you are producing R32?

So I'm not going to directly point you towards that. But let me say a couple of things. So one, the whole situation on HCFC is still uncertain. We've seen positions from other markets. We don't have directional insight from the government of India as yet in the way which they will go. I think you heard us say in the past that it would seem that the government would probably go a similar way as maybe the other markets, what we saw in China and the U.S. So whether that will entitle anyone to go turn capacities later on is a tough question to predict. And I don't think there's been anything directionally to suggest otherwise from the government in this interim period.

Sure. So essentially, we are doing the CapEx in the hope that we would get that allowance?

Well, let me put it this way. We have -- we've seen very strong demand through the second half of this year across our clients. So we are really putting up the debottlenecking activity is around ensuring we can fulfill that demand. What it will also do simultaneously is that should the government decide to consider HCFC as well, it will ensure that we can completely avail of our quota. So it's more positioned with solving current demand that we are seeing and which we expect to stay strong in the coming quarters. And like I said, it will also ensure that we cover any quota entitlement that we get -- we may get should the government decide to go down that path, which like I said at the opening is uncertain at this point. And that's for some time hasn't changed.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Nitesh Dhoot from Anand Rathi Institutional Equities.

Congratulations on a good set of numbers. My first question is again on the HCFC and HFC piece. So again, I mean, the way it came out is on the way the quotas will be allocated probably is still not very clear. So what I wanted to ask is whether it will be on the basis of the HCFC production, which in a way favors the incumbents or on the basis of production capacities by 31st December '27, which probably favors newcomers as well. So any view there whether the new entrants without the HCFC or HFC history would be allowed or would be completely excluded. Any thoughts around that?

So I'd almost first urge you to -- if you haven't heard the commentaries in previous calls to kind of just pick through that. I know our President, Prashant, did a detailed conversation with the whole community around our understanding on how the quota regime is going to work. Fundamentally, nothing has changed, right? So the baseline period and how it's going to get computed across '24, '25, '26 is still the same. The government retains the right to consider HCFC from 2009 and '10. That's the right that they continue to legally retain. I think it's safe to assume that the final view that the government will probably take will only become clear once we hit the end of the baseline period. So we should assume that early in 2027, once we kind of have known where production has landed for this year, the government will probably look at those outcomes and determine if there's even a need to consider HCFC. I almost want you to point you to that direction. If HFC production is kind of fulfilled all of our domestic consumption needs, we could potentially be in a place where there is no such requirement in itself, right? But that's the right the government retains just like all the other geographies as per the MR protocol and the Kigali amendment. And nothing has changed on that front. And that's a consistent view you've heard us say over multiple calls. So yes, I think those documents are available for everyone to read. There's not a lot to be interpreted over there, but I would almost urge you to refer back to that. Beyond that, it's tough for anyone to predict.

Sure, sir. But I think the recent notification that came in on the 1st April '26, that pretty much made it clear that 65% HDFC is certainly being considered, right? So I think probably that thing is pretty much clear.

Yes, Nitesh, my answer to that is if you read that circular that came out in April, I think what the government was trying to do, and this is our view, was really 2 or 3 things. Number one, I think they were clearly calling out the fact and making people cognizant that new capacities that were coming up, while they would be allowed in terms of environment clearance being granted, I think they were trying to call out and clarify to investors in the space to understand that it would still need to operate within the 4 corners of the [indiscernible] Amendment, right? So yes, there have been lots of -- we understand there's been lots of asks for environmental clearances, and this is the government's reaction to respond to that. It does not talk about quotas anywhere. All it talks about is the fact that you need to have capacity up by 31st December 2027. It talks about the fact that you need environment clearance. It talks about the fact that if you're going to look to put up capacity now, we will ask you for a clear confirmation that you will indeed have that capacity up by 2027. So I'm not sure that it points to the fact that there is HCFC being included in when they get to the quota calculations. If that's a conclusion you're reaching, I'm not entirely certain how. But our best understanding of the -- of what came out on April 1 is totally silent on quota and doesn't indicate anything to that effect.

Sure. My second question is on calendar year '27, which apparently is a free year. So I mean, just wanted a clarification on what exactly a free year is. Is it like a free to all? Or is it only free to the incumbents to produce and sell? How does that work? Probably some understanding there would be very helpful.

Yes, it is -- so the free year basically is free for oil at the highest level, if you were to consider it. Basically, freeze gets supplied Jan 1, 2028. So if someone, for instance, has capacity, but does not have quota, they would still be entitled to sell during 2027. That's all [indiscernible] .

Right. And so that would probably have some impact on the 32 pricing. I mean, what would be your teams or your take on the same? Because there are too much of capacities that are coming in.

Yes. So there's a lot of announcements of capacity. But I think I would urge you all to consume that more holistically and with an understanding of what it takes to first set that capacity up in terms of time lines. Realistically, you're at 18-plus months. There's time to then stabilize and commission, which is a couple of months beyond that. So even if any of these capacities come up, you're talking about potential impact of a couple of quarters maybe at best at the end of 2027, would seem highly unlikely anything meaningful is coming on stream before that.

[Operator Instructions] Next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from 361 Capital.

Congrats on good FY '26. First question is on the HFO and associated HF plant. When is it likely to be commissioned? And in terms of sourcing for Fluorspar, how are we placed? And the HF plant, will it be completely -- the 20,000 metric tons of HFO capacity will require the entire 30,000 or we'll be having certain contingency left for future requirements?

Yes. So first question or first part of your question, we are looking at Feb 2028 potential time line for commissioning. That's where we are in terms of time lines for HFO. Let me take the third one first since those are related. In terms of the HF capacity of 30,000, primarily that's feed for the HFO plant itself. So significant part is going to get consumed over there. You also heard of us talking about VHF in our announcement. So there are a range of high-end fast growth market needs that we are seeing show up on that front. And so part of our HF capacity will get utilized in our VHF facility as well. Yes. So that's the broad direction in terms of how the 30,000 tonnes of HF capacity is going to get deployed. In terms of Florpa, as things stand right now, we are in a comfortable position. Needless to say, we continue to look for new opportunities. from where we can source raw material. That remains ongoing and it's pretty much a continuing activity in the organization. But as things stand, we don't see any disruption or issues on that front.

Sure. Second question, you also mentioned that some of the shipments to Middle East were rerouted to other markets. Does that mean there is a change in terms of the dynamics in which Middle East is being served? Or is it that the shipments in other geographies will create at least some inventory position for the time being and which may impact our future supplies in the near term?

So I think the Middle East is probably underserved because of the current scenario that we're in. The issue is about being able to get product into the market. Everyone's belief at least is a significant part of that will come back very early this quarter. I don't think we're in a situation where we are oversupplied or stocked in other markets. Like I said in my earlier commentary, even about the additional capacity, we are seeing very strong demand pull at this point in time. And so I kind of would dovetail both those comments and consume them together so that really what -- we're in a situation where I think we've got enough orders, so to say, and interest from customers, which we are seeking to fulfill. So I don't think there are significant changes or stocking situations that have got created out of this. It's more about where we've been able to fulfill demand at this point in time.

Perfect. Just 1 clarification on the numbers...

Sorry to interrupt, Rohit can you please come back in the queue. Next question is from the line of Arun Prasath from Avendus Spark.

My first question is on the that we have in balance sheet at this point of time, roughly INR 2,000 crores. What is the time line at which this will get capitalized? And if you can kindly provide some color on the projects that will be capitalized in this year and next...

I'm sorry, Arun, I didn't get the second part of your question. If you could just repeat that?

No, I was asking the breakup of the SWIP at this point of time in the balance sheet and when it will be capitalized in the project if you can give.

Yes. Okay. So it's across a set of projects that are going on. I don't think I can just give you any one time line that would answer, but.

Major one.

Yes, we've got investments that...

Can you repeat please, you are not audible sir

Can you hear me now?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay. So there are a bunch of investments that are going to get capitalized through even the current financial year. There's the capacitor plan that you heard Chairman speak about. That's expected to come through very early this financial year. There is the BOPE line that's coming through closer to the second quarter. We have the fluoropolymer side coming through towards Q3, early Q4 time line. Yes. And we will see the early investments on the propa plant that Chairman spoke about, come through as well. during the first half of this financial year. So yes, those are probably the big ones. You also heard him talk about pharma intermediate plant. So though that's new, it's not sitting in CWIP. You will see that come through online.

Understood. And safe to assume that many of these will take at least a couple of quarters to reach a ramp-ups or any approvals will take -- will push the revenue monetization, say, more than 2, 3 quarters?

So I think that's a fair assumption to work with. That's what we've typically seen. Yes, maybe on the fluoropolymer side, well, there's work happening in Patel, and let me try and rephrase that answer. There's work happening in Parlin, even as these plants come online, in some areas, we are able to secure a lot of customer interest early and do some amount to work with them to make sure we can crunch it over time. But for the most part, I think assumption kind of holds true.

Speaking of the projects on...

Please rejoin the queue for follow-up question. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Naushad Chudhary from Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC.

Hope I'm audible. Just 1 thing from a next 3 to 5 years' point of view, I wanted to understand a few media articles have indicated that we have roughly INR 10,000 crores of investment plan at our Orissa side, it makes 4, 5 years. So apart from the HFO, what other projects we have in the mind, which we are evaluating and can come to this, right? in the next 3 to 5 years.

Yes. I think it's premature to kind of conjecture about anything else. But let me give you a sense of scale. The Orissa site is close to 300-acre site. At this point in time, we are probably developing a 5th or a 6th of it for what we're talking about on HFO. That site is largely going to be for chemicals. I think we've kind of been explicit about that. Now how that pans out beyond what we've initially thought about on HFO is still to be seen. So it would be very premature I think, at this time to kind of talk about what else would come over there. But I think we're safe to assume it would be largely in the chemical space. That's how we are thinking about that location.

And lastly, on the [indiscernible] side, would we be able to content in terms of how many molecules we have in the hand and if it goes well, could it be as equal to as your current largest molecule?

Well, let's work that's ongoing. I'm assuming your question is directed more at the agro side, there are -- at this point, 7 or 8 products that we are in a very advanced state on with customers. I would also kind of add that despite everything happening in the space, we continue to get interest from customers on newer areas. So there are newer products where we are continuing to see interest from the -- from our customers. So while the innovators maybe work proceeding slowly on the registration side the intent to continue to look at new opportunities with us to continue at this point. Yes, so I think that's kind of where we are in that space at this point in time. I would also add that I think given the amount of work that's happened over there, in that whole space as we kind of actually get to a place where we are out of the cycle, we should see a lot of interest in ramp-up in that whole space fairly soon thereafter, given the work that's gone in over the last year.

Next question is from the line of Keyur Pandya from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.

Just to expand the comment of the Chairman on the 15% to 20% growth for the entire chemical segment, if you can give more clarification on what would be the growth drivers for FY '27 since you are almost fully utilized in terms of [indiscernible]? And we are talking about pricing challenges and volatility in petchem segment. So what would be the building blocks for '27, [indiscernible] 20% growth. That is the first question.

Yes. were there. So number 1 is just overall regas. I think we've seen -- if you look at the number sequentially, you see a significant uptick between Q3 and Q4 itself. We believe that will continue to hold. Like I said earlier, while you heard about debottlenecking at scale right now. It's not that this was not continuing in the past as well. So there are volumes that we are seeing that we can go fulfill. So there's both the volume and price play over here that's driving outcome. So I think that would be the first piece. The second really is the specialty side, we have consistently said that we will hold share, even if we had impact on price. I think it's -- the current sense is that we believe the worst of the price destructions were to say in the market is behind us. And we should slowly starting [indiscernible] I believe, from here. So that's the second piece. I think we are going to have the fluoropolymer part pick up in the second half of the year as well. So that will start increasingly looking better. And we are -- I think you heard Chairman also talk about the fact that the Keno arrangement is working out well. That's all set and progressing on track. So again, towards the second half, later half of the year, we should see -- we should start seeing early outcomes over there in terms of impact our numbers. So broadly, those are the building blocks that kind of drive this view in terms of where the growth should be for the chemicals business in the coming year.

Understood. And second, on the HFO part. So I think in the initial comment, initial comment was about enhancing the capacity because of the client interest. So this would be a merchant sales the way we have done for PFC there would be a tie up and will be making it for someone else. If you can just clarify you on that. Than you and all the best.

Well, I think, and we are not in any tie-up. Even when we went into the HFC space it was with a clear view on where we saw the revgas opportunities line, and that's where we are following the same track over here. it's very clear. The shift is going to come. And I think there's a strong advantage to be early mover. You also heard in our Chairman's speech, this is in-house developed technology. It's non-infringing. And we believe it's potentially going to come in at price products that are very competitive. And that, I think, positions us really well for an opportunity. We're already a global player with a significant share. So in the more mature markets that we're in, where some of the shift is already beginning. We are hearing a lot in terms of interest over there, and that's kind of driving our actions today that you see in terms of this capacity.

Next question is from the line of [indiscernible] from SBI Mutual Funds.

Unit. Two questions from my side. First, on the Foro Specialty. What was your flouro specialty sales for FY '26? And where do you expect to end FY '27 for flouro specialty.

Yes. We don't get into the subsegment data. What I can share is we've made strong progress over there. You've heard us consistently talk about moving up the value chain from bar to fine cut and free flow. That continues -- we are in a pretty advanced stage in terms of a specialty for a polymer as well. And that progress stays on track. I think you're going to have to think about this business almost like how many of you consume the chemicals business many, many years ago. there is a lead time to get to a place where we will be effective. But I think the combination of all that we're doing ourselves, along with the whole chemos arrangement that we have positions us really well. I think we'll start seeing some strong outcomes in FY '27. On the revenue side, like I did say earlier in my commentary to earlier question, we should start seeing that in the second half of this year. And I think us going into the next financial year, we will see a fairly material ramp up in terms of outcomes.

Okay. elaborative answer, I asked you because you mentioned in the [indiscernible] every year in the annual report, but no worry is, you don't want to disclose it right now. Second question is on HFO. So which HFO will come first because I think Chairman mentioned that you're looking at multiple HFO. So are you looking at 1 to 3 [indiscernible] sell first? And if yes, do you expect some of your 134 ACs to be cannibalized by [indiscernible].

I think you heard the Chairman clearly call as we're going to get into all 3 products. The current plan is that these are all going to come up largely in parallel. Commissioning of each of these could be at slightly different times, just given the product intricacies. But given we have barely just announced, I think will be a little premature at this point in time to call out which ones will come up first. We are single suffice to say that -- all 3 capacities are being put up in Palin along with everything on the HF side and BHF. So it's not that we are going beyond this -- but which ones precisely will come up first at this point, I think it's a little premature. We will have a -- we probably have a better sense and be able to share in some time from here on.

Sure. And could you answer the second part? Do you expect 1 to give sales to cannibalize part of the 134 [indiscernible]?

Well, I don't see that happening just for the simple reason where the markets that we're addressing and where HFO demand is probably going to come through first, they're probably going to be fairly distinct. -- at outset, I would think that would be my summary answer at this point. But yes, again, we're talking situations 2 years plus out. We need to see how things are at that point in time. But directionally, that's the view right now.

Next question is from the line of Ankur from Axis Bank.

First question on the Specialty Chemicals side. If you could help us understand how are you looking at the growth here across the existing as well as the new product we have been working on, especially given the pricing pressure from China being there.

Yes, I think the way we're looking at this is -- it's going to be super critical to have a really strong product pipeline. And this has got to scale across the intermediate space all the way to AI, -- we've all seen the cycle pan out. You heard our Chairman speak about it as well. At some point, different products will go down the value chain. And therefore, this -- having a strong product pipeline is going to be super important. I think just given the amount of work that's gone in -- in terms of our in-house development and customer interest, we are well positioned over there across this whole value chain from intermediates through to AI. We've also done a fabulous quantum of work in the last year around managing through efficiencies. And I think even in these tough times to see the outcome that the chemicals business has has reached from a margin standpoint, clearly points to all of the effort that's gone in, in terms of technological interventions as well to make sure that even as products kind of come off the really high pricing levels, we're in a place where we can continue to compete in the market and ensure we sustain volumes at effective margins. So I think the key is going to be to stay relevant across that whole type of products, and there is a significant amount of work that continues to go on over there. That's going to be key, I think, for ongoing success in the specialty space.

Sure, sir. Second question on the product approval bit. This is more for the newer businesses on the minium foil side or the PTFE, the specialty grade. Where are we in terms of -- because we wanted to get into the premium rates and higher realization ones. So where are we in terms of product approvals here? And what pipeline can we look at for a revenue ramp-up for the existing capacities?

Well, on the fluoropolymer side, everything that we're doing in terms of moving up on -- from a fine cut and free flow, that's very advanced right now. I think we've kind of pointed earlier to a question saying we should expect to see a ramp-up over there in the latter part of this year. I'm not sure if the rest of your question points to everything in terms of the CMOS arrangement. Again, we said that's on track. So post December, which is when we're kind of meant to be set and ready. Q4 is when that should kick in, and you've heard our Chairman talked about the fact that, that's a reasonably high margin contract. So we should see good outcomes over there. Yes, I'm not sure I'm adding -- yes. So exports on aluminum have already started. I think that was the second part of your question. We've already seen progress over there through Q4 of this year, and that third ramp-up outcomes over there. We continue to have that focus, and we should see that kind of -- that trajectory only improved through 2027.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as a last question for today. I would like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Yes. Thank you all for joining this call. We hope we've addressed many other questions. If you should have any further queries, we're more than happy to assist. Look forward to your continuing support as we move ahead. And on behalf of the whole management, thank you once again for taking out the time to join us today.

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