Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Kalyan Jewellers India Limited Q4 and FY 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on a touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rahul Agarwal from Strategic Growth Advisors. Thank you and over to you, sir. Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Kalyan Jewellers India Limited Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call. We have with us Mr. Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director, Mr. Sanjay Raghuraman, CEO, Mr. V. Swaminathan, CFO, Mr. V. Sreekumar, Financial Controller, Mr. Sanjay Mehrotra, Head of Strategy and Corporate Affairs, and Mr. Abraham George, Head of Investor Relations and Treasury. I hope everyone had a chance to view our financial results and investor presentation, which were recently posted on company's website and stock exchanges. We will begin the call with opening remarks from management, followed by an open forum for Q&A. Before we begin, I would like to point out that some of the statements made during today's call may be forward-looking. Our disclaimer to that effect was included in the earnings presentation. I would now like to invite Mr. Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director of Kalyan Jewellers India Limited, to give his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you. Good evening, and let me welcome everyone to the call. Q4 has been fantastic. The pickup in momentum we witnessed during the third quarter continued during the last quarter, and we ended up the financial year on an excellent note. While consolidated revenue and PAT growth for the quarter have been 66% and 118% respectively, standalone business recorded revenue growth of 68% and PAT growth of 97% respectively. For the full financial year, we recorded a consolidated revenue in excess of INR 35,700 crores and a PAT of INR 1,350 crores. During the last financial year, we launched 129 showrooms across Kalyan and Candere formats, including the first Kalyan showroom in the U.K. The year also saw reduction of debt in India by INR 360- odd crores, in line with the already announced plan to pay down the non-GML debt in India completely. Over the last three years, we have reduced the non-GML in India from INR 1,300 crores to INR 300 crores. FY 2026 also saw Candere growing its revenue by 160% on the back of very strong same-store sales growth and aggressive network expansion. More importantly, Candere turned PAT positive from the second half of FY 2026. Going forward, during the current financial year, Candere will focus more on driving SSG along with expanding its showroom format footprint. In line with our announced dividend policy, Board of Directors has recommended a dividend of approximately INR 257 crores, payout of around 20% of the net profit generated during FY 2026. During the ongoing financial year, we plan to open 150 showrooms across Kalyan, Candere, and the new regional brand. Now talking about the ongoing quarter, we had an excellent start to the financial year. We witnessed strong growth in our Akshaya Tritiya sales this year. We continue to see encouraging momentum in consumer demand, especially around the wedding purchases during the current quarter. Thank you, and I will hand over it to Sanjay. He will read you through the numbers. Thanks, Ramesh. Good evening, everybody. I am happy to be talking to you all again. In this just concluded quarter, our company reported a consolidated revenue of INR 10,275 crores, a 66% growth over the corresponding quarter in the previous year. Consolidated profit before tax was INR 539 crores versus INR 251 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Consolidated profit after tax came in at INR 410 crores versus INR 188 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, a growth of 118%. For the concluded 12 months of the financial year FY 2026, we recorded a revenue of INR 35,740 crores on a consolidated basis versus INR 25,045 crores in the previous financial year, a growth of 43%. Consolidated profit before tax for the year came in at INR 1,802 crores versus INR 960 crores. An 88% growth. Consolidated profit after tax for the year ending March 2026 came in at INR 1,350 crores versus INR 714 crores for the previous year ending March 2025. A growth of 89%. Out of the free cash generated from operations, approximately INR 350 crores was used for debt reduction and approximately INR 150 crores was used for dividend payments. Talking now about the breakup of the quarterly performance between India, Middle East, and the Candere business. Starting with the India business. The quarter just concluded, the revenue came in at INR 8,990 crores versus INR 5,350 crores. The profit before tax for the quarter came in at INR 495 crores compared to INR 249 crores when compared with the corresponding quarter the previous year. Profit after tax for the India business came in at INR 366 crores compared to INR 185 crores in the corresponding quarter the previous year, a growth of 97%. Moving on to talk about our Middle East business. Revenue in the Middle East came in at INR 1,074 crores versus INR 784 crores in the corresponding quarter the previous year. Profit before tax came in at INR 20 crores versus INR 15 crores for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The Middle East business posted a profit of INR 21 crores for the quarter, compared to a profit of INR 12 crores for the corresponding quarter the previous year. Lastly, moving on to talk about Candere. The business posted revenues of INR 131 crores in the quarter versus INR 28 crores in the corresponding quarter the previous year. In the just concluded quarter, the profits came in at INR 3 crores for the quarter versus a INR 12 crore loss in the corresponding quarter the previous year. With this, we are now done with the summary of the numbers, and we open the floor for questions. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. 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 handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Nihal Mahesh Jham from HSBC. Please go ahead. H i, team. Congratulations on the strong performance. I had three questions. The first is that there is a big divergence in the South and non-South SSG, not seen at least as you started reporting the data. Just if you give clarity on what led to such a big divergence. South was lesser than non-South. Again, it comes every quarter. It is a bit different, this time it is having a significant change in the SSGs of South and non-South. Maybe the base is also higher in South. Sure. The other way to look at it is that, you know, for South it went from, say, 25%- 29%, but in case of non-South, the acceleration has sort of been much higher. Any more color about maybe what led to that versus the Q3? I think the shift is again further accelerated in the non-South region when compared to South. We have been seeing it from Q3, but Q4 again was, non-South was, more interesting than the South. Got it. The other thing, Ramesh, is that generally because of the initiative that we had started in Q1, you know, every quarter gross margins were improving. Given you said part of the sourcing had, you know, shifted to a new set of vendors. This quarter there has been a slight reversal to that trend. Any more clarity on the GM side? No, gross margins have been improving and it has been maintained also. Showroom level mix again South, non-South, you cannot compare a quarter-to-quarter. Q3 is always a better quarter in terms of standard, etc. Non-South revenue is also more in certain areas. It is again, depending on the type of product which is sold during Dhanteras, Diwali is different from Q4 FOCO mix. There are a lot of drivers to your margin, right? Sure, Ramesh. The last question was, you know, just wanted to understand, you mentioned about Akshaya Tritiya, being very strong for you. Generally, how have trends sort of been sustaining this quarter? Is it, you know, as strong as what, say, Q4 was for us? As we look into the next year, given this has obviously been quite an exceptional year for the entire jewelry sector, would there be maybe some moderation because of the high base that we'll have of last year? No. Last year also, Akshaya Tritiya was in Q1 only, no? No, I was referring to the full of full-year. Full? There were two parts to the question. First is that how are the trends in the Q1 quarter of FY 2027? The second question was that for the full-year of FY 2027, given 2026 was such an exceptional year for us and the entire jewellery space, that is there a case that we can continue to deliver our historical growth rates for the next year also after such an exceptional year of FY 2026? Yeah. Again, if you look at H2 of the last financial year, the base was higher. The current financial year, H2 will have a base high for sure. Again, it has been like that even in the previous year, again, we could grow. That we will not be able to completely tell you what is going to happen. As we speak, April has started off very well, and even with high bases we have been able to grow. Sure, sir. That was it from my side. I wish you all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Gaurav Jogani from JM Financial. Please proceed. Hi, thank you for taking my question. My first question is with regards to the debt repayment. I mean, you have so far, you know, paid approximately INR 500- odd crores of non-GML debt, and you're planning to repay the debt entirely, the non-GML fees that is, in FY 2027. Given the strong profitability that you have witnessed in FY 2026, is there a possibility that you might be able to pay that off entirely by, let's say, by H1 FY 2027 end? We want to make it a non-GML debt-free in the running financial year. If things go really well, we might do it by H1 itself. We don't want to guide you in that direction, wherein when it's possible, it is possible. That's it. Sure. Just one more question with regards to the new, the third brand that you are planning. I mean, that store was supposed to have been launched somewhere in Q4. What's the update on the same, and is there any progress to it? It is on, but the post-election dust has not been settled in the state where we want to open our new brand. We are just waiting for the dust to settle down, and we start our campaign. Okay, it's prepared. It's just that the timing is to be marked. Yeah, timing has to be managed according to the situation on ground. Sure. Just lastly, one bookkeeping question that I had. You know, we had seen that the debt coming down sequentially from say, like in fact from H1 to H2 debt has only come down. If you look at the interest cost, both on the standalone and the control basis, it has moved up sequentially. Is there any one-off kind of an adjustment there? I mean, just wanted to understand what has really led to this movement. Sreekumar, you have that number? Yeah, yeah. Just a second. I will hand over to Sreekumar. Hi, you see the major reason for the increase is the increase in the processing charges, as well as some, there were some advance tax which we had to pay. There were some estimate, I mean, the estimates we, which we, which we did for the full-year, we couldn't, I mean, possibly we couldn't budget it correctly. There was an interest which we had to pay for the advance tax. That is a major reason in the increase in the interest cost. Okay. Gaurav, one more point. Yeah, Gaurav, one more. Yeah, Gaurav, one more. Abraham here. One more point I want to highlight. Yeah, hi. During the first half of the year, our debt repayment had not happened for the year, that debt level remained almost high for the first half. The Gold Metal Loan pricing also kind of tapered down by almost the first quarter. That reason, along with the reason which Sreekumar mentioned, that there is a interest that we have paid for towards the advance tax payment. Otherwise, it's mostly on track. You know, that is what I wanted to ask. Basically, if we adjust for that, what is the real interest cost for so that we can build accordingly for the coming years, you know, in that context? I would say about, INR 20 crore-INR 30 crore. About INR 30 crore will be reduced from this number. Okay, INR 30 crore was due to this. Okay, sure, thank you. That's all from me. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Devanshu Bansal from Emkay Global. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Congratulations on very strong numbers. I wanted to check on the supply side issues that are sort of there, right? From Middle East tension perspective. Lot of gold is imported from that part of the region. There was some news flow that renewal of licenses are also getting delayed from DGFT perspective. Do you foresee any kind of challenge from availability of gold as well as from the increase in maybe say interest rate on Gold Metal Loans? No, no. There is abundant supply of gold in the country, and we continue to receive regular inventory from our banks. While the IGST notification for gold imports through the traditional bank channel suspending, qualified jewelers like us, banks, importers are permitted to import gold through India International Bullion Exchange at GIFT City, Gujarat. Furthermore, according to our knowledge, the banks also procure gold from domestic sources such as temples and gold deposit scheme, etc. We don't have any issue on the gold supply. Got it. Secondly, sir, you did provide some color on strong trends sort of continuing in April. I wanted to check since we our wedding-related salience is relatively higher, and there is this extra month of inauspicious days in Q1. Will that for time being sort of lead to lower sales for us? That was part number one. Secondly, Q4 has seen very strong growth. Has there been a preponement component also where say the Q1 weddings purchases related to Q1 weddings got preponed to Q4? I wanted to check on these two things. Adhik Maas, Adhik Maas is there, and again, we have a good wedding share in our business. Business can get moved to either side of that month. Okay? Right. Again, it gets aggregated, no, at the end of the day. It can move into quarters, but at the end of the day, revenue comes to us. It is not a loss of revenue. No, fair enough. I just wanted to understand from a volatility perspective. Obviously, I understand that from a full-year perspective, that business will come back to you. From a volatility perspective, can Q1 be a slower growth quarter, is what I wanted to understand. No. As we speak, things are on track. It is more than on track. We'll have to see what plays out during the Adhik Maas time. Yes, there is high possibility that those days can be slower than our usual wedding. There are people who prepone their purchase also if there's an Adhik Maas. That's why I'm not able to guide you clearly whether there can be a loss of revenue in this quarter because there can be some revenue which is preponed and comes in this quarter itself. Understood. Sir, last question from my end. If we see the revenue mix for this year's Akshaya Tritiya, how has been the competition between, say, coins, plain gold jewelry as well as studded? Because there are certain players who are indicating that gold coin sales were relatively lower this time around. Did that play for you as well, in this current Akshaya Tritiya? Yeah, the coin sale were lower than estimated, unlike the studded where it was more than estimated. Okay. That should ideally lead to better margin performance, right? Too early now because it's only one month. There is two more months to go. The first 30-35 days have been very good. Got it, sir. Thanks for taking my questions. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ashish Kanodia from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Yeah, thank you. The first question, again, is on the SSG and specifically on the non-South. If you kind of splitted the SSG trend between, say, the franchisee stores versus owned stores, do you see any, you know, I mean, is it broadly similar to what you have reported on a overall non-South business? Because I think the non-South could also be benefiting partly because of, you know, the franchisee stores. Just wanted to understand, when you look at the SSG non-South, FOCO versus COCO, is the trend broadly similar? It is looking, more or less same. Of course, you know that the first year revenue growth for any store, be it franchise, be it non-franchise, it has a better SSG than the showrooms which are more than five years, seven years, because the Gold Savings Scheme revenue also comes in. Region-wise, there are changes in non-South. Non-South is not the same in all South markets. That's what I'm trying to say. Sure, Ramesh. Got it. Second question on the coin sales part. I think, you know, even if you look at the full quarter this, the last, say 40 days or so, and compare it with, maybe 3 Q as well as 4 Q, have you seen that the overall intensity of investment-led demand, which is your coin sales, have actually come down? Is it partly because, you know, when you look at the gold price movement, at least in the last few days or a month or so, it has actually been on the lower side, right? Is there a lower intensity of the investment-led demand? The coins, we usually do not push coins, and we don't even sell bullion, which you know. During Q3, some customers inquiry of gold coins, we saw it higher than usual, so we had to keep more inventory than usual for gold coins. Otherwise, it is a normal revenue which was there for coins still maintained. Q3 was a bit abnormal, especially during the Diwali time. Sure. The next question is on the Middle East. If I look at the, you know, comment in the presentation, you have said that you have, you know, temporarily converted four FOCO showrooms to COCO while there is some discussion underway. If you can throw some light, like what's happening there? What's the plan on that part of the business? No, I mentioned in the last call that we are trying to work with a few Arab investors who are keen to open FOCO showrooms of Kalyan. For which we had to temporarily convert the FOCO to COCO to facilitate that so-called process. I mean, just looking at, you know. Meaning something, it's like the franchisee model which we are working with Arab investors is not only to own or open only new stores, but also conversion of old stores, and the ticket size is bigger. Again, I did not give you any guidance on that because it has not happened, so better not to budget on it. We are focusing on a major, franchisee expansion in the Middle East through Arab investors. Nothing has materialized, but it is going in the right direction. Sure. Maybe just on the gross margin, I think someone asked, and I will just, you know, kind of refill that question. See when we look at the India gross margin, right? Now we know that because of the franchisee model, normally we should see a YoY decline on gross margin. I am talking on YoY because quarter-on-quarter we will have seasonality, right? When I look at 2Q 2026, and I'm adjusting the base for custom duty, etc, 2Q 2026 had a gross margin decline of 100 basis points. In 3Q, the gross margin was broadly same on a YoY basis. The discussion was that, you know, you have tried the paying the vendors a bit early, which was giving you some benefit. At least in our mind it was that because you have just started in maybe 3Q or so, it should continue for 12 months, we should see that benefit coming in. When we look at the 4Q gross margin, it has gone back to the normal level where we were seeing 100 basis points decline because of the franchisee model. Is it, has there been any change in the vendor payment or is there anything which is changing this direction? No, no. If you remember well, the pilot project we started partially in Q4 of last year, that is already embedded in the gross margin of the last quarter. Maybe that's why you see this change. Okay, got it. Just a last question is on the divestment of the assets. I see, you know, you have already secured the release of collateral for around INR 180 crore. two parts. One, what's the timeline looking like on the, you know, sale of this INR 180 crore? Second, on the balance release of the INR 200 crore, what kind of a timeline we are looking at? The timeline set for the set number one asset disposal was before September of this year, which I think is going the right direction. We have also started process to release the second set of assets from the banks, which I don't want to give you a timeline, but I will give you more details when it reaches more close. Got it. Sure, thank you and all the best. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Adarsh from ENAM Holdings. Please go ahead. Hello. Hi. Congrats on good numbers. Just from a cash flow perspective, can you please talk about the next couple of years, what do you do with the cash flows, right? Strong profits, growing still with a lot of franchisee models. If you can just elaborate a little bit on capital management. You did INR 1,350 crores of profit this year. It will grow with your store additions. Just wanted to understand how you're looking at, you know, capital post, once you pay off your non-GML debt. Yeah. Close to 50% of the cash generated will be used for dividend and debt reduction, CapEx, etc. Balance 50%, we have to park some funds for Candere and the regional brand which I was talking about. Again, we shall come back on the rest of the allocation in the due course of the year. Our expansion is predominantly franchise, you know. Understood. Perfect, that's it from my side. Thanks. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Pritesh Chheda from Lucky Investment Managers. Please go ahead. Yeah, sir. just pardon my ignorance, but, you know, when I was trying to listen to you in the presentation about the repayment of MGL, but when I go to the balance sheet, I don't see it. What is it that I'm missing actually? It is non-GML, not MGL. Gold Metal Loan. Okay. non-GML? Yeah. Okay. Metal loan comes with a lesser interest rate. The aggregate debt, if you would have any, comment there. You give out a outlook on the non-GML reduction, but aggregate debt, and its intensity with the growth, how should we look at that number? So far as the Middle East is concerned, the gold, the GML, the gold metal loan, increases when the gold price goes up because there is no actual limit for a gold loan in the Middle East. In India, the GML, we have a limit where banks can give us, and we always maintain that level. We will of course focus on somehow increasing the GML whenever possible. Okay, increasing the GML whenever possible? Okay. With your growth strategy, Of FOCO-based growth, and you have given outlook of 70 stores. You know, based on that, if I have to look at a two-year out or a one-year out absolute debt number, is it possible to share that? Yeah. It will be what only the metal loan basically in India. Non-GML will be zero. The extent of total debt, so MGL plus GML put together? Non-GML is zero. The GML, which will be maintained the same levels unless and until we get something more about if in case. India number? Yeah, sorry. Far the focus have been always on reduction of non-GML in India. Going forward, we will also focus on increasing the GML, but this will depend on the sanctions available from banks, etc, on the GML. The easy answer for this question will be GML will be zero. Non-GML will be zero. GML will be almost in the limit where we are. I'm just wondering in a FOCO expansion strategy, what drives the GML loan? What are the drivers for a rise in a GML loan? No. GML loans comes with a very very less interest rates. Okay? It also comes with an hedging instrument embedded in it. That is the advantage of GML. Usually banks keep a sanction limit for the same. We will not be able to increase the GML like in the Middle East, where Middle East is there is no limit with the banks. They keep on increasing GML when the gold price goes up. Not all banks in India also provide GML. That is the limitation of GML in India. For expansion, we don't need any capital because it is a franchise model. Correct, sir. Basically then the GML loan should not go up, right? If you're not expanding, my question is, what is the driver for a GML loan to go up, if any? The only- The situation. Only reason. yeah. Only when you need more pipeline inventory for FOCO or when you need to open high format stores where you want to stop your hybrid model on your franchise, etc, where it is a minor chance. Again, availability of GML is also tough here. That is why we don't budget for it. Okay. You haven't opened any store of yours. When I'm just looking at the presentation and I'm looking at the bridge you have given for five years, FOCO store and our total store, it seems that you haven't opened any single FOCO store, right? In the last four years numbers that I see, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026. When we would have opened an own store, we would have converted an own old store, especially in the South, w here we would have opened as own, but, we would have converted an own into a FOCO. The number of FOCO stores, meaning the additional number of stores will be same as FOCO. Yeah. The additional number of stores are same as FOCO. Only thing could have happened is your own store, you would have reopened a own store and a bigger store. That should I put it? Yeah. That's called hybrid, wherein we might have relocated our existing store to a newer location in a bigger format, wherein franchisee would have allocated his capital and we would have maintained our capital. That's called hybrid. Okay. That's a hybrid? Yeah. You would have, okay. How many stores would have gone through that in the last four years, where you would have relocated a store? There are seven or eight hybrid stores. Okay. Five or eight hybrid stores. Okay. Would that entail? Seven or eight. Would that entail incremental capital from your side in inventory? No. It's not incremental. What we do is when we relocate a store from a smaller premise to a bigger premise. Our part of the investment will be the existing inventory which we had in the old store. Okay. The franchisee partner will bring the additional. Incremental for his share. Yeah. So, so- The CapEx we share also. The business per se wouldn't have needed incremental capital for you to deploy, right, since the last three years? That will be needed because we not only do this, we also renovate and open stores where the market has expanded and our stores have a scope of better revenue growth, wherein that would not have been converted. We ourself renovate the stores and add inventory there. With such high SSGs, some showrooms will need additional investment also, inventory. When you mention the 50% payout number, 50% payout and debt repayment number, the residual 50%, should we say that it's going, had gone or will be going into reinventarization of your existing store, higher inventory in your existing stores? We will have to budget some portion for additional inventory in stores where we need to add inventory. Usually what happens is the Gold Savings Scheme also, the GSS are high. The money which comes in from the Gold Savings Scheme, usually we allocate for inventory increase. Okay. Did you mention that the reduction in interest cost for FY 2027 is just INR 30 crores, is what you mentioned? From the base of FY 20- No, INR 30 crore interest, yeah, because INR 300 crore is what we have to now reduce the non-GML. INR 300 crore, if you put an approximate towards 9%-10%, it's INR 30 crore. In the INR 430 crore that you reported in 2026, you mentioned some element of interest on tax, advanced tax or something. That's what you mentioned, right? Is there any one-off in that INR 433 crore interest which needs to be looked at? Yeah, yeah. INR 20 crore. INR 20crore? So, INR 20 crore is one-off and INR 30 crore is reduction next year. The reduction is INR 50 crores? Correct. You are correct. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Pallavi from Sameeksha Capital. Please go ahead. Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Just wanted to understand on, you know, are we seeing a lower competitive intensity because of which our ad spend increase seems muted in the current environment? What would be our strategy going ahead, given, you know, the influx of these digital-only players like BlueStone, etc? How do we plan to tackle that? I think somewhere I missed your question. Can you repeat the question? Yes. Just wanted to understand on the, you know, the whole, it's been a good year. Wanted to understand how much of increase in the gross margin we would have benefited from the silver price and platinum increase. If you can give us perhaps amount so that we can better model this for next year. Yeah, there has been some advantage because of the platinum and silver margin, which again cannot be sustained for the next financial year. Again, the inventory procurement pattern which we changed also already is there in the last financial year, which again is not going to come for the next financial year. Going forward, other things remaining the same, we can expect gains from operating leverage and the interest saving which we just discussed. Again, of course, lot will depend upon how the year will unfold. I was trying to understand on the gross margin side, right? Should we factor in a decline of 30 bits, 20 bits for this gain that we would have seen from silver and platinum this year? Should we factor in a year-on-year decline for next year? Yeah. 2 point. Yes. There has been some portion which has come from silver and platinum. Again, everything cannot remain the same for the next year, meaning running year. Right. There can be change in standard ratio, there can be change in product mix which we are selling. This 0.2, 0.3, etc, is very tough for us to go and budget, but operating leverage will come in and, what, INR 20- odd crores is what silver. Meaning it's not too high, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know, I understand we can make it up in other areas. My second question was just on our overall, just trying to understand this employee expense. When we had the franchisee, we just gave him one employee, right? Per store from our side. Why is there, you know, I thought more operating leverage will play out on that front. I just wanted to understand what you see. No, can you repeat that question? Franchisee, we actually. Yeah. When the franchisee give them 1%, I understood per store. No, no. Meaning, all the employees are done from Kalyan. Kalyan, right. We manage the store. Right, okay. Right, that is clear. One employee is, again, maybe some franchisees employ a accountant who are outside the store or inside the store, but that's also very rare. Otherwise, all the employees are done by us only. Right. We have achieved our guidance for on the PBT side, you know. I'm looking at India's standalone of 5.5%. Any new guidance for the next year on this on the PBT margin side? Now, if you look at this financial year, meaning the previous financial year, the PBT India has been in the range of what? INR 5.5, INR 5.6. Right. I think that is here to stay. Some, again, I told you, some operating leverage can come in and stuff. More or less we look to maintain it up, so that would be good, yeah. Yeah, more or less it should stay in this range. Maybe some additional improvement or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Last part would be on this inventory and all the high-rise increase in gold price. Are we planning any other strategy to, so that ROCE can be taken up further in terms of like last time we did on a lower inventory per store or some, any, or light, more lightweight jewellery, anything happening there? Usually when the gold price goes up by may, INR 100, we increase our inventory at the store only by INR 30 or INR 40. We reduce our volume at the store. That is how we take care of our OC. Right, okay. Right, got that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sidharth from NAFA Asset Managers. Please go ahead. Hello sir. I mean, first of all congrats on the, you know, great set of numbers. My main query is that I would just like to get an, you know, hint on how the volume growth has been despite the, you know, I mean, you know, very positive rally that, you know, gold has, you know, currently delivered. If you look at the SSG currently that the, you know, entire, you know, jewelry retailers demand, it's been doing really great. Without factoring in the Akshaya Tritiya this quarter, we've done a really great job. How would you like to give me a hint on the, you know, volume growth that has happened currently and going forward? What's the, w ould we be able to sustain the same considering the Akshaya Tritiya sales have been, you know, quite well in few select, you know, retailers in their business updates? Again, because you asked about the volume, I will tell you wherein customer comes with a particular budget. Customer cannot increase the budget when the gold price goes up. Gold price have went up by what, 60%, 70% over the last one year. Customer does not have the money to spend 70% more than what he budgeted. Customer comes with a particular budget wherein when the prices are low, the volume will be higher. When the prices are high, the volume will be lower. Some segment of customers have of course the ability to expand. We don't even look into that direction because customer comes with INR budget rather than volume budget. Again, we also try to push them to standard jewelry. We also do more of precious uncut, etc. We ourselves reduce the quality of gold from 22K to 18K to 14K. Everything is done for customer to not to feel the pain of buying jewelry when the gold prices are higher. Okay, understood. If you could give me some clarity on the GSS part as well in terms of, you know, the coming up, positive, you know, Akshaya Tritiya trends, that would also be, you know, really helpful. SSGs for Q4 you mean? Yeah. Q4 and going forward as an overall guidance, that would be helpful. Yeah. Again, SSGs have been behaving very, very crazily positive over the last 2-3 years, okay? It has always been what, 20%-30%. The last quarter was very high. If you are trying to put a number for the next 3-5 years, we usually don't guide more than 10% SSG for next 3-5 years. I don't have any justice to tell you why you should put only 10% when it has been 20%-30% over the last 2-3 years, okay? Or more. If you are trying to put a 3-5 year projection, I always recommend only putting a 10% SSG, even though I don't have a reason for it. Understood. My last set of question would be that we all know that South has been a major market when we specifically talk about jewellery. There has been a lot of store expansion when we look at this quarter. If I could get a bifurcation of how much stores that has been, you know, expanded on net on net basis towards South for this quarter. What region are you especially eyeing at going forward? That would also give me an, you know, helpful note and that would be my final question as well. Overall, we opened 13 stores in South India in the last financial year. The markets where we have opened are more into metros like Bangalore, Chennai, where we want to add Hyderabad, etc, where we want to add more stores in the metros where Kalyan is already present. Going forward also will be in the similar region. Okay. You would, target, you know, India as a whole than a specific, you know, region-wise classification. From my assumption, it would be targeting the Tier 1 cities again. In South. because i n South, you know that we were already penetrated into Tier 2, Tier 3 markets. Outside South India, our expansion is what? More than 60 showrooms, 65 showrooms in outside South regions. South we will restrict in 13, 14, 15 showrooms, and which will be majorly in the metros like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad. Okay, understood. Thank you and wish you all the best. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Janil Barad from Prudent Corporate Advisor. Please go ahead. Janil, your line is unmuted. Please go ahead with your question. As there is no response from the current questioner, we'll move to the next question from the line of Ashish Kanodia from Citigroup. Please proceed. Yeah, thank you. The first question was on the FOCO showrooms in South, I think last quarter there were 30 FOCO showrooms out of the 99. What is the number this quarter? No, meaning there is no more additional FOCO. Okay. It's the same share of it. The second question is again on the Middle East part. If I just, you know, do a simple exercise of your inventory, consolidated minus standalone, which will largely be Middle East, some bit of other international markets and some bit for Candere, but largely Middle East. If I also look at the gold metal loan, Middle East has give or take around INR 3,500 crore worth of inventory, and GML is around INR 2,300 crore, which implies, you know, like a capital employed of. This is just purely your inventory related, not taking CapEx, but around INR 1,200 crore. I mean, hypothetically, is it fair to say that, you know, whenever this Middle East conversion happens, where you know, kind of convert the 38 stores into franchisee stores, maybe not 1,200 because some of this will be with Candere, etc, as well, but broadly maybe INR 800 crores-INR 1,000 crores worth of cash flow get generated? No. We have converted only four showrooms from FOCO to COCO, which can be worth in the range of INR 200 crore-INR 250 crore. Inventory, usually when the gold price goes up, inventory also goes up, but not to the same extent. You should also note that we have opened two new showrooms there, where the inventory went up, which has not done a full-year revenue. We also renovated five or six showrooms in that space into a bigger sq ft with additional inventory. Sir, Ramesh, my question was on the, you know, with the discussion you have highlighted, right? There's a discussion for potential conversion. I'm saying hypothetically, I know, like, this is still underway, but hypothetically, if that conversion happens. Yeah, yeah. I understand. That will- Hypothetically, if the conversion happens big time, of course cash flow should come. Again, Ashish, I repeat, we will come back to you when it is very close to the happening. I don't want any budgeting from for this, what do you call, the project which we are trying to plan. S ure. No, that's absolutely fine. Sure. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Chetan Phalak from Vihan India Fund. Please go ahead. Hello. Hi. Congrats on the great set of numbers. I want to ask about the revenue productivity of our franchisee. What is our plan to increase the You know, is there any plan to increase the revenue productivity per store of our franchisees? Do we see our COCO stores having better revenue per store than FOCO? How are plans trying to bridge that or grow that? Revenue per store will be better for COCO than FOCO because all the owned showrooms in the initial times are bigger stores. FOCO comes with a lesser basket size of inventory and lesser basket size of revenue. It is more of a stock turn and profitability which we will see for the franchisee rather than only revenue per store. Okay. Do we see the gap between us and, you know, the likes of Tanishq and other competitors, decreasing from INR 50 crore per store to, you know, to higher? No, no. Can you repeat the question once more? The revenue per store of our franchisees is about INR 50 crore-INR 52 crore. Do we see that rising in the future by increasing their productivity? Yeah, yes. GSS are there for franchisees also, no? The revenue keeps on increasing for them. Revenue keeps on increasing for our own store also. Okay. Sir, can you give an update on the pledging, unpledging of the pledged share? Nothing has changed. It's not the very right platform to discuss on the promoter pledging. There is no change for the past, what, 15 months now. Okay, Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Subhanu Bangal from Three Head Capital. Please go ahead. Hello, sir. Good evening. Sir, I want to know bit more about Candere. Is Candere now profitable? Can you tell me a bit more about the margin profile for Candere? The margins are higher in Candere. Yeah, margins are higher in Candere because the studded ratio in Candere is more than 70%. Mid-30s are the gross margins in Candere. Sorry, I missed the studded profile. The gross margin store level Candere is in mid-thirties because the studded ratio are more than 70%. Okay, 70% studded. Okay. Out of your 150 store opening guidance in FY 2027, how many for Candere? It will be in the similar line of the last financial year, 50, 55. 50, 55. Okay. This quarter around, we added gross level at 28 stores, but net level we closed around four store was closed? As I mentioned before, no, it's not closure. It is relocating to a bigger premise. Okay, okay. Yeah. Understood, thank you. Only one showroom got closed. It was a very small showroom. It was the first showroom in Madurai, which, was in a location where only two-wheelers are allowed to enter, but otherwise there are no store closures. Got it, thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraint, we will take this as the last question for the day. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ramesh Kalyanaraman for closing comments. Over to you, sir. Thank you very much. See you again in the next quarter. Thank you, sir. On behalf of Kalyan Jewellers India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.