Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the earnings conference call of Dalmia Bharat Limited for the quarter ended June 30th 2026. Please note that this conference call will be for 60 minutes and for the duration of this call, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. This conference call is being recorded and the transcript will be put on the website of the company. After the management discussion, there is an opportunity for you to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. Before I hand over the conference to the management, I would like to remind you that certain statements made during the course of this call may not be based on historical information or facts and may be forward-looking statements. These statements are based on expectations and projections and may involve a number of risks and uncertainties such that the actual outcome may differ materially from those suggested by such statements. On the call we have with us Mr. Puneet Dalmia, Managing Director and CEO, Dalmia Bharat Limited; Mr. Dharmender Tuteja, CFO, Dalmia Bharat Limited; Mr. Yatin Malhotra, CFO, Dalmia Cement Bharat Limited, and the other management of the company. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Prassan Goyal, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Goyal. Thank you, Michelle. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I hope you had an opportunity to look at our financial results and the presentations we have uploaded. Let me now hand over the call to Mr. Dalmia for his opening remarks. Thank you. Thank you, Prassan. Good evening, everyone. When we last spoke, the global economy was navigating an increasingly uncertain economic environment marked by supply chain disruptions, heightened commodity price volatility, and rapid technological shift. Since then, those uncertainties have not only persisted, but in many ways have become the new normal. Yet India remains one of the fastest-growing major economies globally with an RBI growth projection at 6.6% for FY 2027. Despite maritime disruptions, industrial production and exports have performed well. GST collections reached an all-time high of INR 630,000 crore in Q1 FY 2027, underpinning strong domestic consumption. Public CapEx remains another key pillar supporting economic growth. Capital spending in the first two months inched up to 21% of the annual budgeted outlay, reflecting government's commitment to infrastructure development and long-term capacity creation. Inflation has largely stayed within the RBI's comfort range, but uncertainties surrounding the progress of monsoon due to potential effect of El Niño continues to warrant close monitoring. These factors may create short-term fluctuations, but do not alter the structural growth drivers of the Indian economy. In this backdrop, I believe the cement demand will also grow at a healthy rate of 7% in this financial year. Zooming into the first quarter, cement demand was stronger than most of us were expecting. For Dalmia, however, the quarter was somewhat distinctive as several of our key markets underwent state elections. Such periods typically result in a temporary moderation in construction activity, with project execution slowing during the election cycle. Despite these market-specific challenges, we have delivered a robust volume growth of 9% on a YoY basis. More importantly, this growth was accompanied by a marked improvement in the quality of our sales and the share of premium products in our portfolio has moved to a healthy number of 25%. During the quarter, we also introduced Weather 365, our premium plus offering, which has received an encouraging response from customers. I believe this launch will further strengthen our premiumization journey and enhance the quality of our revenue over time. This quarter was undoubtedly influenced by elevated input costs. Yet I am pleased with the progress we made through disciplined pricing and decisive cost management. Petcoke prices surged to nearly $160 per ton before moderating to between $130 and $135 per ton, well above the pre-war levels of $110 to $115 per ton. In response, we intensified our efforts across procurement and operations through better planning and inventory management, diversification of sourcing, and optimization of our fuel mix. Collectively, these initiatives generated savings of more than INR 150 per ton during the quarter. At the same time, healthy price increases of about INR 10 to INR 15 in South and INR 15 to INR 20 in East markets enabled us to pass on a significant portion of the input cost inflation. As a result, EBITDA per ton improved sequentially to INR 1,055. As we consolidate our brand position and cost leadership through consistent and meaningful initiatives, I'm confident that we will continue to deliver profitable growth in the quarters ahead. Now shifting gears to our capacity expansion plans. I'm particularly excited with the addition of JP Cement assets to our portfolio. This acquisition brings 5.2 million tons of cement capacity, supported by 3.3 million tons of clinker capacity in the strategically important Central India region. This asset also offers meaningful opportunity for debottlenecking and brownfield expansions. It is a great strategic fit for Dalmia, as it strengthens our presence in a key growth market and marks another important step in our journey towards becoming a truly pan-India company. I'm equally encouraged by the speed and efficiency of the integration. We commenced operations at the Chunar grinding unit and started trial production run at Rewa clinker unit in just 50 days of completing the acquisition, a testament to the quality of our execution. Dalmia has already established a strong brand presence in the region with the continuous seeding of markets since the past couple of years. This positions us well to deepen our market penetration and unlock the full potential of these assets in the coming quarters. With this acquisition, along with our ongoing expansion projects at Belgaum, Kadapa, and Pune, our cement capacity will reach about 67 million tons by quarter three of financial year 2028. We are working on some more projects, which will be announced in due course. Before I conclude, I would like to say that Dalmia is at an inflection point where we are adding capacity, diversifying into new regions, fortifying our brand position, and strengthening our cost leadership. I'm deeply encouraged by what we have accomplished thus far, and even more excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. As we continue to make meaningful progress on our strategic priorities, building a high-performing organization, accelerating automation, advancing our sustainability agenda, and upholding the highest standards of governance will remain a key focus area, enabling us to build a more agile, efficient, and future-ready enterprise. Before I hand over to Dharmender, I would like to take a moment to congratulate him on a highly successful tenure as CFO of Dalmia Bharat. Under his leadership, the company has delivered robust growth and strengthened its financial strategy. I wish him the very best. Thank you, Dharmender, and over to you. Thank you, Puneet, for your kind words. I also thank you for having reposed trust in me and for your continuous guidance and support. It has been a privilege to serve the company through an important phase of growth and transformation. I am pleased that we have been able to enhance governance standards and establish a disciplined capital allocation framework, maintaining a strong balance sheet. I would also like to thank our board members, finance team, my peers and team members in other functions, and all stakeholders for their excellent cooperation and support during my tenure. Transition of my role to Yatin over the last 16 months has been a seamless exercise. As the company is entering into exciting phase of accelerated growth, I'm sure Yatin is perfect fit to take the organization to greater heights of success. Coming back to my opening remarks, I wish good evening to everyone present in this call. I will start with an overview of our operating and financial performance during the quarter. As per analysts' estimates, cement demand for the industry grew by about 7%-8% YoY in quarter one. The first two months saw modest growth, followed by meaningful improvement in June, supported by the return of labor to construction sites post-elections, along with delayed monsoons. Despite a disrupted quarter for our operating regions, we delivered a robust growth of 9% on a YoY basis. If we set aside the one-off impact of the Rajgangpur breakdown last quarter, this is our third straight quarter of healthy volume growth. Revenues from operations improved by 7% YoY during the quarter to INR 3,890 crore, driven by higher sales volumes. Realizations improved 6% QoQ, supported by healthy price increases, higher premiumization, and strengthening brand position. During the quarter, we accrued INR 45 crores in incentives and collected INR 60 crores. The incentive outstanding at the end of the quarter was INR 822 crores. Incentive accrual should remain in similar range of INR 45-50 crores per quarter in the next couple of years. This quarter was largely impacted by cost escalations stemming from West Asia conflict. While input costs have moderated from their peak levels, the recent resurgence in hostilities will remain a key factor influencing cost trends in the near term. During the quarter, our raw material cost per ton of production increased 12% QoQ to INR 823, primarily due to increase in the limestone raising cost and other cost headwinds. Power and fuel cost per ton of production increased by 10% YoY to INR 1,035, reflecting the sharp escalation in fuel prices. As Puneet highlighted earlier, we responded proactively by implementing a series of measures, including strengthening inventory planning and optimizing fuel sourcing and mix efficiency. These initiatives help to meaningfully mitigate the impact of fuel cost inflation and reinforce our cost competitiveness. As the input costs remain above pre-war levels, we expect the cost environment to stay elevated in Q2. The blended fuel cost during the quarter increased QoQ from INR 1.36 per kcal to INR 1.47 per kcal. Further, 48% of our power consumption has been sourced through renewable energy. This share will continue to rise as we add more renewable energy capacities during the year. During the quarter, cement freight per ton of dispatches has remained largely flat on QoQ basis. Clinker freight per ton of dispatches has increased 11% QoQ due to higher clinker movement through road during the quarter. Coming to fixed cost component, employee cost increased 13% QoQ to INR 245 crores, primarily due to the increment impact and certain one-off favorable impact in Q4 last year. Other expenses rose 3% QoQ to INR 632 crores, mainly on account of sharp increase in packing bag prices from about INR 9.5 per bag pre-war to almost INR 14 per bag in Q1. While prices have moderated from the quarterly average, they continue to remain well above the historical levels. EBITDA per ton improved 3% QoQ to INR 1,055 during the quarter. On absolute basis, EBITDA declined 11% QoQ to INR 805 crores as the benefit of improved realizations was offset by lower volumes and higher costs arising from external headwinds. Now, moving to non-EBITDA items. Other income increased to INR 139 crores, mainly due to the mark-to-market gains on treasury investments. Depreciation during the quarter increased by 12% YoY to INR 361 crores, mainly due to recapitalization of Umrangso clinker unit in January 26. For full year FY 2027, we expect depreciation to increase by INR 100 crores as we commission the acquired JP plants and commercialize Belgaum capacity. It will further increase by INR 100-150 crores in FY 2028 with the commissioning of Kadapa and Pune projects. The finance cost during the quarter increased by 36% YoY to INR 147 crores, primarily due to the increase in gross debt owing to acquisition funding. The average cost of debt has been range bound at about 7%. Exceptional item of INR 182 crores primarily includes expenses towards stamp duties and transaction fees and other related overheads incurred by the company with acquisition of cement assets. Turning to our capital allocation priorities, we successfully completed the acquisition of the JP Cement assets on May 29th 2026 at an enterprise value of INR 2,850 crores. The transaction was funded through a prudent mix of debt and internal approvals. In addition to this, we are further investing to enhance the operational performance of the acquired assets, including installation of an 18-MW WHRS facility at the Rewa plant. We have made an encouraging start to the integration process. We expect these assets to begin contributing meaningfully to volumes from third quarter onwards. At the same time, we are steadily embedding Dalmia's operating practices across these facilities with a strong focus on improving efficiency and enhancing productivity. Our Belgaum expansion project is also progressing ahead of schedule and is expected to commence commercial productions in the next six months. At Kadapa and Pune, site excavation is underway with contractors mobilized to begin civil and mechanical work. Excluding the cost of acquisition, we have spent about INR 710 crores on CapEx during the quarter. Our CapEx commitment for FY 2027 is expected to remain at around INR 3,200 crores-INR 3,400 crores, in line with our earlier guidance. Of this, projects would be roughly INR 2,200 crores, while the balance would be towards maintenance, JP catch-up CapEx, and other ROI projects. Our gross debt at the end of the quarter increased to INR 9,108 crores, primarily due to the acquisition, while net debt increased to INR 4,431 crores. Importantly, even after funding this acquisition, our leverage stood at 1.47 x, comfortably below 2x net debt to EBITDA, demonstrating the strength of our balance sheet and disciplined approach to capital allocation. I open the floor for question and answers. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, now anyone who wishes to ask questions may please press star and one on the touchpads. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the virtual press star and two. Participants are requested to use only hands up while asking questions. Ladies and gents, we will wait for a while. Thank you. You may please press star and one to ask questions. The first question is from the line of Navin Sahadeo from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Good evening, sir. Hello. Yeah, please go ahead. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity and indeed, congratulations for a good set of numbers. My first question is about JPA, and again, congratulations for bagging the deal. It was been on our mind for a long time, and finally we got it. My question is INR 2,850 is the price for the asset, and there is 100 million ton limestone. So regarding this limestone, I wanted to understand if we have the entire land required to access this 100 million ton in control. If not, what is the land that will be required and approximate cost? Or the company has a backup plan that since your mine, as you mentioned in the presentation, is very in close proximity to this existing, we can not really bother about buying that land if at all the prices tends to shoot up. If you could just help us understand this bit on limestone reserves and cost associated with it. I think, Navin, it's a mix of both. Number one, yes, we have reserves in the vicinity, and I think it is not a great botheration for us. Having said that, what lands already exist with the JP assets are enough for the initial few years. Land procurement to keep securing your reserves is a part of the process in any plant that we run. I think it's a continuous activity. We are good to go in the initial few years. We have an adjacent asset already available, and then we'll keep expanding the land to augment this further. Any ballpark number that so much cost, because if we just want to understand the total, let's say, cost to this JP acquisition, to get this entire 100 million ton, will it be additional INR 100 crore or INR 500 crore, INR 1,000 crore? Any ballpark number there? No, I don't think we can indicate an exact number, Navin. Right now, we are in the process of assessing this. For any practical purposes, this will happen gradually. This is not like a one-time hit that's going to come and hit you. I think it's an ongoing process. Sure. My second question then was about the clinker and cement capacity kind of a mismatch in the eastern region, and now it's more so in the Northeast, because we have surplus clinker there, but not much grinding. I believe the existing east also is the situation, probably other way around. We have more grinding there, but less clinker. How are we looking to utilize or make optimal utilization of the Northeast clinker plant that we commissioned, I think, a quarter or two back. Are there more grinding units that are coming up in West Bengal or Bihar? How should one look at utilization of that asset? Thanks. For the Northeast states, I think our commentary consistently has been that we believe in the potential of that geography. We have invested ahead of time in clinker and grinding. Yes, we have a little excess clinker available in that place. In our journey to reach our pan-India story and expansion, setting up a grinding unit somewhere near that clinker unit is on the table. We have not yet announced that exact project, so I can't detail it beyond this. I think balancing the clinker from Northeast and setting up some additional grinding is there on the agenda. Helpful. I have more question, but I'll come back in queue. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. The first question is on this exceptional expense that you've highlighted at INR 100 crores. I was just wondering, on an asset acquisition value of INR 2,850 crores, it seems at 7% of the acquisition cost. Just wanted to understand this better that how much of this was stamp duty and really what are other expenses that have been booked out. Amit, I think it's been a couple of months since we have entered this transaction. There is a lot of activity that is going on in terms of assessing the right stamp duty amount and other incidental cost. We have taken a provisional conservative number. This is a preliminary assessment that we have done so far. I don't think this exact number will be the final number. I think give us a couple of months. Anyhow, we have to do this entire registration in next two months. By the end of next quarter, we will have more clarity on this. But I can just say that this is a provisional conservative number. We should end up being a little better than this. Got it. Sure. Thanks. Also, could you just give some guidance on the ramp-up of the central India assets, what utilization you are looking in Q3, Q4, or broadly FY 2028? I would just say that, as Puneet mentioned, and we've also given it out in our investor deck. In the first 50 days, in the first 20 days, we got the first grinding unit up and running. We started the trial run at Rewa clinker unit. It's a topic that we are attending to with utmost urgency. Having said that, I think we will give it some time for it to stand on its leg, and we will be able to give a little more realistic estimates once we have taken a complete control of the asset in the market. We are hopeful that we'll be touching decent capacity utilization in a few quarters, but no guidance as of now. Got it. Sure. The last question, if I may put in. What's the expectation on cost now, given that we have a good sense of the pet coke pricing and all, what is out for Q2 and then forward? Q2, 10 days prior to today, I think we were more clear on which way the Q2 is going to sort of pan out. Now we again are in very turbulent times. I can give you an estimate that we're looking at roughly INR 70, INR 80 increase in terms of input cost. I would say the tail impact that was supposed to come and hit us in Q2 over and above Q1. As things are evolving, we will have to reassert in these numbers. Let us see how this pans out for us and for the industry. Just to be clear, this is excluding negative operating leverage, right? We're seeing in Q2. I'm just telling you the macro headwinds, negative operating leverage is a part and parcel of business. Penalty will come and hit us. That's a separate discussion. Got it. Sure. Thanks a lot. I'll come back in the queue. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Shah from DAM Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, sir. First on the JPA ramp-up bit, I understand it's a bit early. Could you just explain or give us some insight on what would be the quantum of volumes we would have done in FY 2026 to the potential markets of JPA from our existing plants? Is the network still active and can it be sort of capitalized to ramp up JPA? Sorry, Kunal, what was the second part of the question? What I'm trying to understand is how much volumes would we be selling to the potential markets of JPA, let's say MP, UP, from our existing plants in East. Is that a number, if you could just help, like during FY 2026, what would be the quantum of it? If the network over there is still active, can we capitalize it to ramp up the JPA quickly? The answer to your second question is a definite yes. I think we have been very consciously kept investing in that market. We have a decent presence in terms of network and brand. The answer to your first question is that, I would rather not give exact numbers of how much we sold in central market from East. Yeah, that's it. Understood. Second sir, also, company would be adding almost 40% capacity increase. That would be the quantum within one and a half years. Along with a potential turnaround of the Eastern Market, how to think of volume growth outlook over the next two years. Could you provide any guidance over there? Kunal, we really believe the industry per se would grow 7%-8%. I think for our organic numbers, we should be in line with the industry. We are chasing more, but at least in line with the industry. For the additional capacities as we ramp them up, I think that should give additional volume. I think we can put two and two together on that one. I can just tell you that, as we said, JP, we are deeply entrenched in the market so that we get a head start. Belgaum, Kadapa when the capacities come in, again, these are markets that we know like back of our hand, so for us to ramp up should not be an issue. We are hopeful that we'll be delivering decent growth, both organically and also with the additional capacity that we're bringing online. Understood. Lastly, just one bookkeeping. In terms of our 9% volume growth during the quarter, how would this be faring versus our operating market growth? If you could just give some bit of Faring versus? Our operating market, like East and South and Northeast, what would be the blended growth in those markets and versus that our 9%, how does that fare? Kunal, early days, not all results are out. Our gut says that we would be at least 200-250 basis points higher than the industry. I think once the numbers are out for everyone, we can understand this better. Got it. Thank you so much, sir, all the best. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you. Sir, just to get more sense in terms of the capacity, obviously with the JP and the ongoing expansions, we will be close to 67 million tons by Q3 FY 2028. One, obviously we have mentioned that Northeast we will be adding up a broad idea, let's say even if we announce now also by FY 2028 end can we add 2 million-3 million tons there? Second, in terms of previously we were looking at to reach a 75 million tons by FY 2028. Particularly the Jaisalmer one, 6 million tons. Will that now be in FY 2029 that one can look at? I understand we will be announcing, but broadly it will not be coming in FY 2028 that is kind of clear that way one can look at? I think the way I would see this is that the path is clear, the milestone is definitely something we're looking at, but it's an indicative milestone. As 67, we are very clearly on that path. East grinding unit, as you also mentioned, should take us in the vicinity of 70 soon. Whether it happens in the last quarter of 2028 or first half of 2029, it doesn't change the game too much. As you would appreciate, Shravan, we are right now in the midst of executing roughly CapEx including if I were to see JP because we are stabilizing JP. We are handling 16 million-17 million tons as we speak. We have to be careful how many fronts we open. I think once we have this set settled and I think give us a couple of quarters, you might end up hearing more announcement from us. The way we see it, the journey to be a pan-India player by FY 2031 in roughly 110 million tons, that path is clear. A few quarters here and there actually don't make too much of a difference on this. Okay. Even if, let's say, 70, 67, and even if I add 2 million, 3 million ton Northeast, 70 million by FY 2028, in next four years, 2029, 2030, 2031, in three years, we need to add 40 million ton. Do we still want to achieve 110 million ton by FY 2031, because given that to achieve that, we need to do a significant CapEx, and then obviously the net debt will also significantly rise. Are we also thinking that even we will not mind it to reach by even FY 2034, FY 2035 also, or are still we sticking that by FY 2031 we want to reach 110 million ton? Puneet here. I think I have already said in many of my earnings call earlier that this is a directional number. Depending upon how the industry is doing, we can calibrate our speed, we can dial it up or dial it down. Couple of years here or there, it does not matter. Broadly, the direction is pan-India, the direction is going to be 110 million, 120 million tons, or 110 million-130 million tons. I think, let us see how the industry evolves. Let us see how the macro situation is. I think based on that, we will remain flexible. We have said this earlier also, and we are saying this now also. Let us take the example of 75. Our earlier target was financial year 2027. Now we are going to get close to it in financial year 2028. We are one year behind schedule. Heavens are not going to fall. I would just say that we will be disciplined about our capital allocation. We will be very focused on our strategy, we will focus on growth which is financially accretive. Yeah. Making sure that our balance sheets are healthy, we will not burst the bank of this. Yeah. Sir, that's what the feedback I also wanted to give. The more we- Mr. Shah. Delay would be better. Yeah, I'm just completing. Mr. Shah. I know. I'm just completing the sentence. You listen. That's what the feedback is. We should be looking at the balance sheet. We should not be minding in terms of delaying. The focus should be to keep on increasing the existing assets utilization and keep on improving the balance sheet. That's the feedback I just wanted to give. Thanks. Rest assured, we will be cognizant of that. Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Siddharth Mehrotra from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, just wanted to clarify this INR 3,200 crore-INR 3,400 crore number, that is excluding JP, right? It does not include JP. Yeah. CapEx. Yeah. Actually, I don't think the JP CapEx would change this number significantly. It's anyhow an INR 200 crore rupees range. We will be in the vicinity of this number, even including the JP CapEx, because even if we start executing the project, the cash flows will not happen immediately. You can pick up the same number, including JP also. Definitely this is not with the bulk INR 2,850 crore. That is on top of it. All the- Okay efficiency, startup CapExes is a part of this INR 3,400. That's organic. Inorganic is on top. Okay. Understood. Sir, I just wanted to clarify. In the slide we gave to investors when we first announced this deal, we noted a number of around 550 odd crores, including refurbishment and efficiency. Now that we are almost a couple of months away from when we gave out that number, is our estimate materially different? No, they're not materially different, but it is still a WIP thing for us, Siddharth. This will phase out gradually, but I don't think There are a lot of nuances and anyhow, the plants that we run, it is an evolving thing for us. I can tell you this 550 is the initial thing on the table. We'll give ourselves a few quarters to execute this, and then we'll keep adding as and when the needs arise. Understood, sir. Sir, we'd also highlighted that we can grow our capacities there by around 2 million ton odd number. Any sort of ballpark estimate on the timelines where we actually think about expanding capacity in these acquired assets? Again, Siddharth, very early in the day. Give us some time. Let us get a little more acclimatized with where we are. That is pretty much on the agenda, but that will happen sequentially. We can't jump the gun on day one. Understood, Sir. Secondly, I just noticed that in our slide, we've just slightly pushed forward the startup of our Pune plant. Is that with a view to balance our balance sheet situation, or are we sort of running delayed on the operational side of things in terms of execution? We had some teething troubles on the execution start point. That is the reason. Pune is not something that we have done for balancing our balance sheet right now. It's a new place for us. I think it took us a little more time to sort out certain issues, but I think we are back on track. Got it, Sir. Sir, for this entire year, do we expect to grow in line with the industry around 7%, 8%, or now that we have JP assets, would we be more optimistic of a slightly higher number? I think I'll maintain my position. Outside of acquisitions or new capacities, we want to grow in line with the industry. We actually want to do more, but you can take a guidance as in line with the industry. Whatever we add as capacity, either by acquisitions or new projects, that should be on top of it. Understood, sir. If I could just squeeze one. Mr. Mehrotra, I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir. Sure thing. I would request to kindly rejoin the queue. Yeah. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, kindly limit your questions to only one per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. We'll take the next question from Pinakin from HSBC. Please go ahead. Yeah, thank you very much. My question is on cement prices. We have seen after some time East India price increases going through and sustaining, but they still remain well below other regions in pan-India. In your view, you being a large player in Eastern India, what will it take for this price gap to narrow? Given what's happened in Bengal recently, can we expect the price gap to narrow this year, or is it more like the next two to three years where pricing gap between East and other regions can narrow? Pinakin, we don't have an answer that what will it take to make the prices stick. I think it's a very dynamic part of the industry, and I think you know this as good as I know it. We are hopeful good sense will prevail and better prices can happen, but let us see how it pans out. We have no other take on this topic. What we can tell you is that as a brand, we work on premiumization as a topic. Whether it is premium products or whether it is premium pricing, that is an agenda that we very strongly chase. What happens to market price is something for all of us to see together. Thanks. Got it. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you. Just on JP, a follow-up to one of the questions on within the pooling arrangement, you obviously built some distribution network, and it's been a while our channel checks suggest, just wanted to clarify that the volumes into the market were toned down significantly after the tolling period ended. Again, just following up, what kind of networks you already have and how long will it take maybe to rebuild or build on what you already had, and when do we look at profitability, absolute EBITDA profit from this plant? Tied to this would be that JP also has another asset, which I believe is for bidding the other Bhilai and Nigrie and all. Is that something that is on the table for you also to evaluate, the other set of assets to JP? I'll answer your question in parts. Number one, I think I'm repeating myself. This is not a new market for us. We did stay invested in the market by continuously supplying and continuing our relationship with the channel and making sure the brand is there in the market. I think for us to take a decent start should not be a major concern. There is still a lot of legwork that we have to do in the market because we have to multiply our numbers manifold. We have good start point in terms of presence. Point number two, I think how much time it will take for us to get at EBITDA. I think we would allow ourselves, as you would expect, we have taken the assets, we have got the fixed costs, and we have got some legacy issues also, and we are still yet to ramp up volumes and sell. Initial period will be tricky. It should take us a couple of quarters to be EBITDA neutral, I would say. I think we should be on track by the end of this year. Will give us, I don't know, might be seven, eight quarters for this set to give EBITDA in line with the normal Dalmia EBITDA. To your third point, can you repeat the last question? Sorry, I missed that. The other set of assets that JP had, which are also Other assets, I think we are participating in the process. We will wait and see how it pans out. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Raashi from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Thank you. Just checking, when would you expect the JP assets to coincide with Dalmia's organic EBITDA? EBITDA per ton. Raashi, I just answered that. As I said, couple of quarters for us to break even on EBITDA, might be seven, eight quarters to deliver EBITDA per ton in line with the other sets of Dalmia overall average. Okay. Again, as you would expect, early days for me to give a definite guidance. We will see how this pans out. I can tell you that we are very strongly working to make sure that it gets online ASAP. Got it. On the overall cost for Dalmia, I know you had mentioned that you were targeting cost reduction on internal efficiency to the tune of 50 to 100 per year. Is that still on track? That is definitely on track. When we closed March quarter Q4, we said that what we promised a couple of years ago, we have demonstrated that we have delivered, and now it is a continuous activity. I don't want to treat that as a guidance, but you can trust that we are working on that 24/7. Okay. Thank you. Just one last question I missed. What was the accrual incentive in this quarter? I think we mentioned that number. INR 45 crore. Okay. You received how much? 60. 60. Okay. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sarthak Tita from DSP Asset Managers. Please go ahead. Hi. Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I just have a small question on the cost side. On the power and fuel cost on the presentation, we have highlighted that we were able to weather the storm and we contained the fuel inflation by around INR 150 per tonne. Does this imply or will this cost be coming in on Q2? Should we think around that line? INR 70-INR 80 that you highlighted will be the only uptick in power and fuel cost in the second quarter? Just some clarity on that would be helpful. INR 150 is something that we were able to avoid, and I think there is no reason for us to believe that this will come and hit us in Q2. I think this is a permanent change in the way of working that we were able to do, and that's also included some part as an opening inventory impact. Looking at Q2, as I said, 10 days ago, we were looking at INR 70, INR 80 odd bucks, Q2 over Q1. Now with this evolving situation, we'll have to see how the story pans out. Right now, I would work with that number, but again, it's a very evolving place, so let us look out for that. There is one more factor, of course. I think diesel increases happened towards the end of May. Last quarter only had one month with full diesel cost impact. There would be an impact for that. Packing cost was very high in quarter one. That is improving in quarter two unless things go bad again. All put together, I think somewhere in the range of INR 70, INR 75 is what you would expect unless things turn drastically bad from where we are today. Got it. Thank you, sir. One small question. If at all, I don't know if you mentioned it earlier, but any number of volumes that you can indicate in the ramp-up of the new acquired unit that we started in the last 10 days, will that be material or it will be very small in amount? It definitely would be small. I don't know whether it will be very small, but I would not want to call out any numbers. I would again say give us some time, and I think we can share more details as time passes by. Okay, got it. Thank you so much, sir. All the best to the team. Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all the participants to kindly limit their questions to only one per participant as we have a long queue. We'll take the next question from Pulkit Patni from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Sir, I just have a bookkeeping question. This exceptional item that you have booked, just wanted to understand, since this is part of an acquisition, would it not be capitalized? Why is it being taken through the P&L? If you could help me understand that a little better. Pulkit, when you acquire a business, normally the accounting team asks you to choose either the business combination method of accounting of acquisition or the asset purchase. Since this was a business purchase, it was a lump sum amount for the whole lot of assets, it qualifies as a business combination. In business combination, you fair value the assets and account for, and then of course allocate to respective assets, pro rata, depending on the valuation report, purchase price allocation is done. Once this valuation has been done, stamp duty does not add any additional value to the asset. That this additional cost has to be charged off as per accounting standard. For tax purposes, this will be again considered as a capital asset and depreciation will be claimed on that. Had we followed the asset purchase, had we purchased individual asset, that this asset we are purchasing for this much value, this much value, then we would have gone. It would not have been from sale purchase, it would have been asset purchase, then stamp duty would have been capitalized. Business combination, you have to expense off all these transaction costs which do not add value to asset which is already fair valued. Okay, very clear. Hope that clarifies. Thanks for that. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from Prateek Kumar from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Good evening. I have one question on, like you have acquired quite a few small assets like Murli, Kalyanpur, Northeast operations, JP. How will you rate assets of JP versus some of these assets in terms of ability to scale up EBITDA per ton in line with your company benchmark? How is the pricing of central market for yourself versus your company average or like market average? I think we have to look at it from two lenses. One is the strategic aspect. I think it accelerates our entry into the central market, which we think is long-term, a very attractive market, both from a market structure point of view as well as a growth point of view. That's point number one. Point number two, it gives us a lot of flexibility in doing brownfield and debottlenecking options. We can average our cost down further from here. These are the big positives that we see, a lot of infrastructure is already here. There is railway siding, there is colony, there's lot of surplus land. I think this is a very large asset in terms of its footprint and a lot of infra already exists here. I think those are the positives. I think the negative here is that this plant was shut for a long time and it is a relatively older plant. I think we have to put some money into bringing it down in terms of the efficiency curve, the cost curve. That is what we are ascertaining. Overall, I think JP is known for building very good plants and technically excellent asset. We acquired Bokaro also from them in 2015, I think it really delivered very well for us. I think our team was familiar with this asset because we'd done tolling as well. I think overall, we think strategically we are quite well-positioned. It is just a slightly higher cost plant because they have not done enough CapEx that they should have to bring it down the cost curve. That is something we have to do some catch-up CapEx and efficiency CapEx to restart the plant and bring it down to the Dalmia efficiency curve. Overall, I think it ticks all the boxes in terms of what we think is strategically attractive and financially accretive. Another question on pricing. Mr. Kumar, I'm sorry, sir. You'll have to rejoin the queue for follow-up. No, this question was asked in the first question only. Okay. Yeah. What pricing? I was asking- We are pretty much buying it at not a very expensive valuation. We haven't paid a very high premium. It's close to replacement cost. The question was on market pricing, cement pricing. Cement price. Can you repeat your question, Prateek? Cement price or acquisition price? Cement price. Okay. Just come back with the question quickly, Prateek. The question was, how is the pricing of this season, your pricing versus your average pricing and your pricing versus central market pricing? I can just tell you, I don't have that data offhand, but I can tell you that once we enter the market, Our premium price positioning would be at par with the industry leaders, so I can tell you that. There won't be any discounting as such in our pricing. How much does it compare versus our overall average, I don't have that number offhand. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Indrajit Agarwal from CLSA. Please go ahead. Hi, thank you for the chance. This is. I'm sorry, sir. Your audio is not clear. Mr. Agarwal, I would request you to kindly use your handset. Can you hear me now? There's some disturbance on your end, try. Please use your handset while talking. Hi. What is the price versus? We can't hear. Sir, it's not clear. Do we have a brownfield expansion opportunity at JPA? I think we answered that question. We called it out in our investor deck also when we acquired the asset. We definitely have brownfield expansion, and we also called out the numbers. We are yet to do our full assessment. Brownfield, yeah. Both brownfield and debottlenecking are there on the table. Debottlenecking, we mentioned about that in our earlier investor presentation. Brownfield also, as Puneet mentioned, there are enough reserves, enough land. I think we should be able to look at it. This we'll more or less be detailing as we go forward. Sure. On price, exit versus quarter average? Sorry? The cement prices exit versus quarter average, how is it currently? June exit versus quarter one? Yeah. I think most of the markets have held steady. Bengal has seen some suppression of prices. In July, initial period, we have seen some uptick in South again. It's a very evolving space. We are not monitoring one date versus one average. Let us see how the quarter works for us. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gaurav Nagori from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead. Thanks. The question is, any update on the North region for it and/or are we going to see the delay because of priority to ramp up the JP assets? Also, are we looking to transport volumes from central to North market? Because what we hear is a lot of activity on the logistics side in Rajasthan by Dalmia. I don't think moving material from central to Rajasthan or North market is on the table. That is definitely not on the table. Regarding your point regarding expansion in North, I think Puneet detailed out very clearly. Our stated aspiration is to be a pan-India player. We are given milestone in terms of capacity and years. North is definitely going to be there on the table, but when it happens and when do we announce, I think that we will come back to you as we go along. Can't comment on that. All right. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jashandeep Singh Chadha from Nomura. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on a good set of numbers. My question to you, Puneet, is over the year 2027-2028, as per year, what is the capacity that will be added in the Eastern region? Do you think the East industry is in the last leg of massive capacity addition? Yatin, just on JP, while you were calculating your internal IRR and return, even if you can give us an indicative number, what sort of utilization and EBITDA per ton you were working with? Just an indication will also work. Your first question is how much capacity is getting added in East. Is that yours? Yes, sir. In 2027-2028. I think if we just put the numbers that we have in front of us, we are looking at 10 million to 11 million ton getting added in both the years industry-wide, but I think you can be a better judge of that than us. We have a number of 10 to 11 in each year, 2027 and 2028. Regarding your second question, what number I was working on in terms of EBITDA and volume, I think Jashandeep will have to I don't think I'll be very specific on that. I can just tell you that it's a very promising region. We're looking at higher capacity utilization. As I said, in six to eight quarters, I'm looking at EBITDA turning at the current Dalmia normal average level. I think you can put two and two together with that. Right. Just one thing on capacity, do you think East, beyond this, will not see a massive capacity addition? Is the industry in the last leg of massive capacity addition that we are seeing for the last five years? Jashandeep, I would not hazard a guess on that. What I am very clear on is that East, Dalmia has invested a little ahead of time. We are very well entrenched. The markets are opening up. Every state, I think, offers a great promising opportunity in terms of demand. I think East is going to be a strong region for the industry and for us. That's the way we see it. How much everyone else is adding and what is that number adding up to, I think the demand should be able to take care of the supply. Understood. Thank you so much. With the West Bengal elections also, I think. Yeah. I think every state looks to us as very promising state in terms of potential demand. Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be taking the last question for today from Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah, I said. Mr. Ravi, I am sorry, sir. Your audio is not clear. Please use your handset. Am I audible now? Yes. It is much better. Please continue. Could you explain this mark-to-market income which is booked in the other income? Is it related to FX? If I recollect, earlier this was moving to other comprehensive income. No. The FX gain goes into other comprehensive income. Right. Whatever is in other income is only for the treasury investments into mutual funds and the bonds. Okay. This would be fully quarter? This is because of the market yields. If you remember quarter four, the yields had gone up, so we had a mark-to-market losses at that time. Market yields corrected in this quarter after the policy announcement and because of the attraction of RBI's measures to attract global capital in the form of FPIs and FCBs. The rates have come down. That is why the mark-to-market gains have come. On average, you can assume that treasury yields will be close towards 6.5%-7%, not more than that. That's it from my end. Thank you. Thank you. As that was the last question for today, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Puneet Dalmia for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you very much. Again, we appreciate your interest in us, and thank you for the engagement, and thank you for the feedback. We are very excited by the acquisition and the greenfield build-out that we are doing. I think in the next few quarters, and over the next two, three years, I think we have very exciting times ahead. Thank you for your interest. Take care. Have a great weekend. Bye. Thank you, sir. Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of Dalmia Bharat Limited, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.