JKCEMENT — earnings call

The transcript as filed. Every paragraph is addressable: its link names the page and the position it sits at in the call.

Prepared remarks

CEMENT LIMITED · MODERATOR:

MR. PRASHANT SETH – PRESIDENT BUSINESS INFORMATION AND INVESTOR RELATIONS, JK

Moderator · Conference Operator

MR. VAIBHAV AGARWAL – PHILLIPCAPITAL (INDIA) PRIVATE LIMITED JK Cement Limited May 26, 2025

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to JK Cement's Earnings Call for Quarter and Year Ended 31st March, 2025, hosted by PhillipCapital (India) Private Limited.

As a reminder, all participants’ 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 "*", then "0" on your touch tone phone.

Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vaibhav Agarwal from PhillipCapital (India) Private Limited.

Thank you and over to you Mr. Agarwal.

Vaibhav Agarwal

Yes.

Thank you, Michelle.

Good morning, everyone.

On behalf of PhillipCapital (India) Private Limited, we welcome you to the Q4 and FY '25 call of JK Cement Limited.

On the call we have with us Mr. Ajay Kumar Saraogi – Deputy Managing Director and CFO, and Mr. Prashant Seth – President (Business Information and Investor Relations).

I would like to mention on behalf of JK Cement Limited and its Management that certain statements that may be made or discussed on today's conference call may be forward-looking statements related to future developments and statements which are based on current management expectations.

And these statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other important factors which may cause actual developments and results to differ materially from the statements made.

JK Cement Limited and the management of the company assumes no obligation to publicly alter or update this forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise.

I will now hand over the floor to the management of JK Cement for their opening remarks, which will followed by interactive Q&A.

Thank you, and over to you Saraogi sir.

Amit Murarka: · And lastly, CAPEX plan for '26 in rupees crore.

Could you provide the decimal as well?

Yes, right.

Okay, great.

So, like with this Panna 2 expansion coming through in December, I believe you will have good leeway for growth even beyond the '26 then.

I also wanted to understand what would be the expansion plans beyond '26 now that Panna is now nearing completion I am sure you would want to plan ahead as well.

Sir, any priority that you think should be there, like Panna line 3 will come --

And lastly, CAPEX plan for '26 in rupees crore.

Sure.

Thank you.

I will come back in the queue.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Harsh Mittal from Emkay Global.

Please go ahead.

Harsh Mittal: · Thank you for taking my question. Congratulations to management for a great set of numbers.

Thank you for taking my question.

Congratulations to management for a great set of numbers.

Sir my first question is that has there been any update on the Orissa limestone mining lease agreement with the state government?

That is your first question, sir.

Sure, sir.

Sir my second question is, sir, what has been the incentive booked this quarter and the guidance for FY '26?

Sir lastly, what is the consolidated gross debt and net debt?

Sorry if I missed in the opening remarks but if you can share, consolidate gross debt and net debt?

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

These are my questions.

Thank you.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Vikram Suryavanshi from PhillipCapital India.

Please go ahead.

Vikram Suryavanshi

Good morning, sir.

Sir, there was news regarding Container Corporation working with you on tank containers for bulk cement movement as well as LNG vehicles for end-to-end logistics.

Can you highlight the scope of work and how it will benefit for the company?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Navin Sahadeo from ICICI Securities.

Please go ahead.

Navin Sahadeo

Hello.

Good morning, sir.

And congratulations on a great set of numbers.

I think everything has fallen in place, be it volumes, realization and the cost as well.

My question was, are there any one-offs in the quarter?

Like be it on the cost front or let's say the realization front, which are unlikely to continue in the next quarter.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Mr. Sahadeo, does that answer your question sir?

Navin Sahadeo

Yes.

Sorry.

I was on mute.

Just one follow-up here is that, in the past whenever we have seen this improvement in the UAE facility, it was said as one-off in the sense for some special exports JK Cement Limited May 26, 2025 to Australia or something like that.

Can we now say that UAE as an entity can generate about Rs.

1,800 crores of EBITDA on a sustainable basis, is that the confidence?

Or we still need to be treading with caution?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Pathanjali Srinivasan from Sundaram Mutual Fund.

Please go ahead.

Pathanjali Srinivasan

Hello.

Sir, congrats on a very good set of numbers.

I just have a few questions.

So, we were indicating about the cost reduction journey, so could you tell us about where we are in that?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Prateek Kumar from Jefferies.

Please go ahead.

JK Cement Limited May 26, 2025

Prateek Kumar

Hello.

Yes.

Good afternoon, sir.

And congrats for great results.

My first question is on your clinker utilization on an annual basis in North, Central and South operation, so if you can give that number.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Pushkar Jain from Mili Capital.

Please go ahead.

Pushkar Jain

Hi, sir.

My question was also regarding pricing, can I confirm post margin is 1% in North and Central, and 5% to 7% in South?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Parvez Qazi from Nuvama Group.

Please go ahead.

Parvez Qazi

Hi, good afternoon for taking my question and congrats for a great set of numbers.

So the first question is with regards to the paint business, now with increasing competitive intensity in that business, I mean, how do we see the outlook for that business, let's say, in FY '26?

And secondly a bookkeeping question on the railroad mix.

Thank you.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Uttam Kumar Srimal from Axis Securities Limited.

Please go ahead.

Uttam Kumar Srimal

Thanks for the opportunity and very good afternoon.

And congratulations on a very good set of numbers.

Sir, my question pertains to premium cement, we have already reached 15% in this quarter, so how do you see premium cement reaching in FY '26 as a percent?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Jaspreet Singh Arora from Equitas PMS.

Please go ahead.

Jaspreet Singh Arora

Yes.

Hi, good afternoon, Mr. Saraogi and Mr. Prashanth, and congratulations.

My first question sir was on, thanks for sharing that paints trajectory, what's the EBITDA breakeven for us, at what level do we do that?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital.

Please go ahead.

Shravan Shah

Yes.

Thank you and congratulations on great set of performance for this quarter.

Sir, a couple of questions.

First is, sir, as we are saying, if we will be starting the 6 million tons by December, January, is it fair to say that the next year FY '27 at least we should have a 50% plus kind of utilization?

So kind of looking at 3 million ton extra volume should be there in FY '27?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will take only last two questions for today.

The next question is from the line of Sanjeev Kumar Singh from Motilal Oswal.

Please go ahead.

JK Cement Limited May 26, 2025

Sanjeev Kumar Singh

Thank you for the opportunity, sir.

So from UAE plant, I believe that we are running at optimum utilization rate.

So can you please share that what is the import which is being done into India from UAE plant?

And secondly, are we looking at some CAPEX on that plant also if the utilization seems to be more than 90% now?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

This will be the last question for today, which is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital.

Please go ahead.

Amit Murarka: · And lastly, CAPEX plan for '26 in rupees crore.

Yes, hi.

Thanks for the opportunity again.

So I just wanted to have a sense around the volume mix around various geographies for FY '25, like between North, Central, and South, if you would just give a broad split, I believe you are selling in Bihar also now.

So just if you would give a rough understanding of the same.

Okay.

And the East sales?

Okay.

So the new Bihar grinding unit that is coming up, so like broadly I see that there is a plan to raise volumes even in East, while you are flat in Central, but I see that there's a plan to grow East as well now.

So like in that sense, any sense you would give on let's say maybe going ahead what is the plan on region-wise growth?

So just wondering that frankly generally Bihar as a market has been having lower pricing than the Central markets, maybe almost Rs.

20, Rs.

30 lower, in fact that too after the recent price hikes.

So what really is the rationale of going more into Bihar when you can actually maybe cater to UP, MP with better realization as well?

Sure.

Understood.

Yes.

That's all from me.

Thank you.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

As that was the last question for today, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Vaibhav Agarwal for closing comments.

Thank you and over to you, sir.

JK Cement Limited May 26, 2025

Vaibhav Agarwal

Yes.

Thank you.

On behalf of PhillipCapital (India) Private Limited, I would like to thank the Management of JK Cement for the call and also many thanks for persons joining the call.

Thank you very much, sir.

You may now conclude the call.

Thank you.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, members of the Management.

Thank you, sir.

On behalf of PhillipCapital (India) Private Limited, that concludes this conference.

We thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.

Thank you.

Questions and answers

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you very much, sir.

We will now begin with the question-and-answer session.

The first question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital.

Please go ahead.

JK Cement Limited May 26, 2025

Amit Murarka: · And lastly, CAPEX plan for '26 in rupees crore.

Yes, hi, good morning.

And thanks for the opportunity.

So first of all, congratulations on a great, great result actually.

So my question was, I see that in Q4 you were at 94% clinker utilization, could you also provide the clinker produced in FY '25?