Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Neogen Chemicals' Q1 FY26 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 and zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Nishid Solanki. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Neogen Chemicals' Q1 FY26 earnings conference call for analysts and investors. Today, we are joined by senior members of the management team, including Dr. Harin Kanani, Managing Director, Mr. Anurag Surana, Director, and Mr. Gopi krishnan Sarathy, Chief Financial Officer. We will commence the call with opening thoughts from the management team, after which we'll open the floor for your questions. Before we begin, a standard disclaimer: certain statements made or discussed today may be forward-looking, actual results could vary, and a detailed disclaimer is available in our Q1 FY26 earnings presentation, which has been shared and uploaded on stock exchange websites. With that, I'd like to invite Dr. Harin Kanani to share his perspective. Dr. Kanani, over to you. Thank you, Nishid. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining our early call, early morning earnings call for Q1 FY26. We are pleased to have you join us today to review our financial performance and update you on our key strategic initiatives. Beginning with our performance for the quarter, we achieved remarkable resilience, successfully maintaining our momentum. Our diversified business model proved its inherent strength, especially as we navigated the challenge of our Dahej unavailability throughout the quarter due to the fire incident. Despite those operational hurdles and a prevailing soft pricing environment, our reserves were bolstered by sustained volume growth in the base business. Additionally, initial commercial sales from Neogen Ionics were both electrolyte and lithium sourced. Hello, can you hear me? Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management line reconnected. Here I am, sir. Please, you can go ahead. Yeah. Despite the operational hurdles and a prevailing soft pricing environment, our reserves were bolstered by sustained volume growth in the base business. Additionally, initial commercial sales from Neogen Ionics were both electrolyte and lithium electrolyte sourced, which began contributing meaningfully. Our ability to navigate these complexities underscores the remarkable strength and adaptability of our overall operations. Turning your attention to the key updates during the quarter, our recovery from the Dahej fire incident is progressing swiftly. We have secured initial insurance claims with INR 50.55 crore received in June 2025 and an additional INR 30 crore received in July 2025. With this, the net claim receivable is INR 268.27 crore on a consolidated basis. We expect this to be realized in due course. In addition, there will be some additional amount which we'll realize, which is not determined, for reinstatement value difference, as well as for the loss on profit. The replacement plant is taking concrete shape at an adjacent location. We have completed the civil foundation work and placed orders for long lead-time equipment. The plant remains firmly on track to be operational by next year. In another significant development, our Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Haridas Kanani, will be retiring from his position effective September 30, 2025, as he completes 80 years on that date. The entire Neogen family extends its deepest gratitude for his immense contribution since founding the company, his visionary leadership in establishing a strong foundation, and his pivotal role in making Neogen a leader in specialty chemicals while fostering a culture of excellence and innovation. In recognition of his outstanding dedication and invaluable contributions, the Board has conferred upon him the honorary title of Chairman Emeritus, effective October 1, 2025, ensuring we continue to benefit from his invaluable guidance and mentorship. Concurrently, the Board has designated Mr. Anurag Surana as Chairman and Non-Executive Non-Independent Director, effective October 1, 2025. This ensures a seamless transition and strong leadership and guidance for Neogen in the future. Shifting our focus to strategic growth drivers, I will provide updates on expansion initiatives, particularly in the battery chemicals segment. Regarding the Greenfield facility for electrolyte using MUIS technology in Pakhajan, Dahej PCPIR, piling work is completed, civil work is significantly finished, and long- lead equipment has already been ordered, and we have started receiving the same. A crucial milestone is the ongoing factory acceptance test of the module manufacturing plant at Mitsubishi Engineering Corporation manufacturing workshop site. Of our total INR 1,500 crore CapEx, we have deployed INR 506 crore to date, and the remaining amount will be deployed shortly in line with the accelerated project schedule. A major development is the incorporation of Neogen Morita New Materials Limited, NML for short. NML is a wholly- owned subsidiary of Neogen Ionics Limited and a step-down subsidiary of Neogen Chemicals Limited. This venture aims to leverage Morita Chemical Industries, Japan's proven technology for over 30 years of experience to produce lithium salts. These salts will be used captively for our electrolyte production and for global sales, addressing the growing demand. Accelerating our entry into high-growth lithium-ion battery materials, vital for India's EV and energy storage, this project positions Neogen as a scaled domestic manufacturer. We aim to capture significant market share, reduce import dependence, and leverage global technology, diversifying revenue and establishing ourselves as a critical advanced battery supply chain supplier, driving future growth and profitability. Despite adjusting our near-term revenue guidance to reflect current operational realities, our long-term trajectory remains robust. Overall, we are confident in our ability to continue delivering value to our shareholders through strategic execution, innovation, and unwavering commitment to operational excellence. That concludes my opening remarks. I would now request our CFO, Mr. Gopi krishnan Sarathy, to share financial highlights for the period under review. Thank you, Dr. Harin Kanani. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Neogen Chemicals' Q1 FY2026 earnings call. Let me walk you through our key highlights, financial highlights. All numbers are on a consolidated basis unless called out specifically. For Q1 FY2026, we achieved a revenue of INR 186.7 crore, higher by 4% despite the non-availability of the Dahej plant for the quarter. As highlighted by Dr. Harin Kanani, Neogen Ionics contributed INR 5.4 crore revenue in Q1 FY2026, building on its previous year full-year revenue of INR 11.95 crore. Organic revenue for the period stood at INR 165 crore, reflecting a 16% increase, while inorganic revenue came at INR 22 crore. EBITDA stood at INR 31.5 crore, up 2% year- on- year. Despite the headwinds, we maintained a steady EBITDA attributed to a favorable product mix and our ongoing cost optimization initiatives, which effectively offset the declining realization. Consequently, our EBITDA margin reached 18.8% on a standalone basis and 16.9% on a consolidated basis. Our profit after tax largely reflected our operational performance during the quarter, coming at INR 10.3 crore. Moving to other key developments during the quarter, CRISIL has reaffirmed our credit rating at CRISIL A with an outlook negative for long term and CRISIL A1 for short term, with both removed from the rating watch with developing implications. This reconfirms the confidence in our financial stability and strategic direction. Furthermore, our Board has approved a raising of INR 200 crore through private placement of fully paid, secured, listed, rated, redeemable, non-cumulative NCD through one or more tranches. This will provide us additional financial flexibility for our growth initiatives. That concludes my remarks. I will now request our moderator to open the forum for Q&A. 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 the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Ankur from Axis. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. First question on the salt bit. What's the status on the product approvals there, given that, you know, we were waiting for the exports revenue ramp-up there? Just wanted to check. From our side, we are all ready. We are still waiting for the customer to schedule an audit. There were, like, you know, with whatever is happening in the U.S. currently, there were some delays from the customer side. They've not yet fixed the date. Again, we remain connected with them, and it should happen sometime soon. Also, as you are aware, our Dahej capacity ramp-up is also happening. I think in Q2, for around 15 days, we are also going to take a break to connect the existing plant to the increased capacity, which is likely to come by September and October. From our side, we are ready for the salt. We are just waiting for customer approvals. In the meantime, whatever small revenue we generate in the salt, we are basically selling it to non-regulated markets. I mean, really not non-regulated, but in, let's say, China market, where we are actually going against very strong competitors who are already present there. That's the small revenue we're generating. From our side, we are ready. Our capacity increase is also coming online because, as you know, Dahej capacity is going to go up to 2,500 metric tons by March. Ramp-up of that and connection to the existing facilities is also going on there. Sure. Just a follow-up there. From a key end-user market perspective, U.S. will be bigger or Europe? Secondly, is there any change in demand or site softness because of the tariff-led uncertainty there? How do you put your, yeah, go ahead first. I'll address that, the question later. Yeah. Yeah, so for a first question, U.S. or Europe? U.S. is the larger market, which is because there's already a lot of established battery manufacturing activities which are already happening in the U.S. Also, you know, while there is a change in IRA, there is a follow-up. There were two subsidies available in the U.S. One IRA was for the EV maker, and there's another subsidy, I think, called as 45X credits, which are basically available to the cell makers. That is still available to the battery makers, and that is also significant, like between 25% - 35% of the total battery manufacturing cost. That also has a requirement of localization and sign-off in supply chain. What we have seen is the interest is actually even growing stronger because people didn't have a clarity that, you know, post the Big Beautiful Bill, what changes are going to happen. Those who are maintained and to some extent, even the non-China provision were made stricter. I think that we have seen interest from the international market actually increase. The combination of that, as well as Neogen form ing JV, we have seen more newer companies, you know, who were kind of sitting on a fence waiting for this clarity to now join, and now one by one, they've started visiting Neogen. Before we had one or two potential customers, now we have four or five different customers who have started approaching. They are battery makers, electrolyte makers, as well as even EV makers. All of these guys are now approaching Neogen and having some visits that have already happened and some more are happening during this quarter. Sure, that's helpful. Just to follow- up there, what is the typical time lag required at your end if you want to, let's say, increase your salt capacity given there is so much demand and interest coming in? At Dahej, you know, at present, we will be at 2,500 what we are targeting. If I have to increase a little bit, I can increase 1,000 metric tons more, and that will mostly be focused on the additives because, I mean, the lithium additives part, let's say, lithium salt is two parts: the main electrolyte salt, as well as the additives. We are basically keeping right now, additive facility increase is all planned at Dahej, and the main electrolyte salt capacity is, like, as you are aware, you know, it's coming out at Pakhajan. We have kept the room to add 1 KTA in Pakhajan, very far, sorry, in our Dahej facility for the additive, and we have kept two additional KTAs in Pakhajan. When we complete the CapEx and we have 5.5 KTAs, at least three KTAs can come in relatively quickly, within, like, six to nine months kind of a period. Beyond that, you know, we'll have to plan because we'll be a new manufacturing block, either at our Dahej or our Pakhajan site. Three KTAs can be added from 5.5 - 8.5, but beyond 8.5, you know, we will have to wait and maybe around 12 months - 15 months if we have to set something up. Sure, sir. That's very helpful. Just a second quick on, you know, the battery plants coming in India. There are some delays, but if you can, you know, highlight the timelines on, you know, which all plants are coming in and what could be the timeframe that we can look at. From our view, we are seeing our customer like Ola, like, you know, they've announced the timeline that by September, October, they want to have commercial operations, like, ramp up, and then another ramp up, which is expected by next March or April. We are on track for that. I think we also heard, like, publicly that Exide is also starting relatively very soon in the second half. I think the announced date was August 15 for some trials to start. I think they are, they both are on track as we had predicted in 2024. The remaining customers like Reliance, Tata, Waaree, and Amara Raja, they all are targeting what, you know, they were publicly announced by 2026. That timeline remains. Okay. Great, sir. Thanks a lot for all the questions and all the best. Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Abhijit Akella from Kotak Institutional Equities. Please go ahead. Good morning, and thank you so much. Is it possible to share the volume growth number for the first quarter, please, maybe across the businesses? I would say on the bromine derivative side, on the organic side, the volume growth would be around 10% - 15%. On the lithium side, there's been a little bit of a degrowth in this particular quarter. Last quarter, we had pushed a little bit, and Q1 is generally softer, but this time it was a little bit more softer than normal. Overall, in the demand, there is not too much of a challenge. The demand still continues. I think by the end of the year, lithium will also make up, will have the same volumes or slightly better. Okay. Just to clarify, the Neogen Ionics business is included within inorganic itself, right? The INR 5 crore on. That's right. Yes. Okay. Thank you. The other one was just, you know, the thought process behind this NCD issue. What exactly is the purpose we are looking for here? Is it working capitals or something else there? Yeah. Basically, we still have around INR 250 crore on amount, which is to be received from the insurance. There can be sometimes mismatch in the timings where we want to ensure that our CapEx plans and everything doesn't get affected. I think there was a small interest delta. We thought that is worth having, but ensuring that there's a smoothness CapEx happening. We are not fully dependent on the insurance money. Overall, once we receive all the insurance money, as well as this debt considering, I mean, this is basically some additional liquidity that we want to have in the system so that, you know, we have so many CapExes which are ongoing so that there is no delay or anywhere because of cash flow-related funds. It's just basically liquidity to be keeping the system. Any mismatch in insurance receipts or any other funds which we need to be used with so many CapExes which are ongoing. Overall, there is no additional need, per se. It's just that, just to keep the liquidity and just to keep the flexibility and reduce the dependence, in case there's a timing mismatch with the insurance. Got it. By when do we expect to close this? That was one, the NCD issuance timeline for this. Number two, once this is done, we have basically all our lines of financing tied up. For whatever CapEx we plan, plus working capital requirements, is everything in place now with this? Everything is already in place. This is only additional, you know, just in case insurance, timing mismatch. Yes, this also is likely to happen in the current year, current month, sorry, within August, before August 10. We have received confirmations from investors who want to participate in that. There's even requests for more, but we are capping it at the INR 200 crore limit, which we have kept. All the other working capital, CapEx for phase one, phase two, everything is already there. Got it. Thank you. Just on the CapEx at Dahej, out of INR 1,500 million, I guess INR 500-odd is done so far. The amount spent in one quarter was only about INR 360 million. Is that the normal phasing? Do you expect the CapEx to pick up significantly in the next two, three quarters to meet your deadline of March 2026 for commissioning? Yes. There are two things. You know, this module plan, once it shifts, that's going to be one big expense. Once we complete the FAT and post-FAT, we have given some modifications. As they complete and ship that, that's going to be one large CapEx item, which is going to add a significant chunk. The second point is that, you know, for our salt, as you know, our JV discussions are progressing well. Our JV partner also made an official announcement in Japan, you know, with the intention of forming the JV. Our discussions are progressing well. We are mostly aligned on the technology, and some of the only finer points are now getting aligned. We expect that to happen in two, three months. What has happened is the equipment which we were, the long lead-time equipment is already ordered by my JV partner in Japan. I mean, they've already ordered from their existing suppliers. They are kept ready. As soon as we conclude the JV, a large chunk of equipment will be ordered from there. More or less, you know, we are on track to complete by March. Electrolyte is 100% sure. On the salt side, we are just reviewing. Once we have the final alignment, we will know. It will be just a couple of months here or there. It depends on how the exact alignment happens, and we have clarity after alignment. Overall, CapEx will happen more or less in time. Maybe some slight change on the salt side we are watching. Once we have the final JV alignment, we'll be able to give the right picture on it. That was actually my next question. On the JV, any further details that you might be able to share in terms of the stakes of the two partners or the total CapEx amount and the split between the two of you, something like that? I would request to, you know, share this one, the JV agreement. I know the numbers, and we have agreed on that, but I think we would wait for the JV agreement to get concluded, and after that, we will do. Okay. Okay. Got it. Just one final thing from my side. While these auto battery capacities are still awaited in the Indian market, in the meantime, there seems to be quite a significant amount of development around energy storage, around solar, etc. How sizable could that opportunity be? How are you seeing things unfolding on that front? No. The first something which, in the past also we had envisioned, is that energy storage can surprise us. What we are seeing is, and I think you can also track that more and more people are requesting almost now all new solar projects which are coming, they are coming with an energy storage kind of capacity which has to come online. What I have seen is the percentage. If you are setting up like a 100, like, you know, one giga kind of a facility or 500 MW kind of a facility, I've seen around 25% - 50% of that requested as an energy storage backup, so that you can utilize the maximum of the solar energy which can happen. I think if you look at that and if you think of 500 GW/hour of solar capacity which India wants to put by 2030, and economically also it's making such a strong sense, this number, in my view, can be like 30, 40 giga, or even higher per year, basis because we are going to go to the 500 giga by, let's say, 2030, and you can have around 100 - 150 giga kind of like a battery storage requirement over the next four to five years. It can be somewhere between 30 - 40 giga, kind of just for energy storage over the next three to four years. At present, if I have the last year number, there were around 10 - 12 GW/hours of energy storage projects which are already tendered, which will come, let's say, over a two-year kind of period. Around 5 - 6 giga is, on an average, consumption for energy storage is already there. Okay. Just to clarify, out of the total capacity that we'll have in terms of electrolytes, would you expect a significant portion of it to go towards energy storage? Any rough estimates over there? If you just think of the six people who have announced, the six people I mentioned earlier, right, who have gigafactories starting till the end of next year, you have Reliance and Waaree Energy, which are completely basically from an energy storage solar point of view. Both Exide and Amara Raja partly is solar and partly for auto. You can say at least like 40% - 50% of the capacity in terms of the number of people who are coming online is actually for energy storage. If you actually put their giga capacities and divide, maybe 50% or even more is for giga storage, energy storage, sorry. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Harin. All the best. I'll come back and get you some more. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Karthik Srinivas from Unified Mutual Fund. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. I just had two questions. One is on achieving the revenue run rate of about INR 300 crore, which we have guided the market in terms of Neogen Ionics. We are currently running at about INR 5 crore for this quarter. Is it going to be a quick ramp-up over the next three quarters to achieve this INR 300 crore run rate? Yes. We had guided earlier also that the majority of this will come in the second half of the year. That remains still true. In the second quarter, it's not going to be like a INR 100 crore kind of number, but third and fourth quarters will be very strong. It again depends on two points: how fast the electrolyte companies come up and, sorry, the cell production comes up, which will drive the electrolyte demand. The second is how fast, once we approve, the international customers will ramp up the salt purchase, electrolyte salt and additive purchase. Both of these are based on whatever customer guidance is in the second half. We are expecting this to largely come in the second half. For this INR 300 crore, we have the orders tied up, right? On a steady-state basis, how much will be exports now, given that the BESS demand is picking up even in India and a lot of battery manufacturers are coming up and inquiries are lining? How will be the split of exports and domestic on a steady-state basis? Karthikji, if you think of the capacity which we are ultimately setting up, which is 30 KTA of electrolyte and 5.5 KTA of the salt, what we believe is in the beginning, out of that 5.5, around 3.5 - 4 KTA will be for the international market. The balance will be for our local consumption and for our internal consumption. As we ramp up the capacity of the electrolyte, we will most likely have to add more capacity for the salt. It will depend on how that happens. In the beginning, it will be more export heavy, if we're talking of next financial year. As we go, maybe they will balance out. This also depends on how international market policies will be put for non-China policies because everybody wants to have Neogen as a backup. Even if there is no incentive, some of the customers I had recent interaction with said they can't depend only on China because of what they did in Anode and Rare Earth. They definitely want to have a backup supplier. Whether we will be the backup supplier or the main supplier also depends on all the policy frameworks which are getting set up across geographies. I think it's a little bit early to say, three years down the line, five years down the line. In the current year and in the next year, exports will be the main drivers. Once India picks up electrolyte, we are talking of, let's say, 2027- 2028, whether Indian electrolyte will be more or salt will be more will depend on how much market share we get in India for the electrolyte and how the international view is about non-China suppliers. Got it. Who will be our competitor in India for the same electrolyte and this one, salt capacity? Till now, I think Gujarat Fluorochemicals is one of the companies which has announced electrolyte capacities, but we don't have the exact clear volumes on that. Also, for electrolyte salt, they have announced capacities and intention to increase capacities in the future. This is in India. Basically, when you are thinking of electrolyte salts, you are thinking of a global market. If you look at a non-China global market, you have one company which has started in Japan, one company in Korea, and after that, Neogen and GFL are number three, number four. There are only four people at present outside China who can give you electrolyte salts and additives the way we are. At a world level, what will be the total capacity as it stands today? We are at about 5.5 KTA after two years, say. What will be the global capacity today? By FY2028, what will be the, how will it ramp up? Today, the world capacity is somewhere between 50 KTA to 100 KTA of the salt. We are 5.5, so we'll be somewhere between 5% - 10%, depending on the consumption. If you go to our investor presentations, we've given some numbers already for 2030 for the international expected demand, assuming 3,000 GW/hour kind of battery production, battery requirement by that time. The main point is, out of this, if you look at non-China demand, the total non-China capacity which is available today is around 7- 8 KTA. What we are adding is significant because today, 90% - 95% of the capacity is basically China. Got it. My last question is on the tariffs, given that the tariffs have been announced. Is there any impact for you, or it's just stated? As I explained in one of my earlier questions, Karthikji, what we have seen is that with the tariff coming in now, there is more clarity. While there is lesser, the IRA for the battery EV manufacturers is curtailed. The clarity on the battery and the requirement of non-China has given clarity. Customers who are sitting on the fence are now even more keen. With what happened in Rare Earths and to some extent Anode and China's message that they want to restrict even LFP technology, people are now more worried to depend on China because most of the EV makers, non-China EV makers, China is the biggest competition for them. They are all worried if they will influence and not allow them to get either key materials or key technology. We have seen international customers being more keen to have a China-first supply chain now as compared to even earlier. That's it from our side. Thank you so much, and wish you all the very best. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jason Soans from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah, sir. Thanks for taking my question. First question, just wanted to know, in terms of the base business for both bromine and lithium side of the business, are you seeing some pickup in, let's say, our verticals like Pharma, Agrochem, what is the pickup you're seeing, if any? In light of that, and I know the fire incident that has impacted the Dahej plant and all that, the standalone guidance, is that maintained what you have released on March 7, or is there some change to it? Just wanted to see some more color on the sub-segments within the base business. Yes, Jason. I think for the pharma, we are seeing a very strong pickup. We are also seeing good new inquiries coming from, you know, semiconductors, flavor, fragrance, and other industries as well. Agro has improved, but, you know, again, still not at its full. Especially Agro, we had international business and, you know, with the Dahej plant getting affected. This year for us, Agro, again, will not be able to contribute so much because some of the international customers we had to supply from Dahej. Although one positive point is that in our CSM business, we have received some quite good large inquiries on the Agro side for, let's say, 2026, 2027, 2028 kind of launch. The pipelines for the Agro region is good. As the markets recover, we are there to basically capture the demand from the customers. Almost most of the customers appreciated the speed at which Neogen communicated the fire incident, the speed at which we are rebuilding the plant, and we are bringing them online, and some of the improvements we are making there. All these were taken very positively by the customers. To answer your question, pharma is looking good and getting better. Other industries are also looking good and getting better. They're impressed, again, that China plus one kind of mentality is, again, a little bit getting more active in these industries as well. Agro, the demand is slowly improving, not, like, not great jumps, but it's doing better. We've seen also good interest on our organolithium piece. We have now started making more inroads once we have a capacity visibility in the international market. I think that is also something which we are hoping will help us. With all of that, you know, look, we are on track to achieve what we had targeted. Around INR 825 - 875 crore on the base business. Like we, as you know, we had to, like, you know, change some of the strategies to take care of the impact on Dahej side. Our Q1 performance was a little bit affected by, you know, while we are transitioning to alternate strategies and shifting molecules around. I think we'll see even further. In spite of that, we were able to, you know, do last year's performance when Dahej plant was still there. As we get into Q2, Q3, Q4, we should see better performance as compared to what we did in Q1. That's why our guidance remains the same. On the inorganic lithium side, as I explained earlier, that, like, you know, we want on the inorganic lithium side also that the demand this quarter was a bit less. I think, you know, by the end of the year, we would have caught up or we would have been slightly higher. That, I think, covers all the segments. Okay. Sir, just to, I mean, I understand that an earlier participant did ask this, but for battery chemicals, you are seeing a good ramp-up. I know you had said INR 100 crore for 2026. That could have some change, but we have good visibility in the second half. Of course, it depends on the cell capacities coming up and the lithium salts pick up as well. We have still decent visibility for that in the second half. Yes, there is. If I see right, I mean, for example, I sold more electrolyte in one quarter than I sold in the whole of last year. I think that's a positive sign, right? Right. Even in last July, August, I think even this quarter would be similar or slightly better. I think we are seeing ramp-up, but I have to say, with the way the industry is transitioning and we are being one of the earlier battery materials, I think maybe one of the only battery material producers ready with gigafacility already. I request all of you to have a little bit of patience. I think what we really should be looking at because we are the pioneers or the beginners here. We have to mainly look at what is the scenario in 2027- 2028, right? When we said we are going to have the full utilization levels. If you look at 2027 and 2028, whatever has happened in China, the rare earths and the anode, people are more interested, more keen to basically buy from India. That makes our long-term business more strong. As well as our JV also has been very, very strongly appreciated by the customers because they get the comfort that Japanese technology in India, from whom they are buying for 30 years, is like that we are the only combination who can give that. Similarly, on the electrolyte side also, with whatever is happening in energy storage, the concern about India having enough demand is going because whatever EVs, two-wheelers, three-wheelers, four-wheelers can be a little bit slower. You will have a bigger demand also coming from energy storage. Also, companies like Suzuki having announced that they would also be now setting up a battery plant maybe a little bit later, 2028- 2029. Once the mainstream companies also start joining into battery and cell production, I think all these are positive signs for good demand in 2027- 2028, both on the electrolyte side as well as the salt side. I think this is going to be, let me, we will have to really keep our eyes focused on 2027- 2028, try to do best in 2025- 2026. If I look at 2027- 2028, we are in a very good shape. Okay. Sure, sir. Thanks for that detailed answer. Sir, just also, I missed, you had mentioned in the response to an earlier participant, I think you mentioned two subsidy acts in the U.S. There's a lot of uncertainty on the tariff thing and the IRA's impact getting reduced and the one Big Beautiful Bill and all these things. Sir, how are you seeing in the U.S.? Because of course, there's a kind of a China plus one is on the upward, that bodes very well for us. What are the acts, sir, just and some color on how the U.S. is approaching it? I mean, amid all the confusion there. Yeah. Basically, IRA and the Big Beautiful Bill, right? I mean, both of that basically were focused on one very clear message, which is basically not to depend on China, right? Even the parts which relate to the battery material, what I called as like 45X credits, right? Even those are basically linked to, like, you know, having some non-dependence on China and localization. That's the positive message. I think, you know, tariff, there is no point to guess now. We have to see when that dust settles, right? What is the final? The only thing which matters is because sometimes you see some very critical things, they're just completely exempt. They can even say that, oh, all battery material is exempt from the tariff, like, you know, like they did for iPhone and sometimes for pharma. We'll have to see what is exempted from the tariff and what is not. Then what is the relative position between India, China, and Japan and Korea? Because this is the only four places you can make. Also, Japan and Korea, or again, I think largely in that, also what would be more important is the India and China. Because Japan and Korea, even if they want to set up a large capacity, they take a very long time because of permission. Mostly we have to see where the dust settles between India and China and whether, you know, they are exempt or not. For us, what is more important is that when they are giving some billions of dollars of subsidies to the cell makers in the U.S., that is linked to not having supply security from China. A supply chain coming from China and having a non-Chinese supply chain. I think that is the positive message, what is the government's intention. We'll keep watching there. As I told you, that will only make a difference whether we are a backup supplier with, you know, 20, 25% of the market or, like, you know, we are the majority supplier with 30, 40, 50% kind of market. That's the only difference, like, you know, these policies will have, between, like the way the policy decision happens. I think whatever we are currently aiming, we should not have to worry for that. It's just beyond that how fast we will grow will be clear once the dust settles on the policies. Sure. Just some quick confirmation. I mean, you know, clarification. There are three more participants waiting, and we have today limited time because one of the customers is actually visiting us today. We'll not be able to extend the call too much longer. Sure, sure. Okay. Thank you, Jason. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arun Prasad from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity. Dr. Harin, you mentioned in detail about how customers do not want to depend on Chinese for a long period of time. Is there any contractually, they are locked till certain months or period or year because of which they can't buy anywhere outside from China, any of the potential customers that are visiting you, as far as you know? No, I don't think that is basically a concern. Okay. Because despite so much, you know, clearly it seems that they are 100% dependent on Chinese, and we are there as an alternative. Still, the progress in product approvals or a plant visit seems to be at a slightly slower pace. One would assume that given this kind of high dependence and the importance to diversify supply chain, they would be doing it in a warlike scenario. On the ground, it seems to be moving slow. What explains this kind of a dichotomy? The visits are happening. The discussions are happening. Like we discussed, right, last two, three months, there's a lot of variability which is happening on a daily basis. They are just trying to get a handle of that. I think the only other thing is that the real deadline for them is in 2026. 2025 is more like a comfort year for them, that, okay, if I start buying in 2025, then I'm more comfortable. 2026 is the year where they want to basically start shifting. For the subsidy and all that, 2027 is the year where they just cannot buy. As we get towards the end of 2025- 2026, they keep still having some breathing room. At present, with all the things which are happening with tariffs, they have to take care of what is happening today and juggle with that versus preparing for 2027. I think that's a dichotomy. Okay. Understood. Just for clarity, the plant visit will happen usually after the sample from commercial plant is received, tested, approved, and then only the plant visit happens, or it happens after the plant visit is fully sort. How should we look at this process now? Each customer has their own strategy. Some of them have taken the samples, and then they will come. Some of them will say, no, first I will come, I'll approve only, then I'll spend time in testing the samples. It depends on them. Okay. Understood. You also talked about the backup process being a main supplier or a backup supplier. Typically, what is the volume share given to a, say, a backup supplier? What is your assumption when you assume that you will be a backup supplier becoming a main supplier? One of the customers I discussed with said, hey, if there was no tariff, what would you do? That particular customer said, hey, I would be still 50% non-China. I said, how many suppliers would you have in non-China? He says, I would have at least two. That's basically how I've come with that number of at least having 20%- 30%. Broadly, also, I have seen that customers don't like to have more than two or three sources because they want. I think the maximum, like, they'll have a three supplier approved, two or three. It depends on, I would say, backup would be somewhere on the lower side, 10%- 15%, on the higher side, around 25%- 30%. Understood. My second question is on the Morita JV. You mentioned that you are yet to get aligned with the JV partner. What kind of, in what kind of topics that you are, there is still, say, a misalignment? Is it financial in nature or operational or strategic or more like a product portfolio? How should we look at this non-alignment at this point of time? Basically, I would say a lot of it is just the lawyer stuff, legal stuff, you know, on the language of the agreement. They are very strong Japanese companies, so Japanese legal way and India's legal way, kind of trying to understand that. I think mostly that. Legitimate, what we are doing is because they have not given us the exact final, you know, drawings and exact, because the JV is still to happen, right, exact detail SOPs. As we understand that, we know the big changes we had to do, we have done, like the finer changes that we need to do in our design to basically crystallize on the final dates, etc. Those are the things which are happening in parallel. When the JV agreement progresses, in parallel, we have more and more information that, okay, which segment India technology is better or our Indian equipment is better, which is the Chinese equipment or their technology is better. We are taking the better of the two. In some cases, we are even thinking of a third option together that, hey, you know, why not do better? I think those kind of things are currently happening. Understood. One last bookkeeping issue, Dr. Harin, on our fire incident. We have claimed the insurance and got insurance claim for that. What is our internal estimate for the loss of profit because of this incident? It's very difficult because the loss of profit is going to be for a period from April - March, right? For the whole year. Basically, the loss on profit, the process starts after you reinstalled the plant. The process of giving you loss on profit will be only after that. If we had a very good number, we would have put it in our estimate. That's something, you know, it's ongoing. As a company, we are trying to, like, make sure maximum operations are not affected. The loss on profit will basically take into account some of the fixed overheads which you would still have, like what is the business which we could have done which didn't happen, and also some additional expenses we had to do when we shifted the productions around. I think it's going to be a little bit complicated. We will wait for the experts to do that after it. Especially being insurance, I don't want to hazard a guess right now. The timeline is basically the next financial year only. We'll come to know about this. Yes. Yes. Loss on profit will be. If we have a clarity subject to accounting rules in this year, if we can take a provision, we'll take a provision. At present, I don't have any number which I can share. Thank you very much, and all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Archit Joshi from Nuvama. Please go ahead. Hi. Good morning, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. In the interest of time, I have two questions. I'll bunch it up together. First, you had earlier mentioned that the CapEx on the JV with Morita, that is still undisclosed with respect to the current agreement that you have with them. Beyond INR 1,500 crore of the announced CapEx, will there be incremental CapEx coming in Morita or is INR 1,500 crore accounted for? As you know, the existing CapEx that we have included both the salt and electrolyte. We are not planning unless we see, like, right now so many additional capacity. The only thing is that for the same capacity, when we completely align with their technology, is there something less? Is there something more? We would get to know that. That's the only thing pending. It's basically INR 1,500 crores. If there is any delta created because of the JV, we will know once we have the full alignment. Got it. Secondly, on the current situation on salt and electrolyte in terms of its dollar realization or our current estimate as to what kind of profitability or ROCE we can generate, is there any estimate to it that you have calculated internally? No. We continue to have that 20% ROCE kind of as a target in all our discussions with our customers. As we know, the salt contracts and the additive contracts that we have, basically, as long as we meet the operational efficiencies that we have targeted, we will be able to get the 20% ROCE on the full utilization basis. There's no change in that. Whatever discussion we are having in the electrolyte or small quantity of electrolyte also we are selling, we are keeping that delta. Of course, the plant is not utilized today, but we are keeping that long-term delta that at the peak volume, this is what it will be so that we can generate the 20% ROCE. Sir, this is despite, you know, the volatility that we're seeing in prices of LiPF6 or the electrolyte eventually. Yeah, because that is basically China. We feel even at that, you know, we are cheaper than the Japanese and the Korean. If they want a non-China, then this is still one of the best bets in our view. Understood. Thank you and all the best. Thank you, Archit. Thank you. The last question for today is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from B&K Securities. Please go ahead. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, first question, just clarification on the fire incident. That net claim receivable is INR 268 crore, and out of that, we have received about INR 81 crore. That's a total amount, INR 268 crore, and out of that. 268 is the one. 268 is balanced now. Okay. Yeah, remaining, yeah. As we said, that is from just estimating the net block and the inventory loss. The insurance we have is on a reinstatement basis. When you reinstate the same capacity, any additional cost that you incur will be on top and will be reimbursed by the insurance company. There will also be, like, you know, some loss on profit which we were discussing earlier. These are not included here. They will be in addition to that. Most of this will be towards the end of the financial year or, like, you know, something may go even next year, like the loss on profit especially. The final bit, which is about reinstatement, might go in the next year. Right. The INR 200 crore that we are raising, is it just a stopgap arrangement, or is it going to stay for the tenure of the NCDs? It will stay for the period, for the next, I think, two and a half years. That's approximately the period. It will stay till, you know, all this CapEx and everything is completed, all the insurance is completed. Yes. Sure. The second question is, we have done remarkably well in terms of the standalone EBITDA margins. Given that both bromine and lithium prices have been benign, if the prices increase, is there any risk to the% margins given that probably the EBITDA per- kg would remain more or less similar for both the businesses? Yes. In bromine, you know, mostly we are able to manage EBITDA and the contribution or the fluctuation in bromine, even if it's high, like 20%- 30%. It doesn't change the percentage margin so much. In case of lithium, it is more like per kg kind of a basis. In the past, we have seen that when lithium went to $70- $80, our EBITDA margin on the aggregate basis had gone down to 16% or I think, yeah, around 16%, 16.5% because of that per kg basis where on the percentage basis we are a bit lower. That has happened in the past. If it goes to like $70- $80 kind of level, things like that can happen. That's it from my side. Thanks a lot and all the best, sir. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for the day. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Thank you for joining us today. We trust your queries have been addressed. For any additional questions, our Investor Relations team is available. We appreciate your time and look forward to connecting again next quarter. Thank you once again. Thank you. On behalf of Neogen Chemicals Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.