Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Finolex Industries Q3 and 9 Months FY25 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by ICICI Securities. 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 the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Arun Baid from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome all to the Q3 FY25 post-event call of Finolex Industries. From the management side, we have Mr. Saurabh Dhanorkar, Managing Director, and Mr. Chandan Verma, CFO. Now I hand over the call to Mr. Dhanorkar for his opening remarks post his closing opening for Q&A. Over to you, Mr. Dhanorkar. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the investors' conference call for Q3 FY25 earnings release. We thank you all for your continued support and interest in Finolex Industries Limited. FIL registered a modest volume growth during the quarter in spite of overall weak demand scenarios. Operating performance of the company was muted during the quarter due to weaker realization. Let me now take you through some of the performance indicators for Q3 FY25. Total income from operations was ₹1,001 crores for Q3 FY25, down about 1.8% against ₹1,019 crores in Q3 FY24. EBITDA decreased to ₹83 crores in Q3 FY25 as compared to ₹120 crores in Q3 FY24. EBITDA margins during the quarter stood at 8.3% compared to 11.8% in the corresponding quarter of Q3 FY24. The company reported a PAT of ₹70.96 crores in FY25 Q3 against ₹89.21 crores in Q3 FY24. Now getting into segmental performance, for the pipes and fittings segment, revenue remained almost flat at INR 992 crores compared to INR 991 crores in FY24. Volume in the segment increased by 5.5% YOY to 85,767 metric tons in Q3 FY25 against 81,312 metric tons in the corresponding last quarter. The EBIT in the segment decreased to INR 32.13 crores in Q3 FY25 as compared to INR 74.24 crores in Q3 FY24. Moving to the PVC resin segment, revenue in the segment stood at INR 413 crores as compared to INR 321 crores in the corresponding quarter. Volume in the segment increased by almost 30% to 56,830 metric tons against 43,037 metric tons in Q3 FY24. EBIT in the resin segment stood at INR 39.17 crores as compared to INR 30.88 crores in the corresponding previous quarter in this year. The company continues to have a strong balance sheet with a net cash surplus of around INR 2,300 crores as of 31st December 2024 as compared to INR 1,570 crores in the corresponding previous year quarter. I have with me our CFO, Mr. Chandan Verma, to take some of the questions. I am also here for your questions. Let me now leave the floor open for questions. Thank you so much. Good evening, all the participants. This is Chandan from Finolex. Hello? Yes, Chandan, sir. Yeah, you can take the question. Okay, sir. The floor is open for the question. Okay, sir. Thank you very much. We will 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 withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets only while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have our first question from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah, thank you, sir. Sir, a couple of things to understand. So in nine months, we have broadly done 3.9% volume growth. So how one can look at the fourth quarter and till now in January and February 10, how are we seeing the volume growth? And if you can also help us in terms of the next year or maybe a couple of years, particularly previously we were looking at 10%-15% kind of a growth. So how one can look at? Yeah, thanks, Shravan. Basically, this year so far in the nine months has not been as good as we expected at the beginning of the year. Overall, the industry has not really performed well, and I believe it's not just the pipes industry. Overall, of course, there is a weak demand. So the nine months in the pipe and fittings, we have, as I mentioned, slightly above 5% growth. As of obviously, we won't be able to give exact numbers for January, but January also has not been very exciting. There is a very modest growth. So to give some guidance, we will be, I think, closing the year definitely with growth, but more likely a single-digit growth than a double-digit growth. Unless, of course, some miracle happens in the next month or so. The demand has definitely picked up compared to January. February is doing well. Demand has picked up both on the agri and the non-agri side. But overall, to achieve more than 10% growth as we estimated at the beginning of the year, to be very honest, looks like a perfect view. Talking about next year, again, we are enthused by the recent schemes announced by the Government of India in the last budget, the SWAMIH scheme for affordable housing, Jal Jeevan Mission extended to 2028, GandharanYoYa mission for which will benefit more than 1.7 crore farmers. So both on the agri and non-agri side, definitely things are looking up. There is fundamentally nothing has gone wrong with the economy as a whole. So probably the demand dip or the slight slowdown in demand which we saw this year will bounce back next year. Next year, we are. I wouldn't say very sort of hopeful. I would say quite confident of a double-digit growth. Okay, got it. But looking at the January and February, is it fair that we can do a 5%-10% kind of a growth in the Q4, or it would be a kind of a 5%? No, no, yes, yes, yes, yes. Definitely, definitely. For the quarter, definitely. For the quarter, definitely. Yeah. And now on the margin front, how one can look at because now two aspects to that. One is obviously the anti-dumping duty. So if you can help, is there any kind of a timeline that in next by end of February, can we see that coming in? And if not, then how do we see the prices on the QOQ front? And then ultimately, how one can look at in terms of the EBITDA margin front? On the resin side, for the prices to look up, there are a couple of aspects. One, as you rightly said, the anti-dumping duty. And two, the BIS quality mandate. Now, the BIS quality mandate, I think, has been postponed to June 25, so that's not likely to happen immediately. Anti-dumping duty is on the cards, but we have been saying that for the last two, three months, it can happen in the next 15 days, but with the bureaucracy being bureaucracy, you can't be very sure. So if that doesn't come through, we are looking at more or less flattish PVC prices. I don't think there is any more room for the prices to fall further. If there is anti-dumping duty, yes, then there will be an immediate increase. But from our perspective, we also look at the current prices. If there is some stability at lower level, that always then ultimately pushes up the demand for pipes and fittings because people wait for some time to rebuild their inventory because they don't want to carry inventory when prices are falling. But if there is stability for a couple of months, then yes, the demand will bounce back. So either way, I think going ahead, I don't know if January-February is too short a period to make any comments. But if you look at the next six months, then yes, we definitely see a bounce in demand. So in that scenario, in terms of the margin level, whether at an EBITDA level, is it fair that we can have an 11% kind of a margin in FY26? Generally, I think as a strategy, as a policy, we have not been giving absolute numbers as a guideline. The margins this quarter, particularly in the last quarter, dipped a bit because of competition. Everybody did a bit of discounting to push out the stocks. Now that the inventory levels are not very high, we see the prices, despite what happens to the PVC resin, we see the pipe and fitting prices moving up marginally because there is no pressure on discount and all that. So yeah, I wouldn't put a number to it, but yes, we see improvement in margins going ahead. Okay. And lastly, on the expansion front, so 40,000 to 50,000 tons we were supposed to add by March 2025. And for next year, I think the next expansion, we were looking at greenfield, I think 1 lakh plus kind of a number. So if you can update on that front. Yeah. Out of this 50,000 tons expansion at the current locations, about 45% of that has the machines have already arrived. But we won't complete the entire 50,000 by Q4 FY25. So about 25,000 tons roughly will come in this quarter, Q4 FY25. The remaining 25,000 will go into Q1 FY26. So that completes the 50,000 tons capacity expansion at the existing locations. The greenfield capacity is still on hold because currently we are still optimizing whatever we have, getting rid of the old machines and increasing the capacity at the existing locations because we see a lot of value instead of going for a greenfield Capex because return on investment at the existing locations is much, much better than going for a greenfield. So greenfield, yes, it is there on the cards. A lot of work has been done, but too early to share anything. But I don't think you are going to hear any announcement, at least in the next six months, about a greenfield project. Got it. And in nine months, how much CapEx we have done? And for Q4, how much tons? And next year, given that the greenfield is not there, let's say, so currently, how one can look at the CapEx? I think this year we will. I don't have the exact CapEx number for nine months, but this year we will end up slightly above INR 100 crore, including maintenance CapEx. Next year would be more or less similar, nothing no big. Because we also have some maintenance CapEx every year to be taken care of in the resin plant. Between INR 100-INR 150 crore for both of this. Got it. And then this cash surplus INR 2,300 crore, nothing concrete plan in terms of returning to those areas? That is for our board to decide at the end of the year, Shravan. So I really can't comment on that. But yes, that is one of the possibilities. But obviously, that's the board's decision. Okay. Thank you, sir. All the best. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask questions. I repeat, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Ritesh Shah from Investec. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Couple of questions. First is on the land bank sale. Are we done with all of it, or is a part of it still left? And what is it that we have realized so far? Part of it is still left. We don't intend to sell that immediately. So overall, we had about 70-odd acres, out of which now 10 acres is still left. We are done with the remaining. This year, we have a gain of INR 417 crore and odd. Overall, I think. Around INR 900 crores. Yeah. Overall, we made about INR 900 crores from sale of land. So we still have about 15% of the land bank with us. But there is no immediate plan to sell that. Sir, why the significant gap between INR 417 crores and INR 900 crores? Sorry, I didn't get your question. Sir, why is it? 900 is the overall because we started at a particular price, and then we kept selling 25, 25 acres at a time. So the overall gain is about part of it went into not FY23. And in FY25, it is INR 417 crores. The land bank which we sold during this year is INR 417 crores. That's good. Sir, second is possible for you to quantify PVC and CPVC volume growth for the quarter, if not, say, for nine months? Chandan would you be able to help on that? Ritesh, can you please repeat the question? Volume growth. Sir, volume growth for PVC and CPVC separately? PVC volume growth during the quarter is 30%. When we are talking about the PVC. No, no, no. You're talking PVC pipes. You're talking PVC pipes, right? Yeah, yeah. CPVC. PVC pipe and fitting has gone up by 5% during the current quarter, whereas on the full-year basis, nine-month basis, it has gone up by the 4%. CPVC separately, CPVC more or less remained at around 3%-4% increase from the corresponding quarter of the last year. Sir, isn't that quite low? In fact, lower than PVC also resulted a bit surprising. So what happens is CPVC, we keep pushing in the market. So generally, the PVC CPVC volume remains in the same line from the quarter sometimes. So we keep pushing the CPVC product in the market. But overall volume, it will come in gradually, but not instantly. Okay. And sir, lastly, if you can highlight what is our current capacity, I think it's around 470 pipes and fittings. If you can bifurcate it in fittings, and how should we see this number of 470 going forward, say, year-end and next year? So 420 breakup is 420 for pipe, and 50,000 is for fitting. Right? So as Mr. Dhanorkar rightly explained in our previous question, that we are going to add 50,000 more capacity, partly in Q4 of this year and in Q1 of the next year. So our revised post all this expansion, our revised pipe capacity will become 470,000, and the fitting capacity will remain at 50,000 level. So overall basis, we will be at from 470 to 520. Perfect. That is very helpful. Thank you so much for the answers. And Dhanorkar sir, good to hear you again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Sneha Talreja from Nuvama. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Good afternoon. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Just two questions from my end. Firstly, on the demand front, we have seen a start of agri season. How is the demand both on the plumbing side and on the agri side? And secondly, we have seen a fall of about three odd INR in terms of PVC prices. Are you looking at another price drop, or how is the PVC price scenario at this point of time? Thanks. Yeah, thank you. Basically, on the demand front, as I explained to Shravan, it has not really taken off as much as we were expecting in January. February, now the last eight, 10 days, yes, we have seen demand picking up both on agri as well as plumbing. That is partly because the channels are not carrying too much inventory, so that has helped, but yes, PVC resin prices dropped by INR 3 last week, and obviously, there would be a requirement, although we haven't dropped as yet, there would be some correction on the pipes and fittings prices also because the competition will require, so right now, we are watching the competition to see how it goes. But yeah, things are not so aggressive right now for us not to pass on the dip, so you can expect some dip in the realization. But you were saying it's one week down the line and no price downward action by any of the players or you at this point of time on ground? This was only about three days ago, three days ago. So I think everybody's in a bit because people want to hold on to the prices, but I think it's hovering first. So as of now, we have not gone ahead with any further discounts. Understood, so that's helpful. Thanks. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Ashutosh Khetan from Asian Market Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi sir. I just wanted to ask the PVC- EDC and PVC- VCM spreads for the quarter as well as the current ones? PVC EDC spread during the quarter average, it was around INR 517. PVC VCM spread is $167 per metric ton. As of now, sitting on today's date, the PVC EDC spread is INR 482, and PVC VCM spread is $165. Okay, sir. The second question is about how much% of the total volumes is CPVC currently? Sorry? For the pipes and the fitting segment, what total percentage of volumes is CPVC? CPVC in terms of percentage, I think it's around 5%, 3%-4% around. The total contribution of CPVC in the total volumes? That's what I'm saying. Okay. Okay. The 85,767 metric ton, around 5% contributes to CPVC volume. Okay. Thank you so much. That's it. Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Vipul Kumar Shah from Sumangal Investments. Please go ahead. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Welcome back, Dhanorkar sir. Thank you. Thank you, sir. So what is our agri non-agri mix for the quarter and nine months? So for Agri during the current quarter, our mix is 67, 33. Whereas corresponding quarter of the last year, it was 68 versus 32 on a quarter-on-quarter basis. And on a nine-month basis, current nine months is 66, 34. And whereas in the last year's nine months, it was 63 versus 32. So it is going up. The ratio of non-agri is going up 100 basis points at a time, not as fast again, not as fast as we wanted. But yeah, it's going up. So from last year, 66%, it has moved to 68% now. But still, it is not reflected in the profitability, sir. See, profitability this year, especially the last quarter, has been affected, let me be very open about it, by some discounting which happened across the industry. I think all the players then resorted to some discounting because some inventory which was built up in anticipation of demand. And when the demand didn't catch up, some discounts which were not normal were thrown in the market. So that has affected. It has nothing to do much with the ratio. Can you quantify that discount, sir? Is it possible? No, to be very honest, offhand, I can't do this. But if you see that despite the volumes going up and PVC prices more or less the same, if you see that the realizations have come down, and this is, I think, more than 50% due to the discounting. But to be very honest, I don't have that exact number. Sir, what should be our steady-state volume, yearly volume for PVC resins? Because it has shown 30% growth this year. Is there any one-off, or how do you read it, sir? No, I think that the growth is because last year we had annual maintenance shutdown, and this year we didn't have. So otherwise, PVC resin plant runs at full capacity. So there is no reason for any one-time increase in the volume. So this will be the steady state, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, sir. And all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, boss. Thank you. Thank you. We have a follow-up question from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you again. Yes, sir. Sir, yeah. Sir, this agri non-agri, our plan is to reach a 50-50 in next three, four years. So that remains intact. And do we think that in three, four years, we can reach to that level, or maybe it will take much longer time to reach a 50-50? No, no, no. It is definitely very, very doable. This year, as I said, because the demand generally has been weak, the industry itself didn't grow, and we didn't really achieve increase in market share. But going to 15, four years is definitely a possibility. Definitely. That is the target. That is what we are working on. All our plans, all our budgets are aligned with that goal. Okay. Got it. And sir, in this Q3, was there any inventory loss? No. No inventory loss. Okay. Got it. And sir, this quarter, the other income, which was INR 82.6-odd crore, was significantly higher. So is there any one-off in that? No, there's no one-off. It's basically because it generally consists of interest and mark-to-market gain loss for the securities and investment that we are carrying. It is only on account of that. Okay. So otherwise, on a normalized basis, one can say kind of a INR 50-55 crore, that's a normal run rate in terms of the other income. Obviously, it depends on the net cash level. It keeps on increasing. This will keep on rising, but that's the way one can look at. So even if you see the current, as you rightly said, it is around the same range that you're talking about. So current quarter's other income is 48 crore only. So it's in the same range that you're talking. Okay. Okay. Got it. And sir, whenever, let's say, we will announce the expansion, will it be kind of a, let's say, once we reach this 470-odd thousand tons by June? So from there, only the 1 lakh that previously we have talked about, that's the range only one can look at. And in terms of overall CapEx, even whenever we go for a greenfield also, then also it would be a 300-400 crore, not more than that kind of a CapEx is needed. That's right. That's right. Definitely not more than 300. There's no plan for anything larger than that. You're right. Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you and all the best. Thanks, Shravan. Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Varun Jain from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, sir. So most of my questions have been taken up. So just had a question on what are the channel inventory levels right now. Do you think the channel is at a very low level, or is it moderately low? How is it? No, channel is at pretty low levels, yes, because with the prices not being very stable and the channel not expecting any price increases immediately, last month or so, there have not been any build-up in their inventories. So they are, I would say, at low levels. Yeah, at low levels. Do you think there will be an inventory loss in Q4 since there was a price decline of INR 3? Since the ADD is not in sight and we have already reached half of the quarter. No, we are not expecting any kind of inventory loss also, so too early to say, but we are not expecting any inventory loss for Q4. Okay. Okay, sir. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Udit Gajiwala from YES Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, sir. Just one clarification. You said that the February month is better than January. But could you give some color as to how is the discounting and the competitive intensity still going on, and that will keep on denting the margins to get the volumes? No. I think the competitive intensity, which I think prevailed for some time in November and early December, that has now come down because I think people are comfortable with whatever they are carrying. So I think going ahead, there would not be the normal, of course, price adjustments based on the market, I mean, based on the previous resin prices, up and down will happen. But the extra discounting will not happen now. I don't think so. So is it like is that already stopped, or that will ease down going ahead? I mean, then February, maybe the discounting could have continued. Is that understanding right? No. To some extent, I think the discounts which were probably there were some discounts which were thrown in as a quarterly scheme or something that if you leave so much by December, you'll get so much extra. So that is behind us. So that was for the quarter. So right now, nobody has announced any fresh schemes. So hopefully, the overall realization for this quarter would automatically improve. Got it. Got it. And sir, just lastly, since the greenfield CapEx has been still kept on hold, do we see any capacity constraints coming in to even grow, say, 10%-12% CAGR for next two years on enhanced capacity? No, I didn't get your question. You meant the VCM capacity? Sorry, I didn't get the question. Yeah. Yeah. So sir, with the capacity that we are enhancing with the brownfield for coming year and the next year, if we want to grow volumes by, say, 12, 12% each for next two years, 26 and 27, do we see some capacity constraints coming in by 27? Yeah. If we don't grow today, we are running at about 68%-69%. So by next year, if we don't go for greenfield, we still have adequate land and this at our Baroda plant at Ratnagiri. So at both the places, the infrastructure is there. So we'll have to basically decide whether it will be the next expansion will be greenfield or brownfield. But some expansion will have to be considered maybe in second half, starting from second half of FY26. So we won't come to a situation where capacity will be constrained. And in pipes, you know extrusion, it takes hardly about six months to put up capacity other than greenfield. So brownfield, if we decide that we are or if we see that we are running short of capacity, we can jack up immediately. There is adequate infrastructure at Ratnagiri and Masar, both the places. Okay. And sir, for the greenfield Capex, is there consideration of moving out of these western regions to put up a plant, or there are still no decisions yet, I mean? No, it will have to be outside the western region. Obviously, that's the only thing which will be changed, and for one of the constraints for this, I don't know. This must have been discussed in the earlier conference calls also, but we have this mindset of whenever we go for a location, we go for a full-fledged. We don't do 20, 30, 40 thousand tons, so it has to be a minimum of 100, 150 thousand tons kind of a plan, so even as of today, the east market is not that large enough for us to warrant an immediate decision. Yeah, we are growing in that market, but we can today afford to take a few months more to arrive at that conclusion, I mean, arrive at the decision to start building. Got it. And sir, just last one, if I may squeeze in, you mentioned that Jal Jeevan Mission in the budget allocation, that could be a tailwind. But do we have any plans to enter the OPVC markets, or do we have existing capacity or any plans on it? The OPVC, in my opinion, and I believe this has probably must have been discussed earlier also, is a highly hyped product. Today, the OPVC capacity or the sale in India is not even 1% of the total pipes. That 1% may become 2% or 3%. And Jal Jeevan Mission is not OPVC. I don't think Jal Jeevan Mission has anything to do with OPVC. OPVC will be a very, very, very small part of Jal Jeevan Mission. Jal Jeevan Mission is basically for all sizes of pipes. And so whether somebody has OPVC or not, he can participate very, very heartily in the Jal Jeevan Mission. Understood, sir. That's something new to hear, but yeah, we get your point. Thank you for making us understand. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Chinmay Nema from Prescient Capital. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, sir. I had a couple of questions on the non-agri side. So if you could share the, as you guys that the intention is to take the non-agri share to about 50% in three to four years' time. I think this guidance has been there for some time. If you could share what are the key three, four initiatives or strategies that are in place to achieve this, and moreover, what are the challenges that you are facing in scaling up this business? See, when we talk about non-agri, there are two segments to the non-agri market: the retail segment and the project segment. Because of our already existing large retail presence, we have been doing whatever. In fact, we have come from we used to be 80-20 at one time. So from 80-20, we have slowly steadily moved to now 66-34. So there is a steady risk, but that is primarily on the retail side. We have traditionally not been very active on the project side till a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago when we started really looking at project side, that's a big business. The project side is a big business for non-agri, and all the Lodha and Misspelled builder name (possibly 'Hiranandani' or 'Raheja') Uncertain and -Misspelled builder name (possibly 'Damac', 'Dosti', or 'Runwal' and all this, that's a big segment which we were really not much into. Now, since a couple of years, we started that process, and as we are talking today, we have a very, very active, very strong, very experienced team separately handling the project business. They don't look at retail at all. Earlier, we were doing the project business through our retail network and through the same salespeople. Today, we have deep contacts with the MEP consultants, with the builders themselves. And so that's what's driving this. And going ahead, now we are approved in almost 100 MEP consultants, which we were hardly 10 or 20. So that's a very, very steady progress we have done on the project side. And I think that presence will surely kickstart a much, much larger growth rate on the non-agri side. Retail, of course, we continue to expand the network. We participate in the schemes. We do the marketing marcom activities. We work with the retailers. So that's an ongoing thing. But more than that, I think the big push will come from the project side. And just to add what Mr. Dhanorkar is saying, we have developed an in-house analytics team. We are helping us to ensure in which segment, in which time the demand of a particular SKU or the particular product is coming into. So we are getting into the more detailed analysis of efficiency kind of study where the product concentration, product timing that we are studying, that is also going to help us to pushing our non-agri sales. Understood. Also, what is the current split between retail and the projects on the non-agri front? If you could share that. Current projects would be hardly 10%-15%, and there's a big, big scope to go higher in that. Got it, sir. Competition for some of the larger players, it is much higher. Okay, and on the retail side, in our more established markets where we have leadership in the agri space, could you share how far behind are we from the market leader in terms of number of SKUs or any other metric that you would essentially gauge for industry positioning of different players in the PVC? On the Agri side? Sir, on the non-agri side. So basically in the markets where we have a certain leadership, where we are on the non-agri side? Yeah. Non-agri side, we do have certain SKUs which the competition has. But overall, in the last couple of years, we have caught up with many of them. Like ball valves is a big thing we were missing out also. We have a full team and full production of ball valves. That's one segment. But yeah, the SKUs, SKU-wise, I think we are still maybe 5%-7% behind others. But I don't think that's really seriously hampering our revenue to a great extent. But yes, we are catching on. We already have plans to add most of them, except maybe a couple of items which we particularly I can't name them now, but we don't want to get into. But other than that, I don't think we'll be lacking in revenue because we don't have any SKUs. So by the end of year, we would be fully equipped. Sir, what kind of credit days do we operate on the retail side? I understand that on the agri side, it's more of a cash and carry model. Yeah. Agri is fully cash and carry. On the retail side, about average 45 days. Got it, sir. And lastly, and I'll get back on the queue after this, on the agri side, how should one think about the growth in the medium to long-term perspective? Is it largely the 6%-7% industry growth, or do you see any tailwinds in that segment? No, see, basically agri is very much linked to the GDP growth. So typically about 2-3% higher than the GDP growth. So it's really linked to the economy. So going ahead, if you are looking at 6-7% for the GDP as a whole, maybe about 9-10% for the agri side. Got it, sir. That's very helpful. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Salil Desai from Marcellus Investment Managers. Please go ahead. Thank you. Sir, I did not quite understand this discounting wind that you explained. Did you mean to say that in the quarter in December, there was heavy discounting, which has now stopped, or it was there in quarter two and wasn't there in Q3? No, no. It was there in Q3. And as I said, these were basically discounts which were not prevailing earlier and which were not linked to the drop in PVC prices. These were discounts announced in the form of, say, quarterly schemes that if you for a particular dealer or distributor, if he lifts X quantity by 31st December, then he would get 1%, 2%, whatever extra. So these were discount schemes, not as a reduction in the basic price itself, but these were additional incentives offered for lifting before 31st December. So as of now, obviously, they have been withdrawn because the schemes ended on 31st December, and we don't foresee that coming back now. Thank you. So in that context, let's say in the quarter three, you had some of these discounts which have not been there as part of regular practice. Then the profitability improvement in pipes and fittings from Q2 to Q3, what would you attribute it to if you had to break down the top two or three drivers of this? What would those have been? First driver definitely would be the volume. Volume see, if you see even quarter and quarter growth from the Q2 to Q3, there is a significant increase in the volume. Volume from the quarter two to quarter three has gone up by 24%. That is the major contributor to the earnings that we have received. Okay. That would be like bulk of the change, or there have been some? Yeah, yeah. That is why we are getting our profitability during the current quarter. So 24% jump from the last quarter is a massive jump. That has contributed to the bottom line. I see. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. That helps. Yeah. I'm done with some questions. You can proceed. Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Rahul Agarwal from Ikigai Asset Managers. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, three questions. Firstly, you said January February has seen better volumes. Just wanted to understand how is it different for plumbing versus agri? Could you just break that down, and qualitatively, could you make us understand how do you see agri and plumbing volumes progressing in this quarter, please? That's the first question. As I said, January was more or less flat-ish. January, there's increase. What we have seen is only in the last 10 days or so in February. January, there was no great thing. But February now, we see agri, especially when it picks up, it picks up. So more on the agri side, there is a very, very clear visibility of this. On the non-agri side, yes, we have bagged a few new projects, and that is driving the growth. And overall, as I said, the channels are not carrying too much of inventory. So the slowdown which happened in the last quarter until January. Today, whatever the demand pickup overall, the channels are now they have started stocking up. Got it. So, so far, January being flat YOY, first 10 days, agri is picked up faster, non-agri is more projects, and retail non-agri is still slower. It just started to pick up. Is that correct? Yeah, more or less. Got it. Secondly, on Jal Jeevan Mission, I mean, this topic has been discussed quite a bit now on plastic pipes. I always assumed that the project orders under Jal Jeevan Mission were not very big for companies like us. So could I understand, let's say, fiscal 25 or 24 in terms of volumes, did Finolex really participate into Jal Jeevan Mission? Is it like some decent amount of volume we have sold under this project? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically, see, Jal Jeevan Mission is not that the government buys directly from us. So basically, the pipes go all across, and it is spread all over. So wherever you have a distributor, retailer, the pipes flow into that. And basically, Jal Jeevan Mission is to bring water on tap to every household. So I think somebody mentioned about OPVC. OPVC is a very small part of that. So many of our dealers have participated very, very actively in the Jal Jeevan projects. And this happens at even village levels. So because of our strong presence everywhere, compared to some of the competition, we are doing much better in the Jal Jeevan Mission. Got it. So would you attribute the nine-month sales volume being slower purely because on a YoY basis because JGM volumes have been much lower this year? Is that understanding correct? No, I don't. That's because, as I said, the pipes in the Jal Jeevan Mission go. We definitely know that a lot of pipes go, but we don't track because when my distributor buys, say, 20 truckloads in a month, out of that, two truckloads may be going to Jal Jeevan or six may be going to Jal Jeevan. Frankly, we don't track that. Yes. Because we see that the pipes go. We get feedback. When we talk to them, we get that feedback. But we don't have a system of tracking every pipe which has gone into the Jal Jeevan Mission. So to be very honest, I won't be able to give a very, very definitive reply to that question, how much has the Jal Jeevan Mission contributed positively or negatively on our growth. Overall, yes. Overall, Jal Jeevan has definitely contributed to the growth in the pipes business as a country, as an industry, definitely. But in the nine months, whether we did better or not, to be very honest, I don't have those numbers. Right, right. Yeah, I understand that. I understand the limitations. But for the overall industry, would you have a guess as in overall sales volume for JGM over 12-month period, how much would that be? Would it be upwards of two, three lakh tons or maybe higher than that? As an industry or for us? No, for the industry. For us, I understand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It would be easily about 2-3 lakh tons. But maybe slightly higher than that. So maybe I should like 5 lakh tons is a reasonable assumption? Yeah. Pipes and fittings? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Got it, sir. And thirdly, the last question on new product pipeline, both under and mostly on the non-agri, agri, whatever, but PVC, CPVC, how does the new product pipeline look like for fiscal 26 for Finolex? Any meaningful innovations or R&D which is happening right now which you are excited about? Yeah. I don't think any meaningful R&D happens in the pipe and fitting industry. What talking about, to be honest. But yes, new products like the for the fire CPVC for fire sprinklers, there's some of those. I mean, the same pipe with slight modification goes into different applications. And yes, we are following them, and we are getting into all those applications. But if you ask whether any big R&D is happening, no. Not at Finolex, not at any of this. That pipes will be pipes, will be pipes, fittings will be fittings. You will have brass fittings. You will have CPVC fittings. You will have so something which is going to be earth moving, no. Nothing is going to happen like that. Got it, sir. And you said on the credit period, on agri is cash and carry, non-agri retail is 45 days. How about non-agri projects, sir? How would you handle your no slippage on the balance sheet on receivables? How does that work right now for Finolex? No, sorry. I didn't get the question. What was it? How do we answer? I'm referring to non-agri project business, which right now is pretty small, 10%-15%. But incrementally, if we take more projects, how would we ensure the balance sheet quality in terms of no receivable issue? And what is the credit period you're offering on projects? No, basically, again, when we talk about projects, we don't supply anything directly to the builders. It is all through our channel. So the credit will remain the same to the channel. It is for the channel partner to then tie up with the builder to see how he manages his cash flow. We have no intention of increasing our credit just because we are more into projects, we have no intention of increasing our credit limits for them. Okay. Perfect. And these dealers are also under channel finance for non-agri sales? Yeah, yeah, they are. They are channel finance. Incrementally, that should increase, or is it almost done there? You mean the overall number of partners or number of the amount of credit you are saying? Yeah. I was saying the channel finance penetration within the existing channel network, is that reasonably covered, or you think there is more scope for channel finance for dealers right now? There is scope for channel finance. When we arrange channel finance for them through banks, I think it's more of the banks following up with them and getting them in their fold. That's in the interest of the banks. So that's an ongoing process. And not all of our dealers are today availing channel finance. So there is scope for increase there, but without affecting our credit quality. Yes. Perfect. It's all non-recourse, right? Non-recourse to Finolex. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Non-recourse. Perfect, sir. Thank you so much for answering my questions. Best wishes to you, sir, for the next year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Karan Bhatelia from Asian Markets Securities. Please go ahead. Hi. Am I audible? Yes, yes, absolutely. Sir, my question is with respect to the PVC resin business, while the volumes are up 30%, spreads are better on a YoY basis, but still the EBIT per kg remains to be at INR 7. So can you make us understand? So, see, the prices of PVC that we sell to our own captive consumption largely depend upon the market. It's a market linked price. So as the prices of PVC in the market will go down, our transfer price to the other segment will also go down. So you see there is a decline in the PVC prices from Q2 to Q3. So that has resulted in the lower realization per ton basis. Okay. I was referring more on the YOY numbers, sir. Even for the YOY basis, the overall basis, the PVC prices have seen a declining trend. So that is how this is referring to that is why our realization per ton is going down on a YOY basis also. Okay, okay. And how is our Finolex Plasson business doing? What's the capacity operation there and any CapEx plans? See, the Finolex Plasson we don't actively participate in their management. So we are more like though we consolidate their numbers, we are more like a passive investor. That business is growing, business is doing well, but we understand they don't have any large CapEx plans. But beyond that, to be honest, we don't have any exact numbers with them. It's only at the end of the year we just, I think, we catch up with whatever they're doing and consolidate the numbers. We don't actively participate in their decision-making. Right, right. And lastly, on the SKU addition, so can you help us out if the focus remains on the non-agri side, how faster will be the SKU offerings will increase over next two to three years? So this year itself, we have. It's an ongoing process, adding to the SKUs. So as I said, probably by FY26 or early FY27, I don't think there'll be any SKUs which we don't have and the competition has. Right. So this could be in the range of 2,500 SKUs as on date? Yeah, yeah. We have, yeah, more than 2,500, yes. Okay, okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that would be the last question for today, and I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your interest in the company. Thank you for your questions. I hope we have answered most of the questions. You are most welcome to get in touch with us, with Chandan Verma. If you have any follow-up questions, we'll be very happy to answer them. Have a wonderful day. Thank you. Bye. Thank you all. Thank you for all the participants. Have a great time ahead. Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.