Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Neogen Chemicals Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call for analysts and investors. Today, we are joined by senior members of the management team, including Mr. Anurag Surana, Non-Executive Chairman, Dr. Harin Kanani, Managing Director, and Mr. Gopikrishnan 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. A detailed disclaimer is available in Q4 FY 2026 earnings presentation, which has been shared and uploaded on stock exchange websites. With that, I would now like to invite Dr. Harin Kanani to share his perspectives. Thank you. Over to you, sir. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our fourth quarter and full year FY 2026 financial results. I trust you had an opportunity to review our investor presentation. I will begin with an overview of our operational performance and key strategic developments during the quarter, followed by an update on our long-term growth initiatives. The global chemical industry continues to operate in a challenging environment marked by persistent overcapacity, rising volatility, and subdued demand across several end-use sectors. In addition, the industry has witnessed elevated supply chain disruptions and input cost pressure arising from geopolitical developments in the Middle East. Despite these headwinds, differentiated specialty chemical players with strong customer relationship, technological capabilities, and niche product offering continue to demonstrate resilience. Against this backdrop, Neogen Chemicals delivered a strong financial performance during Q4 FY 2026, supported by sustained demand visibility across our core products and high plant utilization levels. Our growth momentum was steered by rising volumes across key end-use applications, including pharma, flavors and fragrance, and other specialty applications. While input costs, including packaging material and logistics-related expenses remained elevated during the quarter, our strategic passthrough mechanism helped protect core profitability. Importantly, FY 2026 was also a defining year for Neogen as we continued our transition towards a future-ready portfolio led by battery materials. This strategic shift was further reinforced by the promoter group's capital infusion of INR 161 crore through preferential allotment at a premium to the SEBI floor price, reflecting strong confidence in Neogen's long-term growth trajectory and significant opportunities emerging within the lithium-ion battery materials ecosystem. The proceeds will support the expansion of Neogen Ionics working capital requirement and other strategic initiatives. As our CFO will shortly take you through the detailed financial performance, let me briefly highlight the quarterly performance. On a consolidated basis, revenue for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 247 crore, registering a strong growth of 22% year-on-year, while EBITDA increased by 21% year-on-year to INR 44 crore. EBITDA margin sustained at 17.8% despite expansion-related overheads, geopolitical-led supply chain disruptions, and temporary costs associated with the Dahej replacement facility and toll manufacturing arrangements. Profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR 11 crore. On Dahej replacement facility, construction of the plant is progressing rapidly and commissioning remains on track on June 2026. On the insurance front, we received a recent tranche of INR 60 crore in February 26, which provides additional liquidity comfort during our ongoing transition. This brings our total cumulative on-account insurance claims received to INR 140 crore plus a salvage realization of INR 7 crore. Our net claim receivable stands at INR 203 crore, and we are working closely with insurers towards expediting the final settlement process. Let me now turn to our battery chemicals business, which remains the most important strategic pillar for Neogen Chemicals' current future growth. Our Pakhajan greenfield site continues to progress in line with planned activities. Commercial manufacturing for electrolyte remains targeted for H1 FY 2027, while electrolyte salts are expected in H2 FY 2027. During the quarter, the project achieved a significant operational milestone with completion of mechanical assembly and successful transition into the trials run phase for the specialized electrolyte plant. Our immediate priorities are process stabilization, phase capacity ramp-up, and customer qualification. We continue to witness improving demand visibility for India's gigafactory ACC battery manufacturing ecosystem, alongside strong international interest for non-FEOC compliant supply chain. Encouragingly, we have received provisional approval from additional global customers for lithium electrolyte salts, while final site audits for multiple U.S.-based electrolyte makers have also been completed and are currently awaiting final commercial clearances. These developments position us well to transition from pilot and qualification volume towards regular commercial supplies over the coming quarters. During the period under review, we calibrated our execution strategy, which led to a revision in the project timelines and capital outlays for our battery materials projects. Please note that the updated project timelines remain fully aligned with our earlier guidance. We are on track to commission both the Dahej and Pakhajan plants within the current financial year, FY 2027. Under this updated schedule, the Dahej Phase 1 project is budgeted at INR 428 crore and is firmly on track for completion by February 2027. Concurrently, the revised cost for Pakhajan Phase 2 stands at INR 1,367 crore and expected completion by March 2027. These revisions primarily reflect design-led optimization following the integration of advanced Japanese technologies, along with higher localization of critical subcomponents aimed at improving long-term operational reliability and reducing import dependence. Importantly, this investment significantly strengthens the competitiveness and technological robustness of our battery material platform over the long run. Our strategic partnership with Japan's Morita continues to progress well, and their planned equity contribution of $20 million towards the joint venture is expected during the H1 FY 2027. Through this partnership, Neogen is building India's first non-FEOC compliant electrolyte salt manufacturing platform, backed by proven Japanese technology, creating a differentiated and globally relevant supply chain alternatives. Neogen is at a pivotal inflection point as we enter FY 2027, a year that will fundamentally transform our business scale. The commissioning and ramp-up of one of India's largest dedicated battery materials facility at Pakhajan, combined with normalization of our standalone operations following Dahej replacement plant commissioning, will significantly strengthen our growth trajectory. We believe Neogen Ionics is well-positioned to emerge as a globally competitive and reliable partner within the battery chemicals value chain, supported by improving customer visibility, technology partnerships, and India's rapidly evolving energy transition ecosystem. We remain confident of achieving revenues in the range of INR 875 crore-INR 950 crore in FY 2027 on a standalone basis, considering full production from MPP-5 from Q2 FY 2026 onwards. With that, I would like to hand over the call to our CFO, Mr. Gopikrishnan Sarathy, who will take you through the financial performance for the quarter and the year in greater detail. Thank you, Dr. Kanani. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Neogen Chemicals Q4 and FY 2026 earnings call. I will take you through the financial highlights for the quarter and the year. Please note all the numbers are on consolidated basis. Revenue for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 247 crores, registering a strong growth of 22% year-on-year. Performance was driven by improved volumes, sustained high plant utilization across our core businesses. Despite ongoing supply chain disruptions, elevated input costs arising from geopolitical developments in Middle East. Neogen Ionics also maintains steady momentum during the quarter, contributing INR 13 crores to Q4 revenue and INR 36 crore for the full year. Looking at our operational verticals, organic chemicals recorded a revenue of INR 194 crore, up 7% year-on-year, while inorganic chemical segment delivered a standout performance with INR 53 crore in revenue, marking an impressive 145% expansion over the previous year base. EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 44 crore, up 21% year-on-year, with consolidated EBITDA margin maintained at 17.8%. As indicated by Dr. Kanani, the performance remained resilient despite expansion-related overheads at Neogen Ionics, temporary supply chain disruptions and one-off costs associated with Dahej replacement facility and interim tool manufacturing arrangement. As the upcoming Pakhajan and Dahej facility progressively scale up, we expect stronger operating leverage and improved fixed cost absorption. Further, this would also be supported by insurance recoveries. Profit after tax for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 11 crore, reflecting robust profitability. Finance costs remained elevated on account of ongoing capital deployment towards Neogen Ionics and the reconstruction of the Dahej facility. For FY 2026, revenue stood at INR 862 crores, registering a growth of 11% year-over-year, while EBITDA increased to INR 137 crores and PAT stood at INR 29 crores. H2 FY 2026 reflected a significantly stronger cash flow performance compared to H1 FY 2026, supported by improved operating efficiency, better working capital management. Net cash from operating activities turned positive for INR 14.6 crore in H2 FY 2026 versus an outflow of INR 246.1 crore in H1 FY 2026, driven by healthy cash generation from operation. Turning to our balance sheet, consolidated total debt reached INR 1,330 crore in FY 2026 and bringing the net debt to INR 1,295 crore. Increase in debt was driven by targeted funding for the Dahej facility rebuild and ongoing capital deployment at Neogen Ionics. We remain focused on optimizing our balance sheet, driving working capital efficiency, and maintaining high prudent capital allocation strategy to maximize sustainable returns on our investments. Reflecting our strong performance and long-term growth confidence, board has recommended a final dividend of INR 1 per equity share for FY 2026. This underlines our commitment to delivering consistent value to our shareholders. That concludes my remarks. I will now request the moderator to open the floor for Q&A. Thank you very much. We'll now begin with the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their 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. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The first question is from line of Nilesh from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Good afternoon, Harin. Good afternoon, Gopi, sir. Yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah. My first question on this revision in your cost for the battery chemical projects. You mentioned that there will be import substitution and there will be a long-term operation reliability. Our cost, as far as this project is concerned, has gone up more than INR 250 crore. Can you tell us how much saving we can do or the returns that you expect? Are you increasing your return as you mentioned in earlier discussion that 18% kind of returns you expect from this project. If you are investing this much, more than INR 250 crore of CapEx. Any improvement in that? That's the first question. Thank you for your question. Like, you know, as you can see, we have basically, we are basically aligning our technology to Morita technology, so that has been one reason. The second reason, if you would have seen that in the investor presentation, we added additional 500 metric ton intermediate, facility of a simple lithium compound for which we have an opportunity to sell to our international customers, including our partners. This is the total of that. With the savings that we have in raw material and other operational efficiencies, even today, when we look at our Return on Capital Employed, ROC numbers, they are like at 20%, around 18%-20%. When we put together the revised model also, the return remains at 18%-20%. 20% being the base target on the salt side and with electrolyte, like as I said, we are finalizing it, but effectively we should be targeting 18%-20% ROC, like, you know, even after the revised CapEx. Okay. Secondly, sir, how much was the revenue from electrolyte business in FY 2026? The total INR 36 crore kind of revenue numbers. It was below INR 10 crores, but I don't have the exact number for you right now. Okay. The majority of it is from the salt. Okay. Sir, when you are guiding INR 875 crore-INR 950 crore kind of revenue in FY 2027 for our standalone business? Yes. How much revenue you are factoring in from salt plus electrolyte in this? No, INR 875 crore-INR 950 crore is non-battery business, right? There is no salt or electrolyte sales in the INR 875 crore-INR 950 crore revenue. This is after factoring in the Dahej replacement plant? Yeah, yeah. Yes. That will be there. Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. If you remember, our original was, like, around INR 950 crore-INR 1,000 crore on full utilization level. You know, Dahej plant is starting a little bit later. If we had targeted to start in Q1, instead of that, there were some delays to start to complete the project because little bit of there were labor shortages related to constructions over last two, three months. It got slightly delayed. That is why we are saying INR 875-INR 950. We are seeing very positive signs for organolithium sales as well as lithium sales, which is not impacted by Dahej. If we are able to outperform in that, then, you know, we would be able to even achieve the original INR 950-INR 1,000. Because there was a slight delay in starting Dahej plant, that is why we said INR 875 crore-INR 950 crore. We are trying our best with organolithium and lithium compounds to achieve the original target of minimum INR 950 and then INR 950 plus kind of revenue from the standalone. This doesn't include any electrolyte salt or electrolyte. The electrolyte salt and, like, the Neogen Ionics revenue potential, we had mentioned. last year to be INR 300 crore plus. remains, like, you know, the current guidance also. We expect to have a INR 300 crore plus kind of revenue from our NIL business. Like, you know, this will be mostly in the second half. We'll see quarter-on-quarter improvement, but majority of the sales will be the second half as more gigafactories, like, you know, come online for electrolyte. As well as, you know, our Pakhajan site is also expected to come online in the second half. The final capacity in Dahej is also expected to come by Q3. I think all of this will give a higher boost in Q3 and Q4, and that is where you will see majority of the revenue coming. Okay. Okay. Lastly, on the quarterly numbers, our revenue grew by about 12% QOQ and around 22% YoY. Can you split that in volumes and value? Most of this is basically by volume. There was hardly impact of maybe 2% or 3% which was because of value. Rest of it was completely through volumes. Cool. Thanks. Thanks. All the best. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. A request to all the participants, kindly limit yourself to two questions per participant and rejoin for a follow-up. Next question is from the line of Arun from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead. Yeah. Good evening, Dr. Harin. My first question is, how is the lithium price and the bromine price currently as compared to the previous quarter? Have you seen this stabilizing? How will this reflect in our top line in our legacy business going forward? Thank you for your question. I think bromine prices have stabilized a bit, because we saw that after there was a pause in the war, there were shipments which Dead Sea Bromine was able to arrange to China market, which over a period of time started stabilizing the bromine prices. Bromine prices have remained stabilized. We'll see if there is no further disruption. They may reduce also because they remain kind of little bit on an elevated level. When it comes to the lithium prices, lithium prices continuously there was a one large jump, after that, it is slowly increasing. We have not yet seen a stable lithium price. It's very difficult to predict how it works, but we feel this is like, you know, driven by higher demand for ESS and even some areas we are seeing little bit more push towards EV with the current gasoline prices and higher petrol and, you know, crude oil prices. If the trend continues, we may see lithium prices increase further beyond level, but it is very difficult to predict at this point in time. If these kind of prices sustain. Our potential from the standalone business, how much it will increase, because we are currently still sitting at close to INR 900 crore top line. Any early indication how we can expect kind of increase in this potential revenue? You know, I normally don't factor in like commodity price increase, how it will change our top line significantly because most of it is like a pass-through and it's anyway something which is difficult to predict. For us, you know, more focus is on what we consider as a normal price revenue potential, what we have given you right now, which is basically, you know, INR 875-950. Any this sustained lithium price. Even now lithium prices are around $24-$25, lithium carbonate prices, which as per me is the kind of a normal price. Like, you know, because $15-$20 is what I consider as a long-term stable lithium price, it's only slightly above. The abnormally low prices are gone. Now it's like more closer, I would say $20 ± $5 as a long-term stable price. We are kind of in that range. If it goes beyond that, then you know, you may have some additional revenue, but you know, there's no point to factor in. It's basically will be a pass-through. My top line to that extent will be higher, but doesn't mean that it'll have any impact on the EBITDA on that higher price. Therefore, I don't tend to consider. Similarly, bromine price also ideally should be between INR 300 ± INR 50. Today they are little bit higher, although because of our contracts we didn't see a very significant impact in the last quarter. Yeah, if they remain at this elevated level, there will be some increase on the bromine prices as well, which will impact the top line. Currently we are not factoring that top line when we are doing our budgeting. If they remain at a elevated level to that extent, you know, our revenues will be slightly higher. Sir, what explains inventory absolute increase in the inventory receivables and? Okay. Futures. Sorry. Absolute increase in the inventory was mainly driven because, you know, we had taken some of the outside locations on kind of rent basis to basically get capacities. These contracts were getting over by month of March, and since Dahej was not fully yet online, we kind of built up some inventories to take care of our sales, like in Q1 and Q2 level. We also decided to ultimately extend it slightly by another month and a half to take care of the sales. We wanted to wind down those operations with Dahej plant coming online. It was mostly driven by that. Like, you know, some product mix related requirements that we had where we had to create some inventory. Thank you. Arun, I'll request you to come back for a follow-up question. A request to all the participants, kindly limit yourself to two questions per participant and rejoin for a follow-up. Next question is from the line of Ankur from Axis Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. First question on, you know, the salt pricing. What is the price gap now, you know, with China, versus our pricing? Yeah. When you compare with China, if you see majority of the beginning of the last year, the prices were actually almost 40%, 30%, 40%, 50% lower or even sometimes higher, lower as compared to what our, let's say, long-term formula prices were. However, after December, January, we saw like when the lithium prices increased, again, we saw increase in the salt prices as well. Afterwards, it's kind of reduced a little bit. We still have like a 20%, 30% decrease, but it's lower as compared to earlier. It is still bit lower as compared to our prices. In December, January, we saw an increase, but then it didn't sustain for too long. There was a period in time where they were even more expensive than us. Then again, they cooled off a little bit, but still not to the same levels earlier. This is more, like, you know, more reasonable price as compared to it was, still like little bit lower as compared to what ideally it should be. Sorry. What is the gap now? You said they went up, they came down, what is the differential now? The differential would be, like if we look at our formula long-term price, it would be between 20%-25%. Okay, fair enough. You know, two clarifications. One, the interest subvention that we have, right? When does it start? From what date one should build that in? It will be a cash flow relief, right? The P&L provision, et cetera, will still continue. The second question is on the standalone manpower cost. We saw a sharp jump there on a, you know, year-over-year basis full year. What is driving that? Sorry, I'm not very clear on what do you mean by interest subvention? There is a subvention, moratorium. Yeah that we got from banks, right? Yes. I think all the moratorium is for the period of one year from the revised start of commercial operations. Whenever we have the first start of stable commercial operations, there will be one year morat from that. As we announced, I think last calls itself, that for Pakhajan, there was an extension of one year for the electrolyte as well as the salt and, assuming from our side, I think most of the work on the electrolyte We are targeting to be ready by H1. If we start commercial production and all the qualifications are completed in the H1, then like, you know, one year from that and in case of the salt in H2 from the time we have the commercial production one year from that. In case of our Dahej site, we will be, like we requested again an extension for one subsection of 1,000 ton capacity, which again got delayed. Instead of Q1, we are expecting it to start in early Q3. I think wherever that SCOD happens from that, there will be a one-year moratorium. Sure. This is a cash flow relief. The P&L provisioning will still continue. Yeah, sorry. I'll just ask Gopi to answer that. It's an cash flow relief only for the principal repayment. Interest will start immediately after the COD is achieved. Thank you. Ankur, I'll request you to come back for a follow-up question. Just for clarification, like, you know, whatever interest is during the project is already considered in the revised cost of the project. Till the time it is capitalized, the interest is already included in the revised cost. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on one good Q4. First question is in terms of the battery manufacturers plants in domestic markets. Individually, what is the status? Just a light question to that, on slide number 12, we have given current project updates, where we have mentioned that the first approval material is shipped to the customers and for remaining 1,300 MTPA, the trial production is ongoing. Yes Will we have to validate the entire 1,500 metric ton capacity as and when it gets, you know, commissioned from a trial production perspective? What could be the timelines for the same? Sure. You know, let me answer the second question first. Basically the samples that we have given is representative for the entire 1,500 metric tons, and even the 1,000 metric tons, which is remaining, is going to come from the same site. Basically now, you know, with whatever samples that we have submitted, and like, you know, we also announced that we also intimated that three customers, three electrolyte makers in the U.S. have now just completed the audit trail. I think with those, for the three customers who have already audited and for the others, we've submitted samples. For Dahej, we don't need to submit any fresh samples unless there is a customer request. Sometimes the customer for each electrolyte maker, for each battery maker, they may request samples, separate samples. For the majority of our customer requirements, most of the sampling work is done. The audits are also completed. Post-audit, they have given us some corrections, which we expect to complete within one month or two months. Once we demonstrate that, some, like, you know, gradually the commercial supplies can start. We expect by July or August, we will have commercial supply start, and we don't have to wait for additional approvals from Dahej side. Like all the customers who visited, they also visited Pakhajan site, like, you know, which is under commissioning, and they were all very appreciative of the way the site is shaping up and the systems which we have put in the site, especially because it is designed from scratch with the Japanese technology. Most of them were of the opinion that the approval cycle in Pakhajan also will be shorter because our testing method, raw material supply, manufacturing, all of this is already aligned. Only just the site is changing, so it Pakhajan will have a relatively shorter approval cycle. This was the feedback from the customers who audited and approved us during the last quarter. Right. Just one clarification on the question. In terms of the domestic battery manufacturers, where are they in terms of putting their plants and probably providing us the commercial orders? Sure. I think, you know, one of the customers have been already buying from us small volume for last one year, and they have now also increased their capacity, which is coming online. Within the first half, their capacity is also increasing from 1 giga to 5 giga. The estimation that we have received from them, will increase for the current year. We expect a much significantly higher volume as compared to last year. There all the approvals are in place and, like, you know, we are on track. It's just a question of their actual consumption, and Neogen right now is the only source for them, and we have excellent relationship with them. That business is certain, and the only volume depends on their actual production and actual consumption. When it comes to a second customer, the second customer has, like, also visited and done a audit and in principle approved Neogen as a site. There will be still more detailed qualification. This customer, this is also a giga customer who is starting a pilot line sometime in the second quarter, and they will start commercial production in 2027. Right now, the way it stands, we are still discussing some commercials, but technically they have qualified the site to use the material in their trial production line, the pilot line. Which the volume will be much smaller. It will not be a giga scale, it will be mega scale. The important thing is that since they will use it in the pilot line, you know, they are likely to, they'll have the customer approval, so the shift to the gigafactory will be more smooth. On top of that, two of the giga customers who have started production or are expected to start, you know, later on in calendar year 2026, both of them have, like, you know, given us their recipes and we already submitted our samples. Right now they are testing our versus China performance of the cells using Neogen electrolyte versus China electrolyte. You know, once they do the performance trial and they have sufficient data, then they will start the process of moving Neogen as a qualified supplier for them. We already have two customers, one gigascale, 1 MWh scale, who have qualified Neogen. Two more are in the process of, like, who are starting in 2026. They are in the process of, like, validating Neogen's electrolyte versus Chinese electrolyte. Two other customers who are likely to start in 2027. We've had good commercial and technical discussion, site visits. Like, we remain engaged with them for the final approval and qualification. Again, the question is they both had an original intention to switch from China, but how to switch from China to Neogen is what is currently being worked out. Sure. The second question in terms of the funds for our expansion. Given that we'll be receiving INR 200 crores from the insurance claim and $20 million from Morita JV, do we need any additional funding during FY 2027? After the current project commissioning, what is the gross block at the end of FY 2027? Thank you. You know, both, the Morita money coming in, insurance is expected, and as you know, INR 160 crore equity has been taken care of. This money is sufficient to take care of completion of the project and, you know, to take care of the initial requirements. We are on track for that. I think the total gross block of Neogen Ionics would be around INR 1,700 crore, INR 1,700 crore-INR 1,800 crore at the end of FY 2027, as most of the CapEx will be completed. For standalone on a consolidated basis? Gopi, standalone, would be like somewhere around INR 450 crore-INR 550 crore. That's fine. Yeah. like once MPP-3, MPP-5 or Dahej site expansion is completed, we expect to be in the range of INR 450-550. You can say basically whatever was the standalone gross block before fire, plus maybe INR 40-50 crore more, which would have gone towards higher cost of the rebuilding. Again, hopefully, that will also be majority will be covered by the insurance proceeds. Sure. Thanks and all the best, sir. Thank you. Thank you. A kind request to all the participants. Please limit yourself to two questions per participant and rejoin for a follow-up. Next question is from the line of Abhijit Akella from Kotak. Please go ahead. Yeah, good evening. Thank you so much. First one, would it be possible to just share a breakdown of the organic chemicals business line between the three lines that you mentioned, you know, bromine derivatives and the other two? I think bromine derivative was about 44%-45% of the revenue. The advanced intermediates was about 30% of the revenue. The organolithium and lithium together were the balance. Okay. when you mentioned that most of the revenue growth was volume driven, does that apply even to the inorganic business? Because inorganic, we've seen 140% growth. Is that largely volume, sir? Yes, it's mostly volume because I think people knew that the lithium prices were kind of going up, and we still had some inventory, so there was a good demand, so we were able to capture that. We've seen that, you know, when the lithium prices are on upward trend, volumes increase first. We'll have to see whether, you know, that will be sustained because sometimes, you know, people are expecting higher lithium prices coming down the line, so they are covering up. Anyway, if you know, like, you know, Q4 is usually our strongest quarter for lithium most of the years. We feel, you know, we'll have to see how the next year goes. We have also added few new customers and, like, you know, we are now able to recycle the lithium which is coming out of the organolithium plant. All these also have made our lithium business a little bit more stronger. We'll see, you know, if that will allow us to still continue the growth as well as whatever is the growth because of the higher price of lithium in terms of the overall top line we expect in the coming year. Okay. Thank you. Just the second one I had, just, you know, two, three small parts within this, some accounting implications. One is in the standalone cash flow statement, under investing we see an INR 86 crore proceeds from sale of assets. Is this by the parent to Neogen Ionics? In it. Just wanted to clarify that because it doesn't show up in the console books. Second thing is, the capital work in progress, if I look at console minus standalone, the difference is about INR 700 odd crores, which implies that maybe we still have another INR 1,000 crores to go, you know, given that total project cost is now INR 1,795 crores or so. This entire INR 1,000 crores we expect to complete by 3Q, you know, or could that be a, I mean, it really sounds a little bit realistic there. Last one was just the employee costs. Sequentially it seems to be down about 22%. Just wanted to get your perspective on that. Thank you. I'll answer just the, like in the calculation that you did for CWIP INR 700 crore plus, I wanted you to just keep in mind that some of the CapEx for our inorganic, for the battery business has already taken place, right? It's not INR 700 plus what is capitalized is what we have spent. That'll be roughly at around INR 950 crore-INR 1,050 crore is what we have spent, and the remaining INR 600 crore-INR 700 crore will be spent at current time. Also some part lies in the capital advance. Okay. Some of it is also part of the capital advances which has been there. For the specific query about your INR 86 crore, I'll ask Gopi to reply. This sale, you are right. The sale proceeds relates to the sale transfer of assets from NCL to NIL, which was done two years back. The money was not received while the transfer had happened earlier. Now that the CCD is in place, NIL has paid off that money, so that's why it has been recorded in the cash flow as our sale of property, plant, and equipment. The other question on the employment cost, sequentially it has come down mainly because of the actuarial. There was some change in the actuarial assumption that has resulted in some credit. That's the reason between on a sequential basis, employment cost is showing a reduction. Great. Thank you so much for the clarification, sir. All the best. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Jason from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah, sir. Thank you for taking my questions. Just wanted to understand, you did speak about lithium pricing being on a normalized level right now. Just with regards to that, just wanted to know what could steady state realizations be in dollar terms for salts and electrolytes both? You know, for me, the more stable lithium price would be $15-$20. $20 kind of being like a base price. I feel ideally speaking on a long-term basis when supply and supply and demand are kind of balanced, $20 of lithium carbonate is a reasonable price considering the cost of the lithium, the spodumene, like mining cost and some royalties which are paid to the governments on that. ±$5 would be the kind of fluctuation. $15-$25 would be like a ideal speaking range of lithium, which should be. Right now they are little bit on the higher side. They are around $24, $25, higher end of it. At $20, you know, we have given salt around $20 odd and $20-$21, and our additive around $25-$30 in that range. Right now it would be a little bit higher as compared to that. Okay. You said salts $20- $21, and additives around $25- $30, and what about electrolytes? Electrolyte also depending on the volume and the scale. We had, as you remember in the beginning, we had said around $8-$10. Right we had said around $6-$8 per kg. Right. We expect that, you know, currently it should be with the current lithium price, somewhere around $7-$9 per kg, otherwise $6-$8. This also depends on other raw material inputs. The lithium prices have corrected, but some of the other inputs like solvents, et cetera, have not yet fully corrected. In this, I am not taking the war related, because if I consider today's prices with impact of war, then it can be even above $8, like more closer to $10+ kind of a price. This is at like a 5,000, 10,000 ton level. In the beginning, you know, customer demand would be 1,000 ton, 2,000 ton, at which it should be little bit higher because the raw material cost and conversion cost is higher at that point in time. Sure. $6-$7, $7-$8 would be a decent range for electrolytes. If you are thinking of $20 with the other raw materials. Yes. I would say $6-$8 would be the range. $7- $7.5 as an average price, you know. Yes, yes. yes. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Sir, just wanted to know, I mean, when you look at the consolidated cash flow, CapEx is basically amounted to INR 555 crores in 2026. Of course, our CapEx also has been revised upwards, which was around INR 15 billion. It's basically gone to around INR 18 billion. It's extra INR 300 crores, which is for the revised CapEx. Just aligning all these things, just wanted to know what could be the CapEx outflow over a like-to-like basis in 2027 and 2028 going ahead? Oh, okay. Yeah. 2027 and 2028, you mean calendar year 2027 and 2028, right? No, no. FY 2027-FY 2028. When I look at 2026 are the I mean, when you look at the cash flow statement, INR 556. Yeah, yeah. I checked. FY 2026. Yeah. I checked. FY 2026. Yeah. I checked. FY 2026. Yeah. 2026 is 556. 2027, 2028, just wanted to know how that would look like. Yeah. FY 2027, we would complete with the balance CapEx, right? Correct. which would be, go be around. Seven the INR 600 crore-INR 700 crore, right? That's right. Plus maybe about INR 100 odd crores in Neogen. Total together at around INR 800 crore. Right. That's for FY 2027. FY 2028, we don't have, unless something changes dramatically, we don't have at present any fixed plans for increase in CapEx for Neogen, because we want to fully stabilize the plant, achieve full utilization. Similarly, we have not yet planned any major CapEx for FY 2028 at present. Although, as we have said in the past, that if both international demand and India demand comes up, we will have to increase our salt and additive capacity. To what extent, we have not yet decided, so I'm not able to give a number at present. Sure. Just one final, sir, clarification. I believe you said 2027, you said INR 36 crores was battery chemicals revenue for 2026. 2027, you expect INR 300 crores, but it will be more towards the H2 to FY 2027. That's the second half. Am I correct? Revenue you mean, right? Revenue. Yes, revenue. Revenue, revenue. Yes. Revenue- 2027 to Yeah. Yeah, revenue for. Yeah. Revenue, as we said. For battery chemicals. Yeah, for the non-battery, it is INR 870-INR 950. Yeah. That's Yeah. Yeah. Correct. for the battery- Yeah. Yeah. I have got that. Yeah. Yeah, battery you said INR 300 crores, entire battery chemicals, INR 300 crores for 2027, right? Mostly towards H to FY 2028. More than INR 300 crores. Yeah. More than INR 300 crores for FY 2027. Larger portion in the second half. Every quarter sequentially, you should see an increase. Yes. 2028, with everything going on stream finally, what do you I mean, you know, the entire CapEx, any ballpark numbers for 2028? Yeah, we had in the past calculated that, you know, just the salt capacity at 80% utilization, we expect a very healthy salt demand, like electrolyte salt and additive demand. That itself is like, you know, revenue of INR 1,000 crore plus, right? Depending on how the electrolyte demand shapes up, it'll be something more than INR 1,000 crore. As we said, you know, on FY 2029, it's like INR 2,400 crore-INR 2,900 crore. We feel in FY 2028 it'll be, you know, something more than INR 1,000 crore. Let's say INR 1,200, INR 1,400, some kind of a number like that. We'll be able to give you more clarity, like, you know, in the second half of the current year. Sure. Thank you so much for answering this. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Meet from Niveshaay. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, team. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Am I audible? Yes. Yeah. Sir, our first domestic electrolyte customer is highly satisfied with Neogen compared to our competitor. Mainly because of our quick response time and our ability to modify the electrolyte solution as per their requirement, right? This help us to secure a sole supplier position with them. Just want to check how the negotiations are progressing with other cell manufacturers who are not using the wet dry coating, right? Are we also achieving a dominant position there? I think as I explained earlier in my call that, you know, second customer also visited our facility, had a pre-round and qualified to use our electrolyte for their second line. Then there are two more who are now evaluating, you know, our electrolyte performance versus China electrolyte performance, and two more are discussing with us. I think the factors are Neogen existing experience and like, you know, the bigger plant capacity which is available. Because you need a higher capacity to take care of all the customers. We have a 30,000 ton plant which is under trial production, and that too which is built with Mitsubishi technology. I think all of this is like a positive for the customer. Now the customers with their experience in China last one year are also looking at localization. The fact that Neogen has electrolyte salt and additive backward integrated, even electrolyte solvent purification is backward integrated. With all the six gigafactories under construction, we are having very positive discussions ongoing currently. Mm-hmm. Got it. Sir, secondly, on the several South Korean electrolyte players already have their plants in the U.S., right? For electrolytes. Now they are, and they have also already announced CapEx in Korea itself for salt manufacturing, right? Either JV or MOU. In that context, are you, are your U.S. salt customer looking at Neogen mainly as a second source or as a mainly backup supplier? Do you see clearly visibly visibility for Neogen to become a meaningful supplier for the U.S., for the U.S. facility? Yeah. You know, at present, if you look, there are already existing established. We have discussed in the past calls that there's one Japanese company and there's a Korean company with a limited experience. There are two manufacturing plants which are coming up in India. In Korea, while there were many announcement, but of the announcement today, actively being pursued is only one company which is still working on, and they are working with a technology. You have two existing, one Japanese and one Korean, and three new, two Indians and one more Korean who's trying to start up. In this, you know, Neogen is the only one which has a technology partnership with Morita, which is very seen as a established kind of a technology because it has been in use. Between the three new, we see some advantage of customer looking at us as a stabilized or more reliable supplier. Hence, like, you know, they look at Neogen a bit more preferentially as compared to the others. This is our kind of view for LiPF6, electrolyte salt. Got it, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. A request to all the participants. Please limit yourself to two questions per participant and rejoin for a follow-up. Next question is from the line of Archit Joshi from Nuvama. Please go ahead. Hi. Good evening, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Two short questions, squeezing them into one. What would be the contribution of BuLi Chem in Q4 and FY 2026? Number two, what explains the sharp increase in trade payables, you know, almost as good as the COGS for the whole year? If you can explain these two things, sir. Thank you. It gives the exact volume to the competition. Sorry to interrupt you. We were not able to hear the beginning of the answer. May I request you to repeat from the beginning, please? Sure. We are not giving, you know, our sale of organolithium plant individually because it's a single molecule. As compared to last year, we have seen a increase in our revenue. We have seen approvals in the international market, in the semiconductor applications, and we are expecting few more approvals in the international market. For us, current year in organolithium, we are looking really forward to this year, where we expect a sharp increase in the business contribution from the organolithium side. We achieved one of our highest production. Like as some of you may know, in the past we had announced we had increased capacity 2.5x. We reached the full monthly volume, the highest peak volume ever in the month of March, and we continue to see that in the current quarter as well. As compared to the installed capacity, which was around 120 metric tons, we had increased 2.5x to 300 metric tons per year. Last year was somewhere in between. This year we are like, you know, very strongly looking at a potential to achieve almost 80%, 90% of our increased capacity. Then if everything goes well, we may do a small CapEx to further increase this capacity in the coming year. We are seeing a very strong response to our organolithium business. Sir, second bit was on the trade payables, the very sharp spike that we have seen. Like I said, almost, like 365 days outstanding of trade payables. What, what would explain that? I think, you know, as you know that, we have like last year we had already lot of financing to do. There were a lot of funds which were required. We also and we were awaiting some insurance payments. We kind of discussed with our suppliers, and we were able to negotiate like longer credit terms with them. Some of them were also able to get factoring against Neogen's payment lines. We were able to get longer credit terms. We basically use longer credit terms with them. Our target is like Yeah. Our long-term target, as we said, is to balance our debtors with our creditors. This time the creditors were still little bit on a higher side than that, which was like, you know, some kind of a special support because of fire-related situation from our suppliers. I've got it. Going into FY 2027, we should start seeing the payables to come down. Yes. part of the money and stuff like that. Yes, yes. Okay. Hopefully, like I said, our debtors and creditors will stabilize each other and our stock will keep improving as we use full utilization level. We'll achieve the long-term working capital cycles gradually over next two to three years as we had informed earlier. Right. Sure, sir. Thank you and all the best. Thank you. A request to all the participants, please limit yourself to two questions per participant. Next question is from the line of Tejas from Asian Markets Securities. Please go ahead. Thank you for the opportunity. I just have one question. In the result document, you have mentioned the revised project timeline for Pakhajan Phase 2 as March 2027. I just wanted to understand, this is the timeline which has been provided is more for the electrolyte formulation part and also Dahej Phase 1, as you had earlier highlighted, the capacity which we are setting up at Dahej would be largely based on our own technology. While in the remarks, you have also said that we are transitioning from in-house to the, you know, Morita technology. That will be more towards the Pakhajan part or are we also will be shifting our 11 metric, 2,000 incremental salts capacity to the Morita technology? That's it from my side. I think most of the Dahej capacity remain our capacity. We've done some adjustments to the technology, but majority remain. Also the salt capacity in Dahej also includes additive where, you know, we don't have the collaboration with Morita. That remains completely Neogen's own technology. Large part of that 2,500 is related to our own. Majority of the Morita related technology adjustments were in our Pakhajan facility as well as. One change, if you look at our investor presentation, is we've added 500 metric tons of additional intermediate salt capacity, which is required or which is the starting material for our raw material for electrolyte salt, which we are in discussion, where this is consumed by our partner, Morita, in China, as well as few other customers who are making LiPF6. They all, Morita being our, like, you know, partner, they are positively considering to purchase this from us. Other LiPF6, established LiPF6 producers are considering to buy this intermediate from us to achieve the China-free requirement. I think that is the additional CapEx required for in our Dahej site, which has been updated in our presentation. Okay. Got it. On the revised project timeline, which you have given in the result document as March 2027, that is for our electrolyte 30,000 ton capacity which is coming up? No. That is for the entire project because till now, like, you know, the bank is in the process of dividing it. This is the SCOD which we have taken approval from lenders. In terms of our timelines, we expect H1, we should have completed majority of the electrolyte work and H2 for the salt. That remains unchanged. Similarly, in case of Dahej Phase 1 also, by Q3 we feel we should. Already 1,500 tons is completed, and only the last bit of 1,000 and the 500 ton addition that we have planned should be completed by Q3 and maybe a little bit some capacity by Q4. Again, this is the approval which we have taken from the bank. We remain committed to complete majority of the Dahej, the balance, 1,000 plus the new 500 intermediate by Q3. As I, as we explained for the Pakhajan, H1 for electrolyte and H2 for the salt. In H2 also, mostly by end of Q3 it should be ready. Q4 we should be able to do additional revenue. Revenue can start getting generated, but since sometimes approval take longer, so we've not factored in any revenue from this. We've kept it as a backup in case if electrolyte revenue is reduced because of lower demand in India, then whatever revenue we will get from Pakhajan in Q4, will be used as a backup, or otherwise it will be additional revenue, which is the INR 300 crore plus part, depends on Q4 from Pakhajan minus any reduction in electrolyte. That would be the balancing fee. Okay. Just a small follow-up, sir. 5,500 would be our total salts plus additives capacity, and this 500 increase intermediate which you are setting up would be over and above that 5,500 tons capacity. That's right. Yes. Yes. Out of that 5,500 tons, what would be the split between salts and additives? Salts would be approximately around INR 4,000, around INR 4,000 odd crore and INR 1,500 to INR 750 would be the additive. Okay. Got it. Thank you so much, sir. That is all from my side. Thank you. Participants, kindly limit yourself to two questions per participant. Next question is from the line of Pratham from Quantum Asset Management. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Just one thing. Since we have increased the CapEx, what would be the peak debt that you would be seeing? Previously we have alluded to INR 1,700 crores, I guess, as the peak debt, and what could be now? As we explained, you know, in our presentation, since we have already INR 160 crore equity which has come in from the promoter as well as the $20 million from our JV partner, which was not factored in during the initial discussion. The peak debt will not change. It will remain the same as earlier. Yeah. Okay. Just one thing, since you mentioned the. Sir, sorry to interrupt you. We are losing your audio, Pratham. Sir, just one thing. Pratham, can you please come in a better reception area? Hi, am I audible? Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Just one thing you mentioned that, INR 36 crores from Neogen Ionics. If I just deduct that from inorganic and then we actually degrown. What is the reason for that degrowth? Sorry, I couldn't get your question. You are saying was there a degrowth? In organic chemical business, if I just deduct the INR 36 crores revenue from which we received from Neogen Ionics, then there is just a 10% drag in the inorganic chemical business. It has been dragging us continuously. What is the reason that we can attribute it to? I think it was during majority of the year, the lithium prices on an average was lower, so that I can see one of the reasons. I would need to take a little bit more closer look before I can answer. In volume terms, have you been growing on that front? I have seen no significant increase or decrease, have been more or less overall stable. Got it. Yeah. Mm. Okay. Slight increase also, but yeah. Just one more thing. If suppose, you know, there is a delay in ramp-up in capacity, given what I am trying to factor in, I foresee a liquidity issue in the company. If you can just help me, you know, if you can just clarify on this part ki, how is the ramp-up happening? You know, as you see, whatever has been the delay in our project startup has been the repayment schedule has been already being delayed to the same extent. Broadly speaking, let's say whatever was supposed to get completed in March is getting comp March 26th. Everything is getting completed by March 27th. Now that we got the extra time, most of the approvals, everything will be in place. The revenues also will ramp up and, you know, we feel overall, I don't see a big change as compared to that. The additional CapEx which was required was already funded through additional equity, both from promoter side as well as JV partners. For us, there's not too much of a difference. Whatever insurance proceeds we are receiving on a regular basis and whatever balance also we expect to receive, in a relatively shorter period of time. Therefore, you know, we are not concerned. If there is any need, you know, we will always keep a watch, and if required, we would raise money, if needed or if required. Sure, sure. No concerns. Thanks, thanks. Okay, thank you. Okay. Thank you. Next question is from line of Akshay from Alpha Invesco. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. So my question was regarding our domestic gigafactory customer who's utilizing dry battery electrodes. Sir, how does the architectural shift impact the technical specifications of the electrolyte considering it's a dry battery electrode? It will be a little more sensitive to moisture and all. I wanted to understand that. You know, basically when it comes to electrolyte, any component you change in your manufacturing changes the electrolyte composition. When you go from LFP to NMC or within LFP for the application, I mean, different kind of like cylindrical versus prismatic type or even depending on the application, whether it is for energy storage or like energy storage or whether it is for EV applications. Each one has a unique electrolyte design depending on the size, shape, and the type of technology used in the battery. As you know, on the anode also you have carbon only or carbon silicon. All these permutation combinations require a separate individual electrolyte design and optimization. Yes, dry cathode is a relatively challenging technology, it required more trials to begin with. In my view, it's one of the stringent requirements, you know, when you go for NMC dry cathode, that too with like, you know, no secondary cooling. I think we've already kind of achieved electrolyte which is performing really well in this condition. Yes, each electrolyte, each cell design, we have to optimize the electrolyte. Okay. Thank you. Got it. Sir, quickly for the same customer, they have been scaling up their capacity to 2.5 GW, that would, like, create a demand for 350-400 tons of LiPF6. I wanted to understand what portion can we cater to from this demand. Normal rule is, you know, 1 GWh requires 1,000 tons for LFP. I mean, actually, sorry, 1,200-1,400 tons for LFP. In case of NMC, between 400-600 metric tons per GWh. Again, I won't be able to commit specifically, but as I explained earlier in my call that, you know, the scale-up which has been done by the customer, we expect a higher electrolyte demand from them as compared to last year, significantly higher. However, actual consumption, one is the capacity, but you run the plant at what capacity depends on the customer's production and sales plan. Depending on that, we will see how much actual electrolyte gets bought. Yes, the demand will be significantly higher as compared to last year. Okay. Based on, what's going on, the current demand that's, been going to the customer, can we say, we could do 50%, 60% of the requirement? Oh, from our side, we can meet 100% of the customer requirement and more because we have a capacity of 2,000 metric ton which is already in place and another 30,000 will be ready by H1. We can take care of the entire customer requirement. No, we can take care of the customer, but is it a requirement? Is it feasible or even wise enough? I'm just trying to understand what is the probable scenario here. There is a very high probability that last year also 100% was met by us and unless there are commercial differences, next year also 100% can be met by us. It's very common for a battery company to work with only one electrolyte company. I mean, there are historically for decades, you know, companies have worked in this way or at the most when they go to like a 500 giga kind of a volume or very large volume, they may have two suppliers. There are very many examples where like for decades, you know, one entire battery company consume electrolyte from only one company. Thank you. Akshay, may I request you please come back in the queue? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take the last question from the line of Vedant from Nirmal Bang. Please go ahead. Am I audible? Yes, sir. Go ahead. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. I want to understand like, we wrote in our press release that we are confident of achieving a revenue in the range of INR 875 crore-INR 950 crore in FY 2027. If we consider INR 875 crore, it's kind of 2.33% growth for a full year basis. Can I get some understanding of in three to five years of the timeline, if we get all the approvals, our all CapEx and capacities come into picture, what kind of revenue we can make at Neogen Chemicals on a consolidated basis? For the financial year next year? Three to five years timeframe I'm asking, sir. Three to five years. Okay. Yeah. Our FY 2029 full utilization level, let's say if we have already stated that this year was INR 950-1,000, we have been little conservative saying INR 875-950. As I explained earlier, we'll try our best to achieve the higher end of the spectrum, which was the lower end earlier. This is on the Neogen level. Our guidance was that for FY 2028 we would like to have a full utilization with optimization which can produce us INR 1,100 crore+ kind of revenue. Our FY 2027 target, tentative target, sorry, FY 2028 tentative target is around INR 1,100 odd crores. If we maintain the same growth rate, by FY 2029 we should be INR 1,200 crore plus, between INR 1,200-1,400 crore plus revenue just based on the regular demand in the existing business. If we make a significant further investment in battery material, in, sorry, organolithium or some semiconductor related or flavor fragrance or to take care of higher CSM needs, that would be additional. With investments around, investments which we have done today, we would expect somewhere around INR 1,200-1,250 crore by FY 2029. On the battery side we already guided to INR 2,500-2,900. Somewhere around INR 3,700-4,200 is the expected revenue by FY 2029 on a consolidated basis. Again, like I told you, I see a need that we would have to add some additional salt capacity because we are, like in FY 2028, because we are seeing increased, both local demand of electrolyte as well as international demand for a LiPF6 salt. As well as, you know, we see increase, we would also expect the CSM demand to start coming in from FY 2029 onwards. This is something we don't know yet. With the existing capacity we can have revenue of around INR 3,700-4,000 crore plus based on the projections which we have made till now. In terms of capacity, you know, currently our Pakhajan site can take care of around approximately 30 GWh of electrolyte and electrolyte salt. There is a space to go 3x higher, like, you know, in Pakhajan. Depending on if you're talking of five years, so depending on how the demand in India shapes up and in the international market, we would, we can basically increase capacities for that. Similarly across our organolithium site and our Dahej site as well as our Baroda site, we have an ability to go up to INR 4,000 crore- INR 5,000 crore of revenue through brownfield expansions. We'll see, like, you know, depending on how the demand shapes up. On a three-year FY 2029 with whatever guidelines is we have given, or whatever projections we have given, we project somewhere between INR 3,700-INR 4,200 kind of revenue by FY 2029. Let's say if we are thinking of FY 2031, whatever we decide in the future CapEx to increase on electrolyte salt as well as in the base business, for more CSM, more semiconductor, more organolithium, as well as the inorganic lithium demand to kind of go further ahead. That was very helpful, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now I hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Thank you for your time and engaging discussions. For any remaining questions, our Investor Relation team is available to assist you. We value your continued partnership and look forward to sharing our next quarterly update with you. Thank you again. Thank you very much. On behalf of Neogen Chemicals Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect.