Usha Martin Gdr 144A

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to only conference call of Usha Martin Limited. As a reminder, all participant line will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask question after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now have a conference of Mr. Devrishi Singh from CDN India. Thank you. I know what to use, sir.

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us on Usha Martin Q1 FY27 earnings conference call. We have with us Mr. Rajiv Jhawar, Managing Director of the company, Mr. Abhijit Paul, Chief Financial Officer and Ms. Shreya Jhawar, Director of the company. We hope all of you have had the opportunity to refer to the earnings documents that we shared with you earlier. We will initiate the call with opening remarks from the management, following which we will open the forum for Q&A session. Before we begin, I would like to point out that some statements made in today's call may be forward-looking in nature and a disclaimer to this effect has been included in the earnings presentation. I would now like to invite Ms. Farah Jawa to make an opening remarks. Thank you and over to you.

Thank you everyone and thank you for joining us for Mr. Martin's online conference call for the first quarter of FY27. I will begin with a brief overview of our performance and the key business developments during the quarter following which our CFO Mr. Abhijit Paul will take you through the finances in greater detail. We have made a strong start to FY27 Consolidated revenue increased by 16% year-on-year to Rs. 1033 crores Operating EBITDA stood at Rs. 208 crores a 44% increase year-on-year with an EBITDA margin of 20.1% What is particularly encouraging is the quality of this growth Across our businesses, value grew faster than volume, reflecting improved realizations and our continued shift towards specialized products. You will see this trend through each of the verticals I now take you through. Starting with wire ropes, value growth was strong at 18% year on year, even as overall volumes were marginally lower. I want to highlight that the volume decline was largely due to the middle east operation. Across our other key markets, India, the US and Europe, we saw healthy volume growth and our geographic diversification helped the overall growth business remain robust. In the domestic market, growth volumes grew approximately 12% year-on-year, while value grew around 21%, supported by healthy demand across train, elevator and fishing segments. The US and Europe both had strong quarters, In the US, growth came mainly from elevator and mining segments, while in Europe we saw good traction across oil and offshore renewables and value-added services. Now coming to the Middle East operations, volumes were down approximately 28% due to continued geopolitical and market destruction. However, realizations improved by approximately 36% on the back of better pricing and a more favourable mix. This allowed us to hold revenues broadly at last year's levels. Even in a challenging market, the strength of our portfolio protected our business. Now turning to Wired, the business delivered healthy growth during the quarter with volumes up approximately 19% and revenue growing around 32% year on year. The Wired portfolio today is largely domestic driven and exports represent a significant growth opportunity for us. We've already begun supplying to select European customers in high-value applications such as automotive and workforce protection and we see considerable headroom to scale this as we secure further approvals and deepen our coverage in these markets. On Plasticated LRTC, the business continued to gain traction supported by healthy demand both in the domestic and export markets. A key milestone this quarter was our first international order for plasticated LRTC stands for a state-able application. This is an important step. As further approvals mature, it opens up meaningful opportunities to expand internationally. This will be central to how we compete in the LRTC segment where black LRTC has become largely commoditized while Plasticated offers genuine differentiation and better value. Coming to Ocean Cyber, Ocean Cyber continues to build momentum. While it remains a small part of the overall business, we are encouraged by the progress across offshore and heavy lifting applications and the pipeline of opportunities ahead. This segment complements our core product portfolio and we see it as an important growth lever for the company going forward. Overall, I would like to highlight four broader points from the quarter. First, the improvement in performance reflects our shift towards high-value products and applications. Over the past few years, we have made sustained investments in centering our manufacturing and R&D capabilities, enabling us to address technically demanding applications across global markets. Many of these products require extensive development, testing, and customer qualifications, creating meaningful barriers to entry. Our growing track record of approvals and successful seed performance validates this strategy with the benefits increasingly visible this quarter across our growth portfolio, value-added buyers, Plasticated LRPC and Ocean Cycle. Second, we were able to protect profitability and expand margins despite a significant increase in key input and logistics costs. We implemented pricing actions across segments to pass through these increases. Together with improvement in product mix, cost discipline and operating efficiencies, this enabled us to expand EBITDA margins to 20.1%. Third, Profitability translated directly into cash. He generated operating cash flow of approximately Rs. 242 crores representing cash conversion of 116% of operating EBITDA and closed the quarter with a net cash position of approximately Rs. 465 crores. Fourth, this balance sheet spent allows us to keep investing confidently in the future growth. During the quarter, we incurred capital expenditure of approximately Rs. 73 crores. For FY27, we continue to expect capex of approximately Rs. 250-1500 crores. These investments are focused on expanding capacity in specialized wire rope and improving manufacturing efficiency. A key project underway is the expansion of our elevator rope capacity by approximately 6000 metric tons per annum The additional capacity is expected to be commissioned in phases beginning October with the project scheduled for completion by the first quarter of FY28. Looking ahead, wire rope volumes remains a clear priority and our approach will be value-led volume growth. We will also continue to improve mix, scale our newer verticals and send in collaborations across our global operations through the One Usham Martin initiative. While the external environment remains dynamic, demand across our key applications remains healthy. With our differentiated portfolio, long-standing customer relationships and strong balance sheet, we are confident of delivering consistent and profitable growth. With that, I would now like to invite our CFO, Mr. Abhijit Kaur, to take you through the financial performance for the quarter in greater detail. Thank you.