Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Bharat Forge Limited Q2 FY 2024 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Kalyani, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge Limited. Thank you, and over to you, Sir. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining our investor call. Today, we're gonna have a little change of format, and I'm gonna request our CFO, Kedar Dixit, to take you through the call. I will be here in case any Q&A is needed. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Bharat Forge conference call. I'll take you through the highlights of this quarter. So talking about the standalone business, Q2 was a strong quarter with robust performance across sectors and geographies. The company has registered record volumes, top line as well as profitability in this quarter. Sales grew by almost 21% on a year-over-year basis, which is primarily driven by two key sectors, Passenger Vehicle exports, which has shown a substantial growth of almost 39%, and domestic industrial business, which grew by 50%. This is primarily by execution of defense orders, which have started since last two quarters. As far as PV exports are concerned, it now accounts for almost one-fourth of the total export business. It has been a phenomenal success story of market share gains, increasing value add and addition of new Geographies. EBITDA has also grew by almost 36% to INR 616 crore. There has been a margin expansion of almost 300 basis points, now stands at 27.4% on a YOY basis, driven majorly by better product mix and cost reduction initiatives by the company, which is, which are continuing. PBT before exchange gain loss was at INR 473 crore, which is, which, which is the highest so far in this quarter, as against INR 358 crore for the same quarter last year, and PAT for the quarter stands at INR 346 crore. During the quarter, the company has also won INR 500 crore worth of new business, spreading between the industrial as well as, the CV market. This figure stands at around INR 740 crore for H1 of this year, and this includes, business wins of almost INR 300 crore for e-mobility platforms. Our balance sheet continues to remain strong with cash of in excess of INR 2,200 crore. We have reduced our leverage by repaying long-term debt of, almost INR 300 crore in last six months, and ROC net of cash has inched up to, 20% mark. Our CapEx in the first six months was about 170 crore, 171 crore, 170 crores for this, for standalone business. It is also worth highlighting that in first half of 2024, we have surpassed what we have posted in as a full year of FY 2020 in terms of top line, EBITDA, as well as PBT on almost 40% lower volumes. This is basically because of the better product mix, cost reduction initiatives, and move towards some complementary product. Coming to overseas subsidiaries, as compared to last year's same quarter, we had a loss of almost INR 34 crore at EBITDA level, which is now a profit of INR 9 crore between U.S. and Europe. As far as European operations are concerned, we have posted a EBITDA of INR 35 crore, which is slightly lower than last quarter, but this is mainly on account of the holiday season in Europe. U.S. operations have posted a EBITDA loss of INR 26 crore in this quarter, but as we go in the subsequent quarters, the losses will come down, and the first target is to have a breakeven at EBITDA, followed by a breakeven at PBT. It continues to narrow its losses as the utilization levels keeps on increasing gradually. The CapEx for phase ll is on track in the U.S., and the current capacity utilization as far as aluminum business is concerned, is about 50% for U.S. and 70% for Europe. We are seeing month-on-month improvement in operating performance, and the numbers in the September quarter are not the true reflection of the improvement what we have able to achieve. This will obviously will improve over the next quarters. Talking about the Indian manufacturing for our subsidiaries, which is our industrial business, it was the first quarter of consolidation of ISMT acquisition, which has a positive EPS starting from first quarter itself. JS Auto, our casting venture, has won new business of INR 55 crore during the quarter. And in this quarter, we have seen about 28% growth in sales for casting business and 13% increase in EBITDA. This includes about INR 4 crore of acquisition expenses towards ISMT, which have been charged off to P&L, and their ability to accelerate is being impeded by structural challenges in the wind industry and softness in construction mining, which are the two bigger sectors for JSA. I will hand over to Amit Kalyani for the comments on the business. Our CV exports were at all-time high of about INR 550 crores, despite key markets still down 10%-15% from their highs. Industrial exports were also at a high, despite the oil and gas business being down almost 60% from their peaks that we witnessed in Q2 FY 2019. It has been possible because of our focus on continuing to address new segments such as Construction and Mining, Aerospace, and others. Not only does this further reduce cyclicality, but also improves profitability of the Industrial side. On E-mobility, we will continue to make progress. The two-wheeler side of the business has been affected by the reduction in FAME subsidy, but you know, we have taken that in our stride, and we are retaking our platform there to take advantage of what challenges come in place. On the repowering side, we're getting good traction. Our test trucks have now covered 200,000 kilometers in test runs and 20,000 kilometers in actual loaded customer use case. So we see this also being a very positive development with a good future coming in the next few quarters. On the defense order book, we have won orders worth over INR 1,100 crores from multiple customers and product segments, which will be executed over the next 24 months. We continue to see a strong order pipeline across both capital and revenue products. Our defense order book is steadily increasing and becoming broader based, encompassing artillery systems, unmanned vehicles, components, and solutions for naval forces and unmanned systems. In the-- I want to talk about M&A. In the past three years, we have done three strategic deals with a cumulative outlay of over INR 500 crores focused on industrial and new technologies. We continue to focus on M&A, M&A transactions, but largely domestic, you know, with strong manufacturing and management capabilities, addressing the India industrial opportunity, but also with the potential to export, globally. As a near-term outlook gets clouded by Geopolitical crisis, we continue to focus on increasing our market share in the traditional business sectors, execute orders on our defense business, continue with growing our e-mobility part of the business across components, Power, Electronics, and repowering. We will leverage our strong balance sheet to do opportunistic M&A in India. And last but not least, we will work to fix the overseas business profitability with a clear and concrete steps across both deal and organic. Thank you very much. I think our team will now be happy to take your questions. Thank you very much. We'll now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The first question is from Manav Kapil Singh from Nomura. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, Sir. Congratulations on a strong performance for the quarter. My first question is on EV orders. The INR 300 crore orders, if you could talk about what is the profile of customers here? Are these, you know, leading two-wheeler or three-wheeler companies? And what is also the type of products, mainly where these orders have come from? So I will only say this: these are global companies manufacturing electric vehicles and electric vehicle products, and our orders are to supply them components and subsystems. Sir, is it possible to share some details, like which segments, they are into, or which type of products they are? M ore than that right now. Okay. Sure, Sir. Not two and three-wheeler, okay? It's Understood. Not two and three-wheeler. That's all I'd say. Understood, Sir. And Sir, you also talked about repowering business for CVs. We also hear that the government is very keen to electrify buses. So in case of buses also, is there an opportunity for repowering the buses? Yes, we are already running POCs, I mean, we are already doing repowering for certain customers. With whom we will run the POC. This is a completely made in India solution, designed in India, engineered in India, so I think, it is a good solution for a country like ours, and that is something that we are focusing on. Sure, Sir. On the revenues mix, if I look at it, the domestic CV revenue has seen a little bit of a dip, whereas the export CV revenues have seen QOQ increase. If you could just talk us through what's happening there, that would be helpful. No, but if you look at some of the manufacturers of CVs, there has been a destocking that they are doing because of inventory levels. So I think we're in line with that in India. And globally, you know, we have lots of new programs that are coming on board, new market share that we have won, and new products that we have developed, so that's allowing us to grow our overseas business. S ure, Sir. And lastly, if you could talk about the PV exports, you know, we've seen a very good ramp up this quarter. So which geography are you mainly seeing this ramp up? And through the year, should we expect further ramp up in revenues from these levels? On the PV side, you know, we will expect to see growth continuing, because we have a lot of business that we have won, where some of it is already ramped up, some of it is yet to ramp up. Some of it got affected because of the, you know, the current problems that are being faced in the U.S. in the vehicle market. But we expect to see the PV sector grow for us globally, with a large part of the growth coming from exports and from pure Indian OEMs. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, sure, Sir. Thanks, Sir. I'll come back in the queue. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Amyn Pirani from JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Yes, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My question was on the U.S. Aluminum business. The losses have been coming down quite sharply. But you also mentioned that, you know, you are already hitting 50% utilization levels. So what is the kind of utilization level which we should consider for a break even for this kind of business? Oh, see, the breakeven here is a fact. It is a combination of not just breakeven, I mean, not just capacity utilization. It also needs the pricing to come into effect, the repricing. Okay. It's a combination of the two, but at 70%-75%, we should be able to break even with our pricing having been adjusted. Okay, and over a period of time, is there opportunity to bring down this breakeven level, like, over the next two to three years, or? Once the second phase comes into place, yes. Okay. Because your fixed cost will get amortized across a larger amount of product. Okay. That's helpful. And on the defense side, we had seen a very strong uptick in KSSL revenues last quarter. This quarter also, there has been an improvement. Given the order book, can we expect a very sharp quarter-on-quarter ramp up, you know, going forward? Or is it like a step change and then, you know, it'll stabilize and then, you know, grow from there? You know, going from INR 300-400 crores of revenue to over INR 1,000 crores is quite a large jump. Sure. I would say that whatever we are doing now is quite a large jump. Okay. Please remember that, these are sectors that are, you know, very, let's say, they're not easy sectors to export into. Yeah. They have, you know, their own procedures in which they work, processes and procedures in which they work. I think we are set for a good medium- to long-term growth strategy here. You will see that as we develop new markets and new products, this will only continue growing. Okay. Lastly, you know, any update from the Government on the ATAGS ordering timeline? As I said earlier, you know, it's gonna happen sooner than later. The process is, I mean, it's WIP right now, the whole process. Okay. Okay. You know, it's, I can't say anything more than that. Sure. Sure, fair enough. I'll come back in the queue. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Jinesh Gandhi from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead. Hi. My first question pertains to clarification on the EV orders which you have referred to. Given it's in standalone, would it be largely for the forging components or there are any electrical components also? I wouldn't share any more information than I already have. Okay. Okay. Secondly, when I look at the CapEx, at consolidated level, it's almost INR 300 crore plus higher than the standalone. So can you give some flavor on where are we doing this CapEx at Subsidiary level? So we have CapEx going on in multiple places. We have CapEx going on in our defense business. We have CapEx going on in our aluminum casting business, aluminum forging business, and our EV business. Okay. Okay, and the U.S. phase ll expansion is effectively, are we doubling our capacity there or it will be more than that? Okay, and by and by when it will start operation? As I said, operation in 2025. Okay, got it. Got it. And lastly, if you can share where we are in today in terms of revenues from oil and gas, defense, and aerospace? I believe all of these, these are particularly different in it. We try to share that information only on annual basis. Okay. You know, if you look at our overall industrial revenue, it's growing and it's growing thanks to our de-risking strategy and our new product development strategy. Right. Right. No, surely, I mean, clearly the defense and aerospace are now delivering quite rapidly. So no worries, we'll pick data at the end of the year. Thanks, and all the best. Thanks. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Arjun Khanna from Kotak Mutual Fund. Please go ahead. Thank you for taking my question, and congratulations on a great set of numbers. So my first question is on the European operations. We've stated in the opening commentary we are at 70% utilization, and we look at the EBITDA margins at 3.5%. So, as we scale up, what is the peak utilization we could reach, and, how do you envisage the EBITDA margins, play out, over a period of time? Look, as I said earlier, our goal for our aluminum business is to take our EBITDA margin to the teens. Okay. The steel business is a 10%-11% EBITDA margin business, but we are going to do some, you know, restructuring there in terms of new products and, you know, more value addition, which will allow us to increase our EBITDA margins there as well. I don't think you have to look at capacity utilization only as the driver. It's going to be a combination of cost, value addition, and capacity utilization. Essentially, this is something that's probably two years out or probably something longer as we prototype and get new products? This is something we have to achieve by 2025. FY 2025? Yeah. Sure. Sir, the second question is on our PV export business. We have obviously scaled this up really well, and, historically, at least the understanding on the street was that this is a lower margin segment, but, with the higher growth here, we have seen margins also improve. So, would it be a fair thing to say that this is not much lower than our, overall margins, the PV business, at this scale? You know, I think, we have managed to balance our margins with, you know, productivity and with the product mix and value addition. So we will always focus on doing things that are value accretive to us. Obviously, we don't look at, let's say, returns only as EBITDA. We have to look at returns as return on capital employed- Sure. And not purely EBITDA. But I think even the EBITDA side has been performing quite well right now. Sure. Just a final question, in terms of defense on the standalone side, would we be breaking out? Because in KSSL we have done roughly INR 300 crore. How much would have been the revenues from the standalone business in defense? I think about INR 200 crore. Sure. Thanks a lot, and wishing you all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Pramod, from Incred Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking the question. So the first question is with regard to the Asia exports. They seem to have spiked. Is it more a short-term phenomenon, we have won some new business? Pramod, we don't understand you. Sorry. I was saying that these are Asia exports, which seems to have spiked up this quarter. So is it anything, one-off which has happened, or is it any new orders you have won and it's a more sustainable- We have won some new orders. Okay. Or is it more to do with the China recovery and they have been able to participate? No, no, no. We have won some new orders. It's more a sustainable trend to go forward. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sure. And the second one is with regard to Israel. If I'm right, you have some joint venture, two entities, in that area. So what is the short-term challenge or opportunity and also medium-term challenge and opportunity considering the current- Right now, they're at war. So, you know, people who are running businesses are also being recruited to fight, you know, they're all reservists. So right now is not the time to talk to them or, you know, bother them with this. But I think clearly it's going to be more opportunity because they also see the risk of having all their production only in their country. So, you know, it's not a very large country, it can be easily targeted. So I think when the dust settles from all this, then we will have a chance to talk to them and figure out what to do. But, you know, it's terrible what's happening for both sides, and, you know, I just hope that this gets over soon. Understood. Thanks and all the best. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Arvind Sharma from Citi. Please go ahead. Hello. Good afternoon, Sir, and thank you for taking my question. Sir, if you could just shed some light on what your target or aspiration levels are for the broader subsidiaries, both Indian subsidiaries and overseas subsidiaries? We already covered the Overseas Subsidiaries. On the Indian Subsidiaries, you know, if you look at the defense and the industrial verticals, I think they will be close to 25% EBITDA margin. That's our goal. Okay. So from this current, obviously, current quarter is not a representative. From this, you need to go to, like, almost 25%. That's the goal. That's our goal, yes. By FY 2025, is it, S ir? Yes. I mean, FY, Yeah, I would say close to FY 2025. I think we should be close to that. Sure, Sir. Thank you, Sir. That's all from my side. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Kapil Singh from Nomura. Please go ahead. Hello. Kapil, Can you hear us? Yeah. Sir, if you could just talk about, you know, there is an improvement in gross margins as well. If you could just talk us through, is there any commodity benefit also visible there, or is it just the product mix which is driving this? So this is more of a product mix and better cost controls. There's a very less play of commodity. Okay. And, if you could also talk about the outlook for both the domestic and the global businesses across segments, that would be useful. It continues to remain strong. The only thing, the only damper could be this geopolitical situation, but we have new products, new programs, which are ramping up. So on an overall basis, we should be fairly, you know, good on a quarter-to-quarter basis. ... I was talking more about the U.S. truck industry and domestic truck industry, and also industrial. If you could just talk about the industry outlook for these through the next one year. So look, the industrial outlook for the U.S. is flat. For CVs also it is flat. It's at about 300-310 thousand. In India, the CV outlook should go, become positive next year. And I think the industrial outlook in India is positive. The one sector where we see a lot of concern is the renewable energy sector, especially wind energy, because you know, it's a very capital-heavy sector, and it takes a lot of time to set up anywhere in the world. And because of this, you know, it's not a very, that sector is under a bit of a cloud. Sure, Sir. And, lastly, on in terms of cost, if you could talk to what could be the impact of, you know, much higher interest rates that we are seeing, globally, for the businesses? And also recently there have been some news reports that the labor unions, for example, in U.S., are requesting much higher wage hikes. So, just your views on these two topics. So, you know, what you talked about, the labor union, that's also what we read in the news, but this is largely to do with the OEMs and certain Tier 1. We haven't read the fine print to understand this yet. Interest costs obviously are affecting everyone. In fact, the real GDP growth in large parts of the world is now negative because of inflation running at anywhere from 5% to 7, 8%. So, I think we just have to wait and watch, but clearly interest rates being high are going to have a damping effect on certain sectors. But the Government in the U.S. is hell-bent on, you know, printing money and funding a lot of these sectors. So remains to be seen what happens in the run-up to the elections. Thank you, Sir, and wishing you all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Kalyani for closing comments. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your interest in our company. If you have any more questions, please contact our company directly. I want to wish you and your family members a very happy Diwali, and look forward to a happier and safer year going forward. Thank you very much. Have a nice day. Thank you very much. On behalf of Bharat Forge Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.