Dalmia Bharat

“In my last call, I mentioned that we are targeting to be near to breakeven in Central assets by end of FY27.”

“And we are aspiring to reach Dalmia standard level EBITDA by end of FY28.”

“We are targeting to breakeven in Q4 of this financial year.”

“I think we should look at second half volume growth in line with the industry.”

“We are pretty hopeful that profitability will definitely improve in Q3 on account of multiple factors.”

“What we have paid should get commercialized. for the balance capex is, as and when those projects get completed, we'll be capitalizing them.”

“So we have a capacity of 5.2 million tons, and I think we have enough and more spaces to expand across all segments.”

“So we will touch 67 with all the three projects, Central, Belgaum, Kadapa. BJCL would be as and when it happens, if it happens, we would be touching roughly 70.”

“So right now we are not in a rush to make any further announcements. We had said 75 by FY28.”

“If we touch 70, I think we will be pretty okay.”

“I'm happy to mention that we have recently lit our new clinker line at Belgaum and commenced trial runs ahead of schedule.”

“Our recently launched premium offering, Weather365, has received an exceptional response from the market, prompting us to accelerate its rollout into newer markets.”

“Konark, which has been a cornerstone of our portfolio and a trusted brand for decades, is now getting phased out as we sharpen our focus on premiumization.”

“We are also looking at how to harmonize volume growth with profitability.”

“Premium product share continues to increase, and we expect this trend to deepen over coming quarters as we continue to drive this initiative of premiumization.”

“Cement demand has also remained robust, growing in high single digit on a Y-o-Y basis during this quarter.”

“While East and Northeast markets remained subdued during the quarter due to severe floods and heavy rainfall, we saw healthy momentum in both South and West markets with growth approaching double digits.”

“Yes. That's our take on the industry.”

“We are very excited with the next 5- to 10-year demand prospects in this region.”

“Both MP and UP have almost 25% of India's population living here. And I think there are going to be huge investments here. The Ken-Betwa River linking projects is almost INR40,000 crores plus.”

“In the first half of the year, we have seen war-related impact of around INR220 per ton on variable cost with additional pressures from key input materials such as packing bags, adding another INR100 per ton.”

“With crude prices remaining above $100 a barrel and maritime disruptions continuing, international petcoke prices has surged to about over $180 per ton.”

“Both September and October have seen healthy price increases, helping us recover a part of the cost inflation.”

“However, East witnessed some price corrections amid subdued demand, reflected in roughly 1% Q-o-Q decline in our realizations.”

“Incentives during the quarter declined to INR25 crores with relatively lower production at plants where incentive accrued.”

“Separately, the amendment to the MMDR Act has also resulted in a significant reduction in the contingent liabilities by roughly INR198 crores, and the liabilities now stand at INR931 crores.”

“Consequently, contingent liabilities as a percentage of the net worth have declined to almost 5%, which is among the lowest in the industry.”

“So we are cognizant that 2, 2.5, we don't want to cross this.”

“We are at the peak of our debt because of the recent acquisition and the quarter volumes and the EBITDA have been relatively lower.”

“Collections during the quarter remained healthy at INR53 crores.”

“We are in the process of finalizing the valuation and the PPA. And once we are able to close that activity, we'll have much more firm numbers. But as of now, that increase in intangible is on account of the mining rights of the JP assets.”

“I think we have got no surprises. I think we knew the asset quite well.”

“In that spirit, in a planned transition, effective 1st January 2027, Navin Tewari, our Chief Marketing Officer, will transition as a key adviser to me on strategic initiatives and projects.”

“As a part of this transition, Yatin Malhotra, our CFO, will take additional responsibility for sales and marketing, along with his existing responsibility for the finance function.”

“But over time, I think we want Yatin to be more focused on operations, and we will eventually get somebody to be the CFO of the company.”

“Yes. That is correct. I will not say it like -- I would say he will be more involved in continuing to provide the continuity in the strategic blueprint that he has created in terms of how to build distribution, how to create channel engagement, etcetera.”

“In line with this transition, we have impaired around 97 megawatts of thermal power capacity this quarter, where operations have been discontinued.”

“During the quarter, we reported exceptional items aggregating INR339 crores.”

“In addition to this, we have implemented a separation scheme for eligible employees at a few units, resulting in a one-time provisional charge of INR57 crores.”

“So there is nothing more that is lined up as of now.”

“This has been done in 3 of our existing plants, which do not include the central plant.”

“Having said that, rising inflation and potential onset of rate hike cycle pose near-term risks.”

“These payments have been discontinued in Assam and Meghalaya from that date, while they continue to apply in Tamil Nadu.”

“Tamil Nadu, the government has still not made the changes in their process and the portals that we have to. So we are still supposed to pay the cess before we take out the limestone.”

“In line with the regional trends, our volumes grew 4% Y-o-Y during the quarter on an ex-Central basis. Overall volumes rose 3% to 7.1 million tons in the quarter.”

“On a reported basis, EBITDA per ton stood at INR698, reflecting a dilution of roughly INR50 per ton due to Central plants.”

“So we are hopeful that we will have a much stronger H2 in front of us.”

“a part of those volume is actually not reported as volume. They are actually put as a part of the CWIP.”

“But the bigger point is that in quarter 2, we still have a lot of costs that are getting capitalized because we are still under trial runs for the plant.”