Welcome to the second edition of Global Chatter — a fortnightly newsletter where we dig through what the world’s biggest companies are saying and bring you the most interesting insights, whether about their businesses, industries, global trends, or the broader economy. We read through major global earnings calls, shareholder letters, investor presentations, and management interviews so you don’t have to.

From Big Tech and semiconductors to global banks, consumer giants, energy majors, and industrial leaders, Global Chatter is our attempt to cut through the noise and surface the conversations that actually matter.

We’re always looking to make Global Chatter more useful and insightful—so if you have ideas on how we can improve or innovate the format further, we’d love to hear them.

In this edition, we have covered 6 companies across 5 diversified industries.

Semiconductors & AI Technology

• Micron Technology

• NVIDIA

Advanced Data Integration & Analytics

• Palantir

IT Services & Consulting

• IBM

Food Services & Facilities Management

• Sodexo SA

Aerospace & Space Technology

• SpaceX Corporation

Micron Technology | Semiconductors

Micron Technology is a leading American multinational semiconductor company that designs and manufactures computer memory and data storage products, including DRAM, NAND, and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM).

[Concall]

On demand visibility for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), management said customer demand remains well ahead of available capacity, even several years out.

“The demand that we have for our HBM products—HBM3E, HBM4 and beyond—is far in excess of our ability to supply. Through these Strategic Customer Agreements, we’re discussing demand over a multi-year horizon, even beyond 2027 and into 2028. We are able to get very high-confidence demand from customers that is well above what we can support. Even when we sign multi-year agreements, the committed volumes are still less than what customers actually want. Our demand for HBM, not just in 2027 but even in 2028, is well above our ability to supply.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

Mark Murphy updated Micron’s industry outlook following stronger-than-expected AI demand.

“Today we indicated that we expect market tightness to continue beyond 2027. Part of the reason is that we have increased our estimate for the HBM total addressable market. Previously, we expected it to cross $100 billion in 2028. We now see the HBM TAM easily crossing $100 billion in 2027.”

— Mark Murphy, Chief Financial Officer

Asked about long-term DRAM and NAND bit demand growth, management explained why it is no longer providing multi-year CAGR forecasts.

“For the foreseeable future, shipment growth for bits is not really determined by demand anymore. It’s actually determined by supply. Demand is so much above the industry’s ability to supply that supply growth will determine shipment growth far more than demand growth. Our expectation is that supply growth will continue to remain short of what is needed to meet demand, and we don’t really see when supply will be able to catch up.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

Management explained the structure of the new Strategic Customer Agreements (SCAs), highlighting their long-term nature and financial protection.

“These Strategic Customer Agreements cannot be cancelled. There is no provision that allows a customer to walk away. Outside of automotive, these are generally five-year take-or-pay agreements. Customers commit to annual volumes and are obligated to pay whether or not they take delivery. Prices are negotiated within agreed floor and ceiling bands, and there are premium provisions for higher-performance products. The one provision that does not exist is any customer’s ability to walk away from these agreements.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

Management described the financial commitments supporting the new contract model.

“The agreements we have already signed aggregate to more than $22 billion in total cash and related financial commitments, of which the cash alone is almost $18 billion. As we expand these agreements toward our target of covering roughly half of the company’s revenue, the cash associated with them will increase significantly.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

On memory architecture trends, management expects LPDRAM to gain share as hyperscalers focus on power efficiency.

“We continue to expect LPDRAM usage to grow over time as a percentage of DRAM consumption in data centers. Micron has been a pioneer in LPDRAM for the data center, first with the technology and first with SO-DIMM products. We have strong customer engagement and expect to remain the recognized leader in this space because LPDRAM helps reduce power consumption, improve performance and reduce memory footprint.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

Management discussed the cost implications of new fabs and the industry’s transition toward higher-performance memory.

“Higher-performance solutions such as HBM require more silicon per bit, and greenfield fabs do not benefit from the same leverage as traditional technology transitions. Both the move to higher-performance products and greenfield investments will increase DRAM bit costs in the near term.”

— Manish Bhatia, EVP, Global Operations

On NAND strategy, management highlighted strong momentum in enterprise storage.

“Our enterprise SSD momentum is exceptionally strong. We delivered a $5 billion quarter in enterprise SSDs within our $25 billion data center business. We continue to gain record market share because of the strength of our NAND portfolio.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

Summarizing the company’s long-term outlook, management said AI and structural industry changes have reshaped the memory market.

“The combination of demand, the structural supply challenges in the industry, AI creating newfound relevance and strategic importance for memory, and now these Strategic Customer Agreements are completely transformative for our business.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

Asked whether the company would increase DRAM exposure given tight market conditions, Sumit Sadana reiterated Micron’s commitment to maintaining a diversified memory portfolio across end markets.

“Our mix in the business, DRAM versus NAND, tends to oscillate between roughly 80% DRAM and 20% NAND, or about 75% DRAM and 25% NAND. We are pretty comfortable with that mix. As it relates to HBM, we have made a strategic decision that our goal is to have our HBM share consistent over time with our DRAM share. We intend to support customers on HBM as well as the non-HBM portion of the DRAM business across all market segments. We definitely believe in the strength of diversity.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

Management emphasized that despite AI momentum, Micron continues to value diversification across end markets.

“If you look at the AEBU business and the MCBU business, both of which are non-data-center businesses in our business unit structure, that’s almost 40% of our company revenue. We like that diversity and will continue to focus on supporting customers across all market segments, including non-HBM DRAM, HBM and NAND.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

On NAND competitiveness, management highlighted the strength of its enterprise storage portfolio.

“We have hit record share after record share in data-center SSDs because of the strength of that portfolio. We are the QLC leader in the world, the first company to introduce Gen 6 drives in volume, and we are also leading with the highest-capacity 245-terabyte SSDs.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

Responding to a question on CXMT and YMTC, management downplayed the competitive threat outside China.

“Those companies have certainly grown over the years in terms of their capabilities and market share. However, the overwhelming majority of their output is sold within China. We have not really seen meaningful competition from them outside China.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

Management explained how it plans to defend its market position despite increasing competition.

“Our focus is on the highest-performing and most complex products in the portfolio. We look for products that are difficult to get right, engage deeply with customers over multiple years, consistently meet or beat time-to-market targets, and maintain leadership in innovation. We also have one of the strongest intellectual property portfolios in the world, with almost 65,000 patents, and we have a long track record of defending that IP.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

While both memory categories remain supply constrained, management highlighted that DRAM shortages are more acute.

“Customers are definitely interested in securing NAND supply, but DRAM is far more constrained and much more difficult to supply in the quantities they need. NAND is very constrained too, but the sense of concern and urgency around DRAM is significantly higher.”

— Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer

NVIDIA Corporation | Semiconductors & AI Infrastructure

NVIDIA Corporation is a technology company that designs GPUs, AI computing platforms, networking solutions, and software for applications across data centers, cloud computing, gaming, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and high-performance computing. In this shareholder address, CEO Jensen Huang discusses the evolution of AI from a research tool to commercial infrastructure, the growing adoption of Agentic AI, the role of Blackwell and Vera Rubin in the company’s roadmap, and why NVIDIA believes AI infrastructure investment is still in its early stages.

[Reference]

Management explains that computing has shifted from simple execution to reasoning, which fundamentally changes how hardware is utilized. This transition signals a massive expansion in the utility and market size of computing infrastructure.

“For 60 years, humans wrote software and computers executed instructions. That paradigm has changed. With AI, computers can understand, reason, plan, use tools, and do useful work. AI becomes useful computer is no longer just a tool.”

— Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA

Management is reframing their products as production assets rather than traditional IT expenses. This shift in customer mindset supports higher pricing power as buyers focus on revenue generation potential rather than just hardware cost.

“Customers are not buying computers. They’re building revenue generating AI factories. The architecture of the factory matters. The question is how much revenue the factory can produce and at what cost.”

— Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA

NVIDIA is entering the CPU market with a product designed specifically for AI agents rather than human users. This opens a significant new revenue stream and challenges traditional CPU manufacturers in the data center space.

“Agents don’t rent cores but demand ultra fast responses. There will be billions of agents and they will need a CPU built for them. We believe Vera will be one of the most significant product launches in our company’s history and the orders are already coming in.”

— Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA

Management identifies robotics and autonomous machines as the next major growth driver following the current digital AI boom. This long-term roadmap provides visibility into growth opportunities beyond the current language model trend.

“Physical AI is the next wave of growth for Nvidia. Physical AI is agentic AI in the real world. Robots, cars, and factories will perceive, reason, plan, and operate in dynamic environments. Nvidia pioneers this field and builds the full loop.”

— Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA

In response to a question about sustainability, management asserted that the shift to AI is a multi-decade structural change rather than a short-term bubble. This long-term perspective is meant to reassure investors about the durability of current growth rates.

“For the first time in 60 years, computing is being reinvented from largely retrieving, storing, and sending information to generating intelligence with AI. ... This buildout will be measured in decades.”

— Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA

Management highlighted that demand is broadening from a few large cloud providers to entire nations and specific industries. This expansion suggests the total addressable market is significantly larger than just the existing tech giants.

“As organizations seek to manufacture intelligence at scale, demand for AI factories will extend far beyond today’s clouds to enterprises, sovereign nations, and regional AI clouds. NVIDIA’s uniquely enable and uniquely enables AI factory buildouts.”

— Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA

Addressing the shift from training to inference, the CEO shared data proving their hardware remains the most cost-effective for running AI models. Maintaining leadership in inference is critical as it becomes the dominant portion of the AI market.

“In semi analysis inference X benchmarks, Blackwell was declared the inference king, delivering the best performance per watt, the lowest cost token and 30 times higher token throughput. ... NVIDIA AI infrastructure delivers the best performance and therefore the best inference economics.”

— Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA

Management confirmed that most of their hardware in the field is already doing inference work, contrary to some market fears. This validates the company’s competitive position against specialized inference chip competitors.

“Today, the vast majority of NVIDIA’s compute footprint is used for inference, and we are favorably positioned to expand our share, as we demonstrate with our recent announcements with Anthropic and and Apple.”

— Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA

The CEO discussed how AI investments are driving broader economic activity and infrastructure upgrades in the US. This deep integration into national industrial strategy provides a layer of political and structural support for the business.

“AI is a once- in a generation opportunity to reindustrialize America with chips and [clears throat] systems manufacturing, bring back advanced manufacturing jobs, upgrade our aging power grid, and invest in sustainable energy. Because of AI, we have the profits and scale to invest in partners.”

— Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA

The company reaffirmed its commitment to returning half of its free cash flow to investors. This consistent policy provides a predictable floor for shareholder returns as the company continues to scale.

“Supported by our conviction in sustainable market growth and free [clears throat] cash flow generation, we plan to return 50% or more of our free cash flow this year, next year, and beyond, growing both our share repurchases and dividend overtime.”

— Jensen Huang, President and CEO, NVIDIA

Palantir | Advanced Data Integration & Analytics

Palantir Technologies is a specialized software company that develops advanced data integration, analytics, and AI platforms for governments and large commercial enterprises. Its core systems unify siloed datasets into a single operational “digital twin,” enabling organizations to visualize information, make AI-driven decisions securely, and deploy operational software.

[Interview]

Explaining why Palantir partnered with Nvidia, Karp said customers increasingly want ownership and control over every layer of their AI stack.

“If you want to know how this came together from my perspective, there were a lot of technical issues—who controls the models, who controls the weights, who controls the value of your business. We’re sitting on critical infrastructure across America, Ukraine and Israel. Everyone who uses LLMs on the battlefield runs on top of our ontology. Our clients are unhappy with the Frontier Labs. There is a level of discomfort and loss of trust. What aligns me with Nvidia, and I think what technical customers want, is control over their compute, their models, their data stack and their alpha. They want to know they own the means of production. It’s not being transferred to someone else.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp explained why Palantir’s ontology layer is critical for deploying AI in regulated environments.

“When you’re using large language models, everyone technical realizes they’re a critical resource. To make them valuable in an enterprise, battlefield, regulated or manufacturing context, you have to have what’s called an application layer. We have this thing called ontology that now everyone’s copying. It takes a large language model and makes it safe, useful and precise. Safe because it doesn’t touch your underlying data. Safe because it prevents the large language model from caching your data and replicating your business. Safe because it doesn’t transfer your IP or your classified information.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp argued that enterprise customers increasingly fear losing proprietary information when using foundation models directly.

“Something has gone completely wrong. The basic view among enterprises in this country is, ‘I’m going to waste my time with tokens, I’m going to get no value, and they’re going to get my IP.’”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Responding to criticism that he was targeting OpenAI and Anthropic, Karp emphasized customer trust.

“This is reporting. I’ve literally called these people against my own interest because I’m profiting from this. The reality is you may not like us at my former schools, Harvard or Berkeley, but enterprises in this country trust and love us, especially the ones involved in critical infrastructure, both public and private.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp explained why Palantir’s software has become the standard for mission-critical AI deployments.

“The whole secret here is the forward-deployed model, the products that have been five years ahead. Everyone said forward deployed engineers were services. They said they didn’t even know what an ontology was. That’s the only thing people talk about now. The secret was we delivered the best things for the warfighters.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp described the shift in enterprise buying preferences.

“Our products are completely agnostic. We now sell a product that allows customers to switch from model to model. But we need to rebuild trust. That trust is going to happen where everyone gets to ask and answer basic questions: Who owns the data? Where is it cached? Are the prompts secure? Is this being transferred to you?”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp explained why foundation models alone are insufficient.

“What I am claiming is it’s the model plus an application layer plus compute. It is really all three. The reason why everyone is struggling with bad financials and growth while losing money is that clients refuse to pay the true cost. The two places that actually make money—profit and free cash flow—are our application layer called ontology and compute.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp argued that enterprises don’t need proprietary frontier models if they retain ownership.

“We can take an open model and, in either a classified or non-classified context, get it to the point of a frontier model while you control the weights. We can get the frontier application to be exactly the same as a frontier model without the risk of transferring the alpha of your business to somebody else.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp summarized what he hears from enterprise customers.

“Every single enterprise I deal with is livid. They’re saying, ‘I’m paying for tokens that create no value. These people are stealing the weights and the alpha of my business.’”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Explaining why frustration has grown among enterprise customers.

“The voice of American business is being channeled through me. It is absolutely a problem for this country because we’re on the cutting edge of every AI technology, but people have triply oversold something. The enterprises are tired of it.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp challenged investors to verify his claims directly.

“I want everybody watching this, especially investors who think somehow this is working, to pick up the phone and call a CEO in private—not in public—and ask whether they’re livid. I’m telling you, they’re twice as livid as me.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp distinguished between real AI progress and excessive marketing.

“The reality of compute plus ontology plus models is changing the course of history. Ask the Ukrainians. Ask the Israelis. Ask our Department of Defense. Ask the enterprises where this is working. We do not have to oversell what we have. It’s all being built in this country. We do not have to overhype it.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp explained why Palantir remains model-agnostic.

“We’re completely agnostic. We prefer a world where there are more hyperscalers and more choices. What is happening among the most technical players is that they’re saying, ‘I want something I own. This is my business. I want to own the GPUs. I want to own my data. I want to own the model. I want to control the alpha.’”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp argued that many enterprises believe foundation model providers are extracting value without delivering commensurate business outcomes.

“Every enterprise I deal with is livid. They’re saying, ‘I’m paying for tokens that create no value. These people are stealing the weights and the alpha of my business.’ These models have been irresponsibly oversold. The sales pitch is that they’re dangerous for everyone, yet somehow they can be given to all of our adversaries, but they can’t safely be deployed for the Department of Defense or an enterprise without risking the transfer of that enterprise’s alpha. That’s not a sustainable model.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Asked whether dissatisfaction with Frontier Labs is benefiting Palantir commercially.

“I’m not here to talk about what happens to other businesses. What I can tell you is that in our business we have more demand than we can supply. We have more business than we can execute. If you look at our financials, you can see exactly where we’re headed.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Discussing AI regulation and cybersecurity, Karp argued against restricting advanced AI for Western governments while allowing adversaries access.

“One of the things we’re really trying to get the West to do is move away from slogans and look at the technical realities. It makes no sense to restrict powerful models from your own government because you disagree with how the government fights wars, while effectively opening those same capabilities to the rest of the world, including your adversaries.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Asked about China’s AI progress, Karp outlined how he views the global technology landscape.

“There are really two-and-a-half relevant technology centers in the world today: America, China and Israel. I spent half my life in Europe and I want Europe to be relevant, but China is a true peer competitor. China has many advantages, and it would be a mistake to underestimate them.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp warned against complacency in the United States.

“China doesn’t have some of the creativity, ingenuity and deep-tech culture that we have. But it is not a foregone conclusion that we win. The biggest problem in this country is that we debate these issues as though we don’t have adversaries. That’s simply not true. This is binary. Either they win or we win.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Karp argued that long-term public support for AI depends on broader economic benefits.

“We have to find ways to make these models raise the standard of living for every American. People need to feel that it isn’t just those sitting around this table getting richer. Those are real issues, and if we ignore them, we create unnecessary political backlash.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

Summarizing his argument throughout the interview, Karp said future winners will be those who retain ownership of their AI infrastructure.

“The most technical customers are all asking the same questions: Who owns the GPUs? Who owns the model? Who owns the data? Who owns the alpha? Whoever owns the means of production will own the future.”

— Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir

IBM | IT Services & Consulting

IBM is a global technology leader at the forefront of hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. In this conversation, Chairman & CEO Arvind Krishna shares why IBM believes quantum computing is approaching a commercial inflexion point, the strategic importance of world-class scientific talent, and how the company is building the foundation for the next era of computing.

[Reference]

Management is setting realistic expectations regarding the maturity of quantum technology while emphasising that it is no longer a distant concept. This suggests that while near-term commercialisation is still evolving, the structural shift toward quantum computing is much closer than many expect.

“We are still in the early days of quantum. Let me acknowledge that it’s not far out into the future, but it is still early.”

— Arvind Krishna, Chairman & CEO, IBM

The CEO has provided a specific two-to-three-year window for quantum computing to deliver massive commercial advantages. This accelerated timeline points to a faster path toward real-world enterprise adoption.

“Two to three years. Ambassador Kwatra mentioned it. We have one quantum computer that is going into Amaravati through an agreement with the state government and the national government.”

— Arvind Krishna, Chairman & CEO, IBM

IBM is expanding its quantum infrastructure through strategic government partnerships while continuing to evaluate additional deployments. These investments are aimed at building the ecosystem required for long-term quantum computing adoption.

“We have one quantum computer that is going into Amaravati through an agreement with the state government and the national government. We are also discussing another one. I’ll leave that location unstated until everything is finalized.”

— Arvind Krishna, Chairman & CEO, IBM

The decision to deploy quantum hardware is driven by the scarcity of specialized mathematical talent globally. IBM believes access to world-class scientific expertise will be a defining competitive advantage in quantum computing.

“The reason we’re putting it there is because of the talent. Where are you going to find enough people with deep knowledge of mathematics and physics who want to work on translating problems into the unique mathematics that quantum computers can solve?”

— Arvind Krishna, Chairman & CEO, IBM

IBM is prioritizing specialized, high-impact problem solving over workforce scale. This focus on quality and depth of expertise reflects the company’s long-term strategy for quantum computing.

“It is not about volume; it is about quality, depth, and the ability to think through extremely difficult problems and deploy them on these systems in unique ways over the next decade.”

— Arvind Krishna, Chairman & CEO, IBM

Management believes quantum computing has the potential to solve classes of mathematical problems that have challenged researchers for decades, unlocking entirely new possibilities.

“Let me give you an example. There are problems involving prime number factorization. For nearly a hundred years, people believed these problems were impossible. Three people from one of the IITs solved one such problem about 15 years ago. We can tap into talent like that to leverage these computers. I think it unlocks all kinds of possibilities.”

— Arvind Krishna, Chairman & CEO, IBM

Sodexo SA | Food Services & Facilities Management

Sodexo SA is a French multinational corporation and global leader in food services and facilities management. Headquartered near Paris, it employs over 426,000 people, serves 80 million consumers daily across 43 countries, and acts as a major driver of corporate operations worldwide.

[Concall]

Responding to a question on sales momentum, management highlighted improving conversion rates and a strengthening pipeline.

“At this stage, we are seeing early encouraging signs on net commercial growth. We have a good pipeline and an improved conversion rate. Overall, when we look at our last 12 months forward-looking net new KPI, it has improved compared with the end of Q2. This improvement is expected to come through progressively in the reported in-year net new revenue. The improvement is really coming from development. Q2 was better than Q1, and Q3 is better than Q2.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Investors questioned why the upgraded FY26 guidance still implied a muted Q4. Management explained the rationale.

“Q4 will face tougher comparables. Last year we had a very strong Q4, especially in Energy & Resources in North America, creating a less favorable year-on-year comparison. We also have the normal phasing of net new contract mobilizations and annualization. Overall, we see some uncertainty in the macroeconomic and geopolitical environment. At this stage, we believe it is appropriate to remain prudent for the remaining part of the year. However, we are not seeing any specific deterioration in the business and, based on what we see today, we would currently expect Q4 to be modestly positive.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Management attributed the strong performance to higher attendance and increased customer spending across venues.

“Overall, we had a very good performance across all the activities of Sodexo Live!—convention centers, airline lounges and sports venues. We had very good sporting events such as the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, the Miami Open and a very strong beginning of the baseball season with the Seattle Mariners. Attendance was very good across all events. On top of attendance, we were able to capture more revenue through higher spend per capita, driven by our offerings, innovative concepts and brand partnerships. Overall, Sodexo Live! delivered more than 15% organic growth in Q3, definitely above our expectations.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

On pricing and cost inflation, management said there has been no meaningful change in the inflation environment.

“We are not seeing any meaningful change in food inflation overall. There is some pressure on energy prices and transportation and logistics costs, but overall this remains under control. Managing inflation is part of what we do. We continue to manage it through product substitution, menu engineering, client discussions and supplier negotiations. Overall, we are monitoring input inflation very closely.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Responding to a question on next year’s pricing outlook, management expects only modest changes.

“We have seen a declining trend in labour inflation. You need to keep in mind that pricing is driven by both food inflation and labour inflation. At this stage, it is fair to expect something quite similar for the beginning of next year, with perhaps some small pressure on food inflation but a declining trend in labour inflation. We do not expect any significant change in the pricing path.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Management shared its expectations for customer retention and commented on the latest education selling season.

“Based on what we see today, we should land broadly in line with last year, around the 94% retention level. Specifically in U.S. Education, the selling season should be slightly better than last year, but still disappointing. This remains a key focus area. We have new leadership in Education and K-12, and they are building clear action plans around retention, development and preparing for the FY27 selling season.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Responding to a question on AI infrastructure, management highlighted the opportunity in data center construction.

“The data center market is clearly a fast-growing opportunity for us. Today we already provide food services at operational data centers, including 24/7 offerings, convenience services and pantry solutions. More importantly, the construction phase is where we believe we can capture the greatest value. We are actively building our pipeline, and we believe we are well positioned because the capabilities we have developed in Energy & Resources—operating large camps and remote sites with thousands of workers—are directly applicable to large data center construction projects.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Management highlighted continued resilience in the Healthcare & Seniors segment despite a more cautious outlook elsewhere.

“Healthcare & Seniors continues to trend very well. Organic growth was 7.8% in Q3, broadly in line with Q2. The underlying trend remains strong, although we do expect some annualization effects in Q4.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

On a follow-up question, management confirmed there had been no change to the assumptions supporting margin guidance.

“If you look at the bridge we presented at the half-year results, it is exactly the same. There has been no significant change in the different levers supporting the margin outlook.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Management explained that the improvement in volumes was driven not only by Sodexo Live! but also by project activity in Energy & Resources.

“Volume improved significantly when you compare the year-to-date performance with the first half. The two main reasons were the very strong performance of Sodexo Live!, which was driven by volume, and the additional projects in the Rest of the World, especially in Energy & Resources, which also contributed positively to volumes.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Management reiterated that near-term caution will not come at the expense of long-term investments.

“Our focus remains on strengthening the business over the medium term. We continue to invest in commercial capabilities, competitiveness, supply and technology while maintaining a close watch over the external environment.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Management explained why Sodexo believes it has an edge in winning data centre contracts.

“When you look at what we do in Energy & Resources, we are talking about large camps and remote sites with thousands of workers. It is basically the same offer that we need to address these opportunities in data centre construction.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Responding to a question on foreign exchange, management said the company remains comfortable with its existing assumptions.

“We are comfortable maintaining our overall guidance of around a 3% negative currency impact. With the recent evolution of the euro-dollar, we expect a more favourable impact in Q4 compared with Q3, and we should land around this 3% impact for the full year.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

Management highlighted a favourable trend in one of its largest cost components.

“We have seen a declining trend in labour inflation. Pricing reflects both food inflation and labour inflation, and at this stage we do not expect any significant change in the pricing path.”

— Sébastien de Tramasure, Chief Financial Officer

SpaceX Corporation | Aerospace & Space Technology

SpaceX develops reusable launch vehicles, satellite communications infrastructure, and space transportation systems. In this interview, President and COO Gwynne Shotwell discusses why the company chose to go public, how it plans to scale Starship and Starlink, its long-term AI infrastructure strategy, the role of vertical integration, and how management is balancing aggressive innovation with investor expectations in the next phase of the company’s growth.

[Reference]

The company views mission failures during development as valuable data points rather than purely negative events. Investors should expect occasional public setbacks as a necessary part of the company’s rapid learning and innovation process.

“I think it’s actually really important to have failure. If you don’t have failure, like if a launch goes perfectly, all you’ve learned is that that launch vehicle on that day worked. You didn’t get any more data than that, right? So when you have failure, you actually get this treasure trove of data.”

— Gwynne Shotwell, President & COO, SpaceX

Starlink’s growth is currently limited by how many satellites are in orbit rather than a lack of customers. This high demand suggests that revenue will grow automatically as soon as more capacity is launched.

“We are actually constrained by capacity in many markets, really important markets. So scaling is actually really quite important to the revenue story for us. Meaning there’s more demand than you can actually supply right now. There’s more demand than we can fulfill right now.”

— Gwynne Shotwell, President & COO, SpaceX

Management believes the mobile phone market is significantly larger than the home internet market for Starlink. Success in this area could dramatically expand the company’s total addressable market globally.

“I think Starlink Mobile will far exceed Starlink broadband in the home. I think more than half the population, the global population has a cell phone, which is a shocking, but it’s somewhere, it’s crazy numbers of people have cell phones. Not everybody is going to need broadband, a Starlink broadband in their home.”

— Gwynne Shotwell, President & COO, SpaceX

SpaceX uses its own satellite launches to refine and prove the reliability of its rockets. This internal demand allows the company to improve its launch technology much faster than competitors who rely only on external customers.

“The more you can fly a vehicle, the more reliable it will be, the safer it will be. Starlink provided that market for Falcon 9. We flew, you know, a hundred Starlink missions in a year, right? The AI satellites will be that same market but for Starship.”

— Gwynne Shotwell, President & COO, SpaceX

The company is deepening its vertical integration by producing its own fuel and solar components. This strategy reduces dependency on third-party suppliers but requires significant upfront capital investment.

“We build launch vehicles, we build our launch sites, we write our own software, we’re producing some of our own propellants for the vehicles right now, too. This seems like a very obvious thing, next step for us. Um, we’ll have a lot to learn. There’s a huge amount of equipment that we have to invest in.”

— Gwynne Shotwell, President & COO, SpaceX

SpaceX is betting that space-based data centers will be more efficient than Earth-based ones due to constant solar energy and natural cooling. If successful, this would provide a structural cost advantage for their AI computing services.

“But the most efficient place to put inference compute is on orbit. It’s always sunny in space. You get sixx the amount of power out of a solar cell in space as you do here on Earth. And cooling is free because space is actually quite cold. So radiative cooling is free.”

— Gwynne Shotwell, President & COO, SpaceX

The company plans to sell excess AI computing power to third parties while keeping enough for its own needs. This creates a flexible revenue stream that helps offset the high cost of maintaining satellite networks.

“We will never sell compute capacity that we actually need which is why we wanted the ability to have these contracts be shortterm if necessary but we’ll keep building. I believe we will continue to provide that capability to others actually.”

— Gwynne Shotwell, President & COO, SpaceX

After years of internal growth, the company is now open to acquiring other businesses, particularly in the AI sector. This indicates a shift toward using the company’s equity to accelerate technological expansion.

“SpaceX wasn’t an M&A company for decades. Um and so it’s kind of a new exciting uh it’s a new exciting world for us. Um I do think M&A is in the future, especially when you look at uh the AI world.”

— Gwynne Shotwell, President & COO, SpaceX

Recommended Reading

DSP shares some of the best content for investors to explore and dive deep into what's happening across the markets. Each edition brings together thought-provoking analysis, key management commentary, and insights into the themes shaping businesses and the economy. From AI and data centers to IT services, cement, and rural demand, the June edition breaks down complex trends into simple, actionable takeaways. If you're looking to understand the bigger picture beyond the headlines, this is a great place to start.

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Quotes in this newsletter were curated by Meher, Shahid, Srusti & Kashish.

Disclaimer: We’ve used AI tools in filtering and cleaning up these quotes, so there may be some mistakes. Now, if you are thinking why we are using AI, please remember that we are just a small team of 5 people running everything you see on Zerodha Markets 😬 So, all the good stuff is human, and mistakes are AI.

Welcome to the 66th edition of The Chatter — a weekly newsletter where we dig through what India’s biggest companies are saying and bring you the most interesting bits of insight, whether about the business, its sector, or the wider economy. We read every major Indian earnings call and listen to the interviews so you don’t have to.

We’re always eager to improve—please share your ideas on how else we can innovate “The Chatter” format to better serve your needs.

In this edition, we have covered 9 companies across 5 industries and 2 podcasts.

Auto Ancillary

• Bajaj Auto Limited

• Mahindra & Mahindra Limited

• Precision Camshafts

Software Services

• Persistent Systems Limited

Tourism & Hospitality

• Indian Hotels Company Limited

Engineering & Capital Goods

• Astral Limited

• Thermax

• Sterlite Technologies

Retail

• Timex Group India

Interviews/Podcasts

• Zohra Khan

• Brad Setser

Auto Ancillary

Bajaj Auto Limited | Large Cap | Automobiles

Bajaj Auto Limited is one of India’s leading automobile manufacturers with a strong presence across motorcycles, three-wheelers, and electric vehicles, along with a significant footprint in global export markets. In this interview, Rakesh Sharma, Joint Managing Director, discusses the company’s outlook for FY27, export demand recovery, electric vehicle growth, premiumisation trends, domestic market dynamics, and the factors expected to drive Bajaj Auto’s growth in the coming quarters.

[Reference]

The company advocates for emission-based regulations rather than mandates for specific technologies like electric vehicles. This suggests a strategic focus on a diversified fuel mix, including CNG and ethanol, alongside their EV investments.

“Our position has always been that it is very very important to define the standards of emissions and the environmental burden. But then one must be technology agnostic and actually use the multiple technologies which are available.”

— Rakesh Sharma, Joint Managing Director

The company reveals that nearly 30% of its domestic revenue is already generated from electric vehicles, highlighting their leadership in the transition. This high revenue contribution proves that Bajaj is not merely experimenting but is fundamentally shifting its business model.

“A company like ours already has 30% of our domestic revenues are electric you know we are at the forefront of the electric development so I’m not making these comments from a parochial way. But if one has to really balance all these issues out, then we must use the array of options which are available to us and have a solution drawn from that.”

— Rakesh Sharma, Joint Managing Director

Management clarifies that their electric vehicle division has already achieved profitability, which is a rare feat in the current EV market. For investors, this eliminates concerns that EV growth is dragging down the company’s overall margin profile.

“But of course we are at the forefront of electric. We are now a profitable electric company. I think with 30% share of our domestic revenues, it’s probably one of the highest in the automotive industry.”

— Rakesh Sharma, Joint Managing Director

Export performance was dampened by vendor manpower shortages and logistics bottlenecks rather than a lack of international demand. This suggests that the reported growth numbers are actually below the business’s true potential capacity.

“Yes, actually we were hampered by supply chain issues both on the availability side which is there were interruptions because of the availability of manpower across our vendors and some of our plants as well and logistics for exports the shipping opportunities declined. So I would say exports should have been in an ideal situation closer to 300 thousand units rather than the 250 odd which we have recorded.”

— Rakesh Sharma, Joint Managing Director

Management expects a strong second quarter driven by new product launches and increased production capacity for EVs. The resolution of supply chain issues is expected to boost Chetak and e-three-wheeler volumes by at least 10%.

“But it’s a very very busy quarter for us in quarter two because there are many new launches lined up and I think that will sparkle the business for us and we are finally hoping that there’ll be some unlock in capacity in our electric three-wheers and the jetak electric scooters which also could have done I would say about 10% odd better but got sort of restricted because of the supply chain issues.”

— Rakesh Sharma, Joint Managing Director

The company is planning to double its current electric vehicle production capacity to reach 100,000 units monthly. This aggressive expansion signals management’s high conviction in the pace of consumer adoption for electric two and three-wheelers.

“We are taking all measures to progressively double our capacity which is right now 50,000 units per month. We are looking over a period of time to double this capacity because we think that this segment is set to grow very fast.”

— Rakesh Sharma, Joint Managing Director

Strong demand for AI-related electronics is driving up component costs for the automotive sector, leading to anticipated inflation. The company has already mitigated half of this cost increase, suggesting a proactive approach to protecting the bottom line.

“There is this whole suckup which is taking place on the AI side which is driving up the cost of electronics and we are looking our outlook is that there is going to be strong inflation this quarter. We have already taken mitigating actions. We have sort of covered up at least 50% of the inflation.”

— Rakesh Sharma, Joint Managing Director

The company reiterates a very high shareholder payout ratio of 90% of profits once cash reserve targets are met. This disciplined capital allocation provides high yield visibility for long-term investors through both dividends and buybacks.

“No, no, no. We’ve already got a policy which is there and it is in practice and that policy says you know 90% of our given a certain level of cash reserves 90% of our profits are distributed through a combination of dividend and buyback. So it’s pretty spelled out pretty much in detail.”

— Rakesh Sharma, Joint Managing Director

Mahindra & Mahindra Limited | Large Cap | Automobiles

Mahindra & Mahindra Limited is one of India’s leading automotive manufacturers with a strong presence across SUVs, commercial vehicles, tractors, and electric mobility. In this interview, Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division, discusses the company’s June sales performance, demand trends across urban and rural markets, electric vehicle adoption, production capacity expansion, pricing outlook, supply chain normalization, and the key factors expected to drive growth through the festive season and the rest of FY27.

[Reference

The company has successfully resolved the labor and supply chain disruptions that were previously affecting production. This fix allows the company to fully capitalize on the strong 28% growth seen in their SUV segment.

“The labor areas we talked about earlier those been largely solved by end of this end of June. So we don’t expect that to be an issue going forward for us as well at this point in time. demand continues to be quite robust and that kind of reflects in the numbers that we’ve had 60,393 SUVs in the domestic business for us which is 28% growth so robust growth.”

— Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division

The current sales growth is not limited to a single product or region but is happening across both city and country buyers. This broad demand suggests a healthy and resilient consumer base for their entire vehicle lineup.

“Overall we are quite enthused with what we have seen the growth is broad-based across the portfolio the growth is broad-based across rural and urban as well for us so quite a good set of numbers uh in June.”

— Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division

The company has reaffirmed its yearly growth targets of 15-19% for SUVs and over 10% for commercial vehicles. This indicates that management believes the current sales momentum is stable and predictable.

“For the overall year, we are targeting mid to high teams growth in the SUV business and double digit growth on the um CV business as well or light commercial vehicle business. So that’s in line with what we had originally projected for the year and all the trends we are seeing give us confidence that we’ll be able to hit these numbers.”

— Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division

New electric vehicle launches are bringing in fresh customers rather than just taking sales away from existing internal combustion models. This category expansion is helping the company significantly increase its total monthly sales volume.

“Firstly, EVs and category creation in the sense that anytime a new product comes in, it adds new volumes to the industry doesn’t necessarily cannibalize the existing products in the market as well. So, we see that happening when we put out our 9S. We were averaging around 4,000 vehicles per month before that. And with the 9S coming in, we are now close to 7,000.”

— Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division

State-level incentives like road tax waivers are becoming a major driver for electric vehicle adoption across India. Continued government support is essential for lowering the total cost of ownership and boosting EV sales.

“The seminal government policies have been very supportive for the industry and now most of the state governments are starting to support this as well with road tax benefits and a few other things coming in depending on which state you’re looking at. So the Delhi government policy is definitely a welcome step in that direction and we see most of the state governments that we are talking to align with a similar set of policies.”

— Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division

The company expects its monthly electric vehicle sales to stabilize between 7,000 and 8,000 units for the current fiscal year. This establishes a baseline for investors to track the company’s progress in the green energy transition.

“Right now we’re projecting somewhere in the 7,000 to 8,000 range is what we’re projecting on a monthly basis. 7,000 to 8,000 EVs per month is what you’re projecting at least in this fiscal.”

— Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division

Management plans to raise vehicle prices soon to offset the cumulative cost increases experienced over the last half-year. This move is intended to protect the company’s profit margins as other competitors in the industry do the same.

“While some of the commodity um costs have come down but a lot of some the costs that we have seen build out in the last 6 months um we have passed some of it as an industry to customers but we’ll have to go take a price hike. We have seen some of the OEMs announced it as well and we’re looking at seriously taking a price hike in the next couple of weeks or so.”

— Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division

Waiting periods for most vehicles have been reduced to a manageable 3 to 5 weeks, reflecting better production efficiency. Investors should note that these wait times may increase as the high-demand festive season approaches.

“We are on average anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks is what we see. There could be one or two variants odd variants which might be higher than that but we’re largely where we want to be in the 3 to 5 week range. My sense is as we get closer to festive it can tighten a little bit.”

— Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division

Precision Camshafts | Micro Cap | Auto Ancillary

Precision Camshafts Limited is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and supplier of camshafts, a critical engine component, in the passenger vehicle segment based on its estimated global market share by volume. The company supplies several varieties of camshafts for passenger vehicles, tractors, light commercial vehicles and locomotive engine applications from its manufacturing facilities in Solapur, Maharashtra.

[Concall]

While discussing business visibility, Karan Shah highlighted the company’s recent order wins from leading OEMs and said they significantly extend revenue visibility over the coming years.

“As highlighted in our previous earnings call, PCL has secured multiple new business awards from leading OEMs, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Renault-Nissan and some other international customers as well. These programs extend our business visibility well into the next decade and represent a cumulative lifetime revenue of approximately ₹1,500 crores over and above our existing order book.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Management outlined its medium-term capex plans to support recently won orders and future growth.

“Over the next three years, PCL plans to invest over ₹100 crores in foundry and machine shop capacity expansion, advanced manufacturing technologies as well as automation. These investments are expected to support incremental revenues of more than 2x the capex, which will be incurred in the coming years.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Along with capacity expansion, the company is investing in automation to improve efficiency and lower costs.

“In addition to the capacity expansion, we are undertaking significant automation initiatives across the foundry and the machine shop. These projects are expected to generate significant cost savings while improving quality, productivity and efficiency.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

The company announced an important milestone in its EV business.

“I am pleased to share that we have successfully developed our electric heavy commercial vehicle platform and have already delivered the first vehicle to our customer in this quarter. This agreement marks an important milestone in our electrification journey and validates our capabilities. The vehicle is undergoing customer evaluation and field trials with initial feedback being encouraging.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Responding to a question on EMOSS, management said European demand remains weak despite operational stability.

“The Europe situation is very volatile right now. There are two wars happening and there are several constraints, a lot of issues on subsidies and so on. Right now, we are stable at the rate at which we are operating. We don’t see a great amount of growth this year or perhaps even next year. But we are actively working on a lot of new customers and new applications, where any scale-up would happen over the next one-and-a-half years or so.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

When asked about inorganic growth, management ruled out overseas acquisitions.

“Not at all internationally, but we are actively looking in India.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Management explained why margins should improve over time.

“The new projects are all assembled camshafts. They are higher value-added products and therefore higher margin. Along with automation, we expect EBITDA margins to improve, although it would be difficult to quantify that right now.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Management acknowledged near-term pressure on margins from commodity inflation.

“All raw materials, including steel, aluminium, LPG, cutting tools and oils, have increased over the last two to three months due to the Iran war situation. While customers do compensate us, they don’t fully compensate us immediately, and there can be a time lag between incurring the cost and receiving compensation. So, there will be some margin impact, although we hope this remains a short-term situation.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Discussing the heavy commercial vehicle platform, management highlighted the opportunity from just one customer.

“The heavy commercial vehicle platform has been delivered to a customer and is undergoing testing. We hope to complete certification over the next six to eight months. We already have an MOU with one customer, where we are looking at an order book of ₹60–70 crores of annualized revenue from just one customer and one product. If we extrapolate this across other customers in similar applications, the opportunity is tremendous.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Management explained why it chose medium and heavy commercial vehicles rather than mainstream logistics.

“There is a clear gap in the market. Today there are OEMs operating in the electric LCV space and OEMs operating in very large trucks and buses. But in the middle segment, from 10 tonnes to 30 tonnes, there are no OEMs present. We are targeting specialized customers where electrification provides immediate ROI and lower total cost of ownership, particularly in public services, infrastructure and utilities.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

When asked about diversification into defence and aerospace, management reiterated its core strategic focus.

“Our whole objective is to become the number one player in the shaft space that we operate in. In India, we are by far the largest. We aim to be the largest in the world and there is still significant headroom for us to grow. One thing is clear: in the camshaft business, we want to be the last man standing and the biggest player in this business.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Management believes global OEMs have become less aggressive on electric vehicles, which supports the outlook for the company’s traditional camshaft business.

“Very clearly, we hear from our OEMs that the EV business direction that was very clear two years ago has reversed, as some of the largest American OEMs have taken a complete U-turn on their EV strategy. I think that helps us significantly.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Explaining the company’s EV retrofit model, management highlighted both cost savings and customization benefits.

“If you buy a brand-new electric heavy truck today, it costs around ₹1.2–1.4 crores. Through retrofitting, because we use the existing chassis and body, we can do it at around 70–75% of that cost. In addition, we can customize battery capacity from 200 kWh all the way to 450 kWh depending on the customer’s application—something that a typical OEM does not offer. Also, in the category we operate in, there are currently no new electric trucks available.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Management explained that commodity inflation will be recovered over time, although there could be timing differences.

“Most of our customers have agreed to compensate us for this increased cost, which is beneficial to us. However, there might be a time lag because of production cycles, exports and payment timelines.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Management explained that it is avoiding direct competition with large truck OEMs.

“We are not trying to go after a logistics play or a transport-of-goods customer. We are targeting specialized customers where electrification has immediate benefits in terms of ROI and total cost of operation. These are niche applications related to public services, infrastructure and utilities.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Responding to a question on future strategy, management distinguished the Indian market from its European operations.

“We do this in Europe, but I think the Indian market does not look like that at this point of time, at least.”

— Karan Shah, Whole-Time Director, Business Development

Software Services

Persistent Systems Limited | Large Cap | IT Services

Persistent Systems is a global technology services firm specializing in digital engineering, cloud transformation, and AI-led enterprise modernization. The company serves a diverse client base across software, healthcare, financial services, and industrial sectors.

[Concall]

Persistent has secured a massive $650 million multi-year contract with an existing US-based technology leader. This provides strong revenue visibility and reinforces the company’s ability to scale existing client relationships.

“From this deal perspective, this is a net new deal which will add roughly about $125 million plus on an annual basis. Overall, for the period of the contract, it will be roughly about $650 million plus over 6.5 years. This is a true testimony to the relationship and to what we have delivered for this customer over the years.”

— Sandeep Kalra, CEO

Persistent is paying a substantial premium to acquire Nagarro through a cash-based voluntary public takeover offer in Germany. The transaction represents a major capital allocation decision to secure a controlling stake in a high-growth asset.

“Persistent has agreed to acquire 100% of Nagarro shares at an enterprise value of €1.27 billion based on €81 per share in cash. This is a premium of 140% to the undisturbed closing price on June 25, 2026, and 94% to the 3-month volume-weighted average price.”

— Vineet, CFO

Nagarro has a large base of small-to-mid-sized clients with very little overlap with Persistent’s existing customer list. Persistent intends to apply its successful account mining techniques to significantly grow the revenue coming from these individual accounts.

“Nagarro has 180 logos that are $1 million plus, but their largest client is less than $50 million. There is very little customer overlap—less than 10 accounts. If we apply Persistent’s mining strategies to these high-quality logos, we don’t necessarily need to hunt for new ones.”

— Sandeep Kalra, CEO

The Nagarro acquisition is structured to be immediately beneficial to earnings per share after adjusting for non-cash accounting charges. This suggests the deal is financially sound and will not dilute shareholder value in the short term.

“We anticipate a 70-30 split for goodwill and intangibles, with the latter amortized over 8 years at an interest rate between 4.1% and 4.5%. When we say cash EPS accretive, we mean excluding amortization. If you remove the one-time transition expenses, it will be reported EPS accretive in year one as well.”

— Vineet, CFO

Tourism & Hospitality

Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) | Large Cap | Hotels & Hospitality

Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) is India’s largest hospitality company, with a portfolio spanning luxury, premium, mid-scale, and leisure brands across domestic and international markets. In this interview, Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO, shares his outlook on the hospitality sector, discusses the impact of geopolitical developments on travel demand, explains why domestic demand continues to remain resilient, highlights India’s untapped tourism opportunity, and outlines how IHCL is building a diversified, capital-light portfolio to sustain long-term growth.

[Reference]

Management attributes the current high growth rates to a weak comparable period last year and strong underlying demand. The company is confident in achieving its 12-14% growth guidance for the full year, with potential for further upside if external conditions remain stable.

“The base was much lower and the demand continues to stay robust so if the base is lower demand is robust then you see exponential growth uh but it’s not that um that this is going to be like 20% plus every month going forward what we have guided for we believe in the 12 to 14% for sure and if none of the crisis come our way in the rest of the financial year then it could go even north of 14%.”

— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO

While geopolitical issues are temporarily reducing international visitors, surging domestic travel is more than filling the gap. This shift highlights the resilience of the Indian market and its ability to sustain occupancy despite global travel disruptions.

“Of course, the number of foreign tourist arrivals, whether business delegations or tourismdriven demand, that is declining. At the same time, the domestic demand continues to increase both on leisure as well as business front. So I think a lot of that has shifted the demand temporarily.”

— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO

The company is relying on its broad mix of brands and contract types to protect against economic shocks and rising costs. This diversification is a core part of their strategy to maintain stable earnings regardless of volatility in specific travel segments.

“I think we remain relatively confident that we have diversified enough by brand, by geography, by various kinds of contracts that we’ll be able to mitigate the challenges that come whether through crude prices or through you know increase in costs or lesser number of foreign travel, more domestic more home stays, more you know a lot of that is happening but I think at some point it will also settle down but we are very well prepared and geared for any of these crisis.”

— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO

The company plans to operationalize one new hotel every single week during the current financial year. This aggressive pace of openings is a key driver for market share expansion and top-line growth.

“Our not like forlike growth remains very strong. We are well poised to open 50 hotels this year. This is also what we have already you know conveyed to the market and 50 hotels means opening a hotel a week not signing a hotel a week.”

— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO

IHCL has successfully scaled its non-Taj brands like Ginger and Vivanta to substantial sizes within the portfolio. The ability to grow these differentiated brands at scale creates a more balanced revenue stream across various price points.

“Each of these new offerings under selections vivanta and gateway have scaled up to more than 50 hotels. Ginger itself is scaled up to almost 250 plus portfolio. So I think what we were not able to achieve in the past as well maybe 20 years ago maybe 15 years ago was scaling up of newer brands.”

— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO

New business segments are delivering high growth and superior profit margins compared to the core business. As these high-margin segments represent a larger share of the total revenue, they should drive overall profitability higher.

“And our new businesses are doing fairly well in terms of a keer of 25% on topline and a 35% plus ebita margin. They are very small percentage of the portfolio but our pi is becoming larger. So if I say 12 to 14% growth of our uh top line, we are talking about at an enterprise level of almost like 1,700,800 crores”

— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO

Management identifies international tourism as a major untapped opportunity that has not yet returned to its full potential. Any recovery in global travel to India would provide a significant boost to luxury brand occupancies and rates.

“Foreign tourist arrivals in India is at an absolute low amount compared to any other country whether in the region or of the size of our country or of a country which has so much to offer. So I think that is the hidden upside for the sector. Uh and you know our number of foreign tourist arrivals is sub 10 million when a city of Paris alone gets 25.”

— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO

IHCL is increasingly using management contracts rather than asset ownership to expand its footprint. This capital-light approach reduces the company’s financial risk while allowing it to scale rapidly across all segments of the market.

“We have carried the same ethos forward and today we have an offering for all Indians for all customers at all price points. So there was a challenge 2 years ago very few believed that this would be possible and if we were getting distracted but we’ve been able to build scale and on a capital light model so that we don’t have huge value at risk.”

— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO

Small, strategic capital investments in key locations are yielding outsized returns for the Ginger brand. This suggests that IHCL can drive significant growth without requiring massive amounts of new capital.

“Yes, we can continue to grow exponentially in these businesses because the investment level if we were to invest our own money to secure you know flagship destinations trophy assets for a ginger like we have done with Ginger Mumbai airport if we were to do four five of those it’s not a huge capital investment but it gives exponential growth to the brand. So these brands in this segment are very well positioned to benefit with little capital infusion, little talent infusion to keep growing exponentially.”

— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO

The Ginger brand is targeted to reach over 250 hotels within the next year, illustrating the speed of the company’s current expansion. Scaling these mass-market brands alongside the luxury Taj brand creates a robust and diverse earnings engine.

“Having a brand like Taj which is getting close to 150 hotels portfolio being the pride of the nation and a very strong brand now at the same time we have built Ginger as a brand which should get to 250 plus hotels by not 5 years but in the next 12 months. I think that is a very solid representation of what is possible with the other brands that are following um in our brandscape and are very well poised to make a difference in terms of contribution to the sector to the nation and to our P&L.”

— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO

Engineering & Capital Goods

Astral Limited | Large Cap | Plastic Products

Astral Limited is a leading Indian building materials company specializing in chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) piping systems and adhesives. The company is currently reorganizing its operations to separate its piping and chemical businesses into two distinct listed entities to improve focus and capital allocation.

[Concall]

The company is expanding its specialty chemical business via DSS to replace expensive imports and drive higher internal margins. Investors should note the potential for export growth in this segment with relatively low additional capital expenditure.

“Now that we have a commercial setup and have started commercial production at DSS, at some stage, we would like to scale up the production facilities at DSS and establish a state-of-the-art chemical facility. Actually, the capex cycles are not very heavy here, but there are significant benefits from using the product in-house, and there is huge potential for export.”

— Sandeep Engineer, Chairman and Managing Director

The demerger logic is based on the distinct business models and manufacturing processes of the two divisions. Separating them allows the adhesive and paint brands to leverage their consumer-facing synergies more effectively.

“Adhesives is completely B2C, whereas pipe has a B2B project component. Secondly, the manufacturing is different—one is polymer-related and the other is chemical-related. Thirdly, adjectives and paints go hand-in-hand in terms of sales, uses, and the commonality of the applicators.”

— Sandeep Engineer, Chairman and Managing Director

The company is targeting specialized, high-margin sectors like defense and green energy for its chemical business. This strategy focuses on import substitution, which offers a competitive moat in the Indian industrial market.

“Segment-wise, we are focusing on adhesives for renewable energy (wind and solar) and products for defense. Our focus is on making these chemistries in India rather than importing them.”

— Hiranand Savlani, Chief Financial Officer

The newly formed chemical entity will benefit from lower effective tax rates due to past losses and amortization. This should lead to better cash retention and post-tax profitability during the initial years of the demerger.

“The adhesive tax rate will be low initially because of the write-offs we do every year. Plus, we have the accumulated losses of the paint division from the last couple of years. This will provide a benefit, so the tax rate for that entity will be lower than for pipes.”

— Hiranand Savlani, Chief Financial Officer

Thermax | Mid Cap | Engineering & Capital Goods

Thermax offers a wide range of products and solutions for industrial heating, cooling, water management, and pollution control. They design and build boilers, power plants, wastewater treatment systems, and waste heat recovery solutions.

[Interview]

Speaking about India’s energy transition and the government’s increasing focus on energy security, Ashish Bhandari said the Bio-CNG industry is nearing an inflection point and could witness rapid growth once the remaining policy decisions are announced.

“There’s a very strong realization all around that the pace of energy security development needs to increase. There was a time when it was expected that India could have more than 3,000 biogas plants. Today, we are not even at one-tenth of that number because some of the initial projects struggled to achieve commercial viability, the economics were marginal, and there were policy decisions that the government was still working on. As I understand, in the next couple of months there are some very significant policy decisions expected that can put this industry on a growth path like never before. I expect Bio-CNG to become India’s next ethanol story, with hundreds of plants coming up across the country.”

— Ashish Bhandari, Managing Director & CEO, Thermax

Explaining the long-term market potential, Bhandari highlighted India’s dependence on imported natural gas and how Bio-CNG can substitute a meaningful portion of demand.

“India today imports more than 50% of its natural gas requirements. Natural gas demand is growing rapidly across city gas distribution, industrial applications and transportation. It is one of the fastest-growing components of India’s energy mix, and Bio-CNG plants directly address this requirement. Done well, this industry is worth several billion dollars in India—perhaps even a $10–20 billion annual opportunity. Overall, I believe as much as 20% of India’s natural gas needs can eventually be met through domestic Bio-CNG deployment.”

— Ashish Bhandari, Managing Director & CEO, Thermax

Discussing execution, Bhandari said the company has significantly improved plant performance after learning from its first set of projects.

“We took orders for 14 plants about three years ago. During the first year, it was all about learning—every day we wondered whether we would really master this technology. But over the last year, our stability has improved tremendously. All our plants are now going through commissioning and performance tests. This plant has successfully completed its performance test, and another large plant in Punjab is currently undergoing the same process. We now understand the technology very well, and we believe the economics are getting very close to making these projects commercially viable.”

— Ashish Bhandari, Managing Director & CEO, Thermax

While Thermax has achieved technological maturity, management believes supportive policy will determine how quickly the industry scales.

“With the last couple of policy decisions expected from the central government, that is really the only thing this industry needs to break out into something special. Hopefully, those decisions will come very soon.”

— Ashish Bhandari, Managing Director & CEO, Thermax

Asked about the potential revenue contribution for Thermax, Bhandari outlined both EPC and recurring revenue opportunities.

“Our revenue has two parts. One is constructing the plant itself. A typical 20-ton-per-day plant involves a project size of around ₹100–150 crore. Then there is a recurring annuity from operations and maintenance—running the plant and maintaining it. Going forward, there could also be additional service revenues from sourcing biomass, managing digestate and other related activities. With the right policy decisions that are expected, this could easily become a ₹1,000–2,000 crore business for Thermax.”

— Ashish Bhandari, Managing Director & CEO, Thermax

On the timeline for industry growth, management expressed optimism that the sector is approaching an important inflection point.

“We will have to see when the policy decisions come, but I do believe the next two to three years will be very exciting for this industry.”

— Ashish Bhandari, Managing Director & CEO, Thermax

Responding to a question on profitability, Bhandari explained that margin expansion will depend on industry growth as well as Thermax’s ability to differentiate its technology.

“It has two parts. First, it depends on the external environment. If the expected pricing changes and policy support come through, and the industry grows rapidly, the ability to make money also improves. Second, it depends on Thermax’s ability to build differentiation into the solution. These plants have taught us a tremendous amount, and we are working on at least three major areas of innovation that we believe can provide significant differentiation in Bio-CNG. If both these factors come together, the opportunity to generate attractive margins is significant.”

— Ashish Bhandari, Managing Director & CEO, Thermax

Management cautioned that while policy support can drive volumes, sustainable profitability will require technological differentiation.

“If the external environment improves but we fail to build differentiation, the volumes will come. However, we will still have to see how profitable that business becomes. We are certainly working towards achieving both.”

— Ashish Bhandari, Managing Director & CEO, Thermax

Sterlite Technologies | Small Cap | Engineering & Capital Goods

Sterlite Technologies, formerly known as Sterlite Optical Technologies, is an industry-leading manufacturer of telecommunication cables. The company has diversified its portfolio to include a range of products such as Optical Fibers, Power Transmission Conductors, and Telecom Cables. It caters to sectors like telecom, defense, oil and gas, and aviation.

[Interview]

On the post-QIP balance sheet, management outlined its leverage target while highlighting the need for a stronger financial position to pursue growth opportunities.

“A big part of the focus for the QIP had been strengthening our balance sheet. We definitely see strong opportunities for growth for the company, both on the telecom side and definitely on the data center side. We are seeing strong growth in opportunities in the US, Europe and increasingly in India. To capture these opportunities, we felt strongly that we need to have a very strong balance sheet. We have close to about ₹1,100–1,200 crores of net debt on our balance sheet and, with this fund raise, we will be in a much stronger position. Going forward, we want to have a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of about 1 to 1.2 times, and with this QIP I think we are well placed within that.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Managing Director

Discussing investment priorities, management said capex will focus on expanding capabilities for both telecom and data center customers.

“We’ve been very clear that we are looking at a good mix of our customers from both the telecom side as well as the data center side. Geographically, we continue to believe that 80% to 85% of our sales will come from the US and Europe, with the balance coming from India. To cater to this growth, we are investing in upgrading our equipment to make sure that we can provide end-to-end solutions. More and more of what we will serve is through the portfolio we have developed called Neurales, and we’re very excited by how those opportunities are panning out. Currently, we are looking at about ₹500 crores of capex for this year and probably similar numbers over the next couple of years.”

Providing an update on the order book, management highlighted a major new order win from the US.

“The order book that we had last shared was in the range of about ₹7,000 crores. Since then, we’re very happy to share that we have announced a north of ₹10,000 crore order from a large hyperscaler in the US. We continue to see good interest from both the telecom sector as well as the data center segment, and we are continuously upgrading our product portfolio to make sure that we can serve this segment even better going forward.”

Management explained why it remains optimistic about global fiber demand despite the industry’s recent inventory correction.

“There’s definitely strong demand in the market, both on the telecom side and especially from the data center side. There are also new applications where fiber optics are required in good volumes, such as drone applications and first-person-view applications. What’s also happening is that the amount of fiber required within data centers is increasing because of the shift to higher-capacity requirements, as you’re moving from 10-kilowatt to 100-kilowatt structures and from 400-gig speeds to 800-gig speeds and even 1.6 terabit speeds. All of this requires a significant increase in fiber optics within data centers.”

Alongside AI-driven demand, management cited government-led broadband programs as additional growth drivers.

“Going forward, we do see strong demand for fiber optics. In India, we have projects like BharatNet, and in the US there are large government projects being rolled out. Overall, we feel positive about the demand for the fiber optic market.”

On profitability, management linked margin improvement to better capacity utilization and an increasing contribution from higher-value connectivity solutions.

“Historically, when we operate at about 70% utilization, we have been able to demonstrate EBITDA margins of around 20%. In addition to that, as we build on our connectivity portfolio, we do see that margins can even be better than that. One thing that we are mindful of is that the current tariffs from India to the US are broadly in the 10% range, which could go up towards around 18% in the near term based on the bilateral discussions that are going on. But, net-net, as we continue to scale up our capacity utilization, the EBITDA margins can be north of 20%.”

Responding to a question on the commercialization of the Neurales portfolio, management shared its revenue mix target.

“The Neurales portfolio is getting good interest from customers, both in India as well as globally. We’ve broadly guided that our enterprise and data center portfolio will move towards 30% of our revenue towards the end of this year. Going forward as well, we see a good mix of our sales between the telecom segment and the data center segment.”

Management highlighted its technology pipeline and the timeline for commercialization.

“There are three or four very interesting technologies such as hollow-core fiber, multi-core fiber, G654E long-haul fiber, etc., which we are working on. Broadly, over the next one to two years, we do see that some of these solutions will start becoming more meaningful for the company.”

Management reiterated its geographical strategy despite growing opportunities in India.

“Geographically as well, we continue to believe that a strong portion of our sales—close to 80% to 85%—will be from the US and Europe, and the balance will be in India.”

Management emphasized that deleveraging is about enabling future growth rather than simply reducing debt.

“To capture these opportunities, we felt strongly that we need to have a very strong balance sheet, and that gives us options for growth going forward.”

Management explained one of the structural demand drivers for optical fiber.

“The amount of fiber required within the data centers is increasing because of the shift to higher-capacity requirements, moving from 400-gig speeds to 800-gig speeds and even 1.6-terabit speeds. All of this requires a significant increase in fiber optics within data centers.”

Management expects the evolving product mix to support profitability over time.

“As we build on our connectivity portfolio, we do see that margins can even be better than 20%.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Managing Director

Retail

Timex Group India | Small Cap | Watches & Accessories

Timex Group India is a prominent player in the Indian watch market, specializing in the design, manufacturing, and distribution of a wide range of timepieces. The company operates a dual model of local production for mass-market brands and importing high-end luxury labels like Versace and Guess.

[Concall]

Management is expanding its manufacturing footprint in Baddi to nearly double its current production capacity. This flexible infrastructure setup allows the company to scale supply rapidly in response to seasonal demand spikes.

“We decided on a long-term plan with a separate building on our land in Baddi. The separate building will take our capacity from 6 million to 10 million in a single shift, with a total potential for 15 million. The physical infrastructure will be ready, and I can add assembly lines within 30 to 45 days when needed.”

— Deepak Chhabra, Managing Director

Timex is moving toward localizing production for its higher-volume licensed brands like Guess to improve margins and supply chain efficiency. This transition marks a shift from a pure import model to localized value creation for international brands.

“All our luxury and fashion brands are imported from our subsidiaries because the current volume in those brands does not justify local manufacturing. You need a width of 250 to 350 SKUs per brand, and until you sell half a million units per brand, local supply chain is not beneficial. However, we plan to start making Guess in India next year.”

— Deepak Chhabra, Managing Director

E-commerce has rapidly become a major revenue driver, growing from a negligible share to nearly half of the business in just four years. The reliance on a direct-to-portal model suggests high operational efficiency in reaching the digital consumer.

“Four years ago, online was only 5%. Today it is 40%. We use four models. 1P (First Party) involves selling directly to portals like Flipkart, Amazon, and Myntra. This is our biggest contribution because it is operationally easy.”

— Deepak Chhabra, Managing Director

Management highlights that Timex is the only global competitor to Titan in the massive sub-10,000 rupee market segment. Their significantly higher growth rate relative to the market leader suggests they are capturing substantial market share.

“The watch market is a pyramid, and at the bottom, it is just Titan and Timex. There are no global brands selling for less than 10,000 rupees. Titan is roughly 4.5 times our size, but we are growing at a 35% CAGR while they are at 13-14%.”

— Deepak Chhabra, Managing Director

Timex is expanding its portfolio into the bridge-to-luxury segment with a new Swiss-made brand while maintaining its core strength in mass-market watches. This multi-tiered brand strategy aims to capture both the high-volume bottom and high-margin top of the market pyramid.

“We will also launch a new entry-price Swiss brand in January, our own brand made in Lugano, priced between 29,999 and 70,000 rupees. The largest share of the Indian market will always be for watches under 10,000 rupees.”

— Deepak Chhabra, Managing Director

The company is integrating AI into its core business processes to speed up design and optimize marketing spend. These technological investments are intended to sustain growth without further increasing overhead costs.

“We are now investing in AI, specifically for product design and marketing. We identify 52 use cases that can be automated through AI to improve turnaround times and analytics. This will help with better capital allocation and efficiency.”

— Deepak Chhabra, Managing Director

Interviews/Podcasts

Zohra Khan | Indian EV infra | Subtext By Zerodha

India’s EV adoption is now less dependent on the vehicles, and more on everything it plugs into — the charger, the connector, the software, the protocols that charging networks use to talk to one another, and, most importantly, the ageing Indian electricity grid beneath all of it. To make sense of all this, we spoke to Zohra Khan, founder & CEO of IPEC, which designs and manufactures EV chargers for India’s leading two- and three-wheeler OEMs, to understand what it actually takes to build charging infrastructure at scale in India.

[Interview]

The biggest friction in public EV charging isn’t the hardware — it’s the three invisible layers beneath it that have to work in sync for a user to have a seamless experience.

“The first one is the actual physical connector. The second thing is a protocol or software layer — even if the connector matches, you usually need to also have software interoperability. The third is the actual power grid — the grid conditions and quality. And this is a very underappreciated topic, because a charger that works very well in other areas like Germany or China might not work well here.”

— Zohra Khan, Founder & CEO, IPEC

Two-wheeler and three-wheeler charging still lacks the connector and software standardisation that four-wheelers have, partly because India is leading this segment globally with no existing standard to borrow from.

“Countries like India are leading the two-wheeler, three-wheeler EV revolution. So a lot of people are looking at us to define the way forward in terms of what the connectors will be and what the protocols will be.”

“Standardization cannot be done in isolation. You need EV OEMs, you need charger OEMs, you also need network operators and infrastructure players. So we’re trying to bring everybody together.”

— Zohra Khan, Founder & CEO, IPEC

India is technically a power surplus country — the generation and transmission layers are largely fine. The real problem is in the last mile, and it has been building for years.

“India has a distribution problem. This distribution layer, which is mainly the 11 kV and the 415 volt lines — a lot of these lines are overloaded. Transformers which are serving these residential areas were probably installed with requirements from ten years ago.”

— Zohra Khan, Founder & CEO, IPEC

The evening peak load problem is where EV charging, air conditioning, and household demand all converge at once — and where residential transformers are most exposed.

“Everybody comes back in the evening and everybody puts on their ACs, chargers, everything. It happens at the same time. So the peak happens all at once. That’s when the transformer will run hotter, the insulation will age faster, and it’ll fail prematurely.”

“Dynamic load management — where you have a cloud-based management system onto which multiple chargers are connected, and this system knows what the available load or capacity is, and based on that dynamically decides how much power to distribute — this is something that has to be done if we don’t want to be stressing our power grids.”

— Zohra Khan, Founder & CEO, IPEC

The grid that Indian EV chargers have to work with is far more volatile than what most imported chargers are designed for — and that constraint, counterintuitively, becomes a competitive advantage.

“You can see voltages going less than 200 volts also. It’ll go up to 300 volts also, even though the nominal voltage should be 240 volts. A lot of the products which are designed for Europe and China do not have a wide input voltage range, because they have more stable grids. So those products come here and they will easily fail.”

“A product that is developed for India can work anywhere in the most reliable way — it’s massively stress tested. Whether it’s a Chinese charger or a German-made charger, I would say we’ll do it better and cheaper.”

— Zohra Khan, Founder & CEO, IPEC

Semiconductors and microcontrollers remain the hardest components to localise — and despite strong progress on other fronts, this bottleneck will persist for at least another three to five years.

“The semiconductors and microcontrollers — these are currently being imported. India does not have a mature semiconductor ecosystem. That’ll still take maybe three to five years to reach the kind of industrialization and the kind of price points that exist in the industry today.”

“Our DVA is already more than 55%, which means 55% of whatever we build is already localized in India. The remaining is because of these bottlenecks.”

— Zohra Khan, Founder & CEO, IPEC

The next frontier for EV chargers in India isn’t faster charging — it’s bidirectional charging, which turns a vehicle battery into a backup power source, with particular relevance for tier two, tier three, and rural India.

“The bidirectional charger is one product which I’m especially excited about — I’m not only able to use the charger to charge the vehicle, but I can also use this charger to use the energy that’s stored in the battery to power a small load.”

“That’s a use case that can be used not only in tier one cities, but in tier two, tier three and rural India also, where they might have power outages.”

— Zohra Khan, Founder & CEO, IPEC

Brad Setser| Global Dollar Cycle|Subtext By Zerodha

The role of the dollar, and its influence on global trade, is a complicated story that has constantly changed over time. To make sense of all this, we spoke to Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former US Treasury official, to understand the forces actually driving global capital flows. Our conversation dives deep into why the dollar is currently so strong, how the manufacturing surpluses of China, Korea, and Taiwan quietly finance the American deficit, what China would have to do to rebalance, and what an AI bust would do to the currency.

[Interview]

Dollar strength today has little to do with reserve currency status or safe-haven demand — it is being driven by investors chasing exceptional returns in US equities, a pattern that only emerged in the last year.

“For most of the period after 2014, through the COVID crisis, the bulk of the flow into the US was not a net flow into the equity market. Think much more Asian insurance companies — Taiwanese insurance companies, Japanese insurance companies, German insurance companies, Swedish pension funds — looking for higher returns on bonds.”

“Over the past year there have been quite significant flows — two, three percentage points of GDP, on net, into the US equity market, obviously chasing the run-up in the price of the tech platforms.”

— Brad Setser, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

If the AI bubble bursts, the dollar has a long way to fall — and the current level of dollar strength only makes the potential reversal more severe.

“If the bubble bursts, there’ll be a big fall-off in new equity inflows, and you’ll have a bunch of existing investors possibly hedging their existing exposure, which creates additional downward pressure on the dollar.”

“We’re still at levels of the dollar, on a broad basis, that were last seen in the dot-com era — historically strong dollar levels against the yen, against the yuan on an inflation-adjusted basis, against the Taiwan dollar. The higher you go, the more room there is to fall — and the dollar is pretty high.”

— Brad Setser, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

The biggest source of dollar accumulation in the global economy today is not oil exporters — it is the manufacturing economies of Northeast Asia, and that will remain true until oil crosses roughly $130 a barrel.

“China’s running a $1.2 trillion trade surplus. Korea and Taiwan are going to run a surplus of 400 to 500 billion. These are big, big numbers.”

“There are a lot more dollars in these manufacturing exporters — DRAM dollars, chip dollars, Chinese-unwillingness-to-let-your-currency-go-up dollars — than there are petrodollars.”

— Brad Setser, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Major U.S. tech giants have shifted from saving cash to borrowing heavily for AI infrastructure. This massive capital spending is creating a global boom for chip manufacturers and hardware suppliers.

“The second risk, which right now in the US is viewed as an opportunity, is the extent to which the big US technology companies have gone from being net savers to being net borrowers to fund their enormous investments in AI and data centres. That’s really having a profound impact on the US and the global economy. You look at Korea’s surplus, you look at the price of memory chips — you’re really seeing upward pressure on a bunch of manufacturing sectors globally.”

— Brad Setser, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

China’s current reliance on exports is not a permanent feature — it is the direct consequence of the property bubble bursting, and investment and exports have historically traded off against each other.

“Periods of strong investment have been periods of less reliance on exports. The current period of much weaker investment, driven by property, has been associated with more reliance on exports.”

“What’s unique now is the extent to which China is back to relying on exports — how it’s different when an economy as big as China is relying on exports.”

— Brad Setser, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

China’s export machine has proven far more resilient to US tariffs than Washington expected — and that asymmetry has handed Xi the upper hand in negotiations.

“Xi took the tariff punch, absorbed it better than expected. China was ready. Chinese firms were ready. They knew how to set up assembly operations in Vietnam, and China’s global trade didn’t suffer.”

“The US discovered it was really dependent on China for some critical minerals. China’s supply controls have been effective. So the US is negotiating from a position of weakness.”

— Brad Setser, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

What makes China’s manufacturing dominance particularly difficult for the rest of the world is that success at the high end has not translated into any retreat from the low end — leaving every other country squeezed at both levels simultaneously.

“China’s managed to be competitive at both. That’s partially because China’s used a lot of technology and automation in some of the low-end manufacturing sectors, so they’re no longer as low-end.”

— Brad Setser, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Taiwan’s level of external accumulation has reached numbers normally associated with oil exporters at peak prices — a scale that is historically unprecedented for a manufacturing economy.

“Taiwan has roughly 200% of its GDP invested abroad. Two-thirds of the assets that Taiwan has for the retirement of Taiwanese workers are invested in foreign bonds. That’s a crazy-high number. And now TSMC is just accumulating dollars on its own balance sheet.”

— Brad Setser, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

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Quotes in this newsletter were curated by Shahid, Meher, & Srusti.

Disclaimer: We’ve used AI tools in filtering and cleaning up these quotes so there maybe some mistakes. Now, if you are thinking why we are using AI, please remember that we are just a small team of 5 people running everything you see on Zerodha Markets 😬 So, all the good stuff is human and mistakes are AI.

Welcome to the 65th edition of The Chatter — a weekly newsletter where we dig through what India’s biggest companies are saying and bring you the most interesting bits of insight, whether about the business, its sector, or the wider economy. We read every major Indian earnings call and listen to the interviews so you don’t have to.

We’re always eager to improve—please share your ideas on how else we can innovate “The Chatter” format to better serve your needs.

In this edition, we have covered 10 companies across 7 industries.

Software Services

• Infosys

Trading

• Adani Enterprises

Auto Ancillary

• Tata Motors

Financial Services

• Canara Bank

• Aadhar Housing Finance

FMCG

• Jyothy Labs

Engineering & Capital Goods

• KEI Industries

• Amber Enterprises India

• Dhruv Consultancy Services Ltd

Healthcare

• Q-Line Biotech Ltd

Software Services

Infosys | Large Cap | Software Services

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, facilitating clients worldwide in their digital transformation journey. With over 40 years of experience, Infosys leverages cloud and AI technologies to empower businesses with agile digital solutions and continuous improvement.

[Concall]

Nandan Nilekani directly addressed investor concerns that AI could reduce the need for traditional IT services companies.

“Now, more than 3 years after the launch of generative AI, Infosys is more relevant than ever before and well-positioned for the decade ahead.”

“AI will not replace companies like ours; it will amplify those who move with purpose and adapt with speed.”

— Nandan Nilekani, Chairman

Management believes AI is accelerating spending on core technology transformation projects.

“The AI revolution has made legacy modernization urgent in a way nothing else has, and clients are moving to retire the technical debt accumulated over decades.”

— Nandan Nilekani, Chairman

One of the most important market opportunity disclosures in the AGM.

“We recently unveiled our AI-first value framework to help global enterprises unlock AI value at scale.”

“This positions Infosys to tap into an AI-first services opportunity of $300 billion to $400 billion by 2030.”

— Nandan Nilekani, Chairman

A strong indicator of AI adoption across the existing client base.

“We are already collaborating with 90% of our top 200 clients on their AI journeys.”

“Increasingly, they see Infosys as a trusted partner to unlock AI-led value across growth, efficiency, and innovation.”

— Nandan Nilekani, Chairman

One of the most important AI monetization disclosures.

“In Q3 of last year, we shared that approximately 5.5% of our revenue was in AI services, which is approximately $1 billion annualized.”

“This is growing at a fast pace.”

— Salil Parekh, CEO & Managing Director

Management identified where client spending is currently concentrated.

“The fourth is modernization of technology using agents; we see this as one of the largest areas today where clients are looking to Infosys for help.”

— Salil Parekh, CEO & Managing Director

Management highlighted the gap between experimentation and large-scale deployment.

“The AI deployment gap in our large enterprise clients is real, and closing that gap is where the work is.”

— Nandan Nilekani, Chairman

A direct rebuttal to the bear case around AI-led reduction in services demand.

“The preference will be to build versus buy for software.”

“All this creates even larger opportunities for us.”

— Nandan Nilekani, Chairman

Management does not see AI reducing fresher hiring requirements.

“We expect the overall volume of work to expand as humans work with AI agents.”

“We plan to recruit similar numbers of college graduates this year.”

— Salil Parekh, CEO & Managing Director

Infosys sees execution, not demand, as the biggest AI risk

“Execution risk is our ability to reorient offerings to AI, align sales and delivery teams, transform talent, and adopt new pricing models like outcome-based pricing.”

— Salil Parekh, CEO & Managing Director

Management disclosed the breadth of AI activity underway.

“We have over 4,800 AI projects and 600 agents.”

“We have 16 leadership rankings in the AI space.”

— Salil Parekh, CEO & Managing Director

Management explained where long-term value creation lies.

“The value for a large enterprise is to take its own data and populate the model so it results in better intelligence for the enterprise to benefit.”

— Salil Parekh, CEO & Managing Director

Nandan explained that value creation will not come from foundation models alone but from integrating them into mission-critical enterprise software.

“The defining opportunity lies in integrating intelligent AI systems with mission-critical enterprise platforms.”

“The greatest value will come from combining the world of models and agents with traditional transaction systems that continue to underpin enterprise operations.”

“That convergence is where the next wave of opportunities will emerge.”

— Nandan Nilekani, Chairman

One of the less-discussed AI themes from the AGM.

“The fifth is physical AI, which involves manufacturing and putting software into those manufacturing elements, whether in medical, automotive, or other areas.”

— Salil Parekh, CEO & Managing Director

A key assumption behind management’s long-term optimism.

“Productivity improvements enable clients to reinvest savings in new IT spending, expanding the addressable market.”

— Salil Parekh, CEO & Managing Director

One of the few sector-specific outlook comments in the AGM.

“We expect acceleration in Financial Services and Energy in FY27.”

— Salil Parekh, CEO & Managing Director

Trading

Adani Enterprises | Large Cap | Trading

Adani Enterprises is a multifaceted company involved in integrated resources management, mining services, and trading activities. It serves as an incubator for emerging businesses in sectors such as new energy, data centers, airports, roads, copper, and digital space.

[Concall]

Gautam Adani described the recent rights issue as much more than a capital raise, framing it as a vote of confidence in the Group following heightened scrutiny.

“Just one example of this belief was our ₹25,000 crores rights issue earlier this year. This was more than a capital event. I saw it as a referendum on our credibility.”

“It was one of the largest rights issues in the history of India Inc. and your response was very clear. At a time when some tried to create doubt, you answered with conviction. You responded with participation and you provided us the mandate to help keep building India.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

One of the biggest capital allocation disclosures. Management highlighted the scale of investment relative to India’s overall private-sector capex.

“In FY26, we made a record capital investment of more than ₹1.5 lakh crores in hard infrastructure.”

“To put that in perspective, this represented over 30% of India’s total new private sector capital expenditure for the year.”

“For us, this is more than a financial number. It is a statement of belief.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Management reiterated one of the country’s largest announced power expansion plans.

“At Adani Power, we are implementing India’s largest-ever private sector power capex program of over ₹2 lakh crores, with a target of reaching 45 gigawatts of capacity over the next 5 years.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Gautam Adani provided additional details on the recently announced nuclear energy entry.

“Our entry into nuclear energy through Adani Atomic Energy is another confident step towards securing India’s long-term energy future.”

“With land identified and a 10 gigawatt targeted capacity by 2035, we are positioning ourselves early to serve the growing national demand for clean, round-the-clock power.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Management outlined its ambitions to build one of India’s largest AI and cloud infrastructure platforms.

“In digital and industrial infrastructure, our data center business is firmly on the path to building a 3 gigawatt platform by 2030.”

“The binding MOU for a gigawatt-scale data center with Google in Visakhapatnam reflects both the scale of the digital demand ahead and the confidence that global technology leaders such as Google, Microsoft, Uber, and Flipkart are placing on us.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Management highlighted the scale of Adani Ports’ growth ambitions.

“Adani Ports handled over 500 million tonnes of cargo in FY26, setting an unmatched benchmark for the nation and creating a clear pathway to 1 billion tonnes by 2030.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

The AGM contained one of the clearest articulations of Adani’s aerospace ambitions.

“Our partnerships with Leonardo and Embraer are helping lay the foundation for integrated helicopter and regional aircraft manufacturing ecosystems in India.”

“We are building a national aerospace platform that spans manufacturing, MRO, services, and pilot training.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Gautam Adani framed the Group’s long-term strategy around two converging themes.

“The theme of my address this year focuses on accelerating infrastructure and leveraging intelligence.”

“These are no longer two separate priorities. They are the twin global engines that must shape India’s strength.”

“Infrastructure gives a nation muscle. Intelligence gives a nation mastery.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Management argued that its integrated infrastructure portfolio gives it an advantage in supporting AI-led growth.

“We are now one of the very few global companies that are not reacting to the future but are prepared for it.”

“We have been positioning for this day for years.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Gautam Adani explained why the Group believes its business model is difficult to replicate.

“Our strength lies in the way our infrastructure pieces connect.”

“From mining and power generation to transmission and distribution, to ports and logistics, to data centers and fulfillment centers, and roads to water, we have the ability to connect every critical layer of infrastructure.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Gautam Adani closed the strategic section by emphasizing continued investment through volatility.

“We built when it was hardest to build.”

“We believed when it was hardest to believe.”

“And we proved that resilience is a way of life for us.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Gautam Adani described the structural changes shaping the Group’s long-term investment decisions.

“We saw early that the world was entering a new era where geopolitical fault lines would deepen, supply chains would fragment, and energy security would return as a strategic priority.”

“We saw that the race for technological leadership and sovereignty would be constrained not by ambitions but by infrastructure.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Management explained why it is investing simultaneously across physical infrastructure and digital infrastructure.

“The first engine, infrastructure, consists of the roads, ports, airports, transmission lines, power plants, renewable parks, gas networks, logistics platforms, cement capacity, water systems, and industrial ecosystems that make national growth possible.”

“The second engine, intelligence, involves data centers, the use of AI, automation, predictive systems, digital platforms, real-time analytics, and machine-led decision support to make every one of these assets more responsive.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Management highlighted the scale of growth in Adani Energy Solutions.

“At Adani Energy Solutions, our transmission order book rose to ₹72,000 crores.”

“We secured several major projects including the Khavda south-east part HVDC line, reinforcing our position as India’s only private sector player with a proven HVDC capability.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

An unusual comment from an infrastructure developer on supply-chain relationships.

“We will build deeper, more stable partnerships where their growth is supported, their margins are protected, and their interests are aligned with ours to help us deliver projects with greater speed, quality, and ownership.”

— Gautam Adani, Chairman

Auto Ancillary

Tata Motors | Large Cap | Automobiles

Tata Motors Limited is one of India’s largest automobile manufacturers, with a strong presence across commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, electric mobility, and global export markets. In this interaction, Girish Wagh discusses how the Middle East crisis disrupted supply chains and exports, the resulting commodity cost pressures, and why the company believes demand in the region remains intact as logistics gradually return to normal.

[Reference]

The company continues to face commodity cost inflation due to higher raw material prices and rupee depreciation, although management expects these pressures to gradually ease.

“The residual impact remains in the form of commodity cost inflation... whether it is on commodities or also it is due to rupee depreciation. I think the impact on commodity cost is still there. I think as we go ahead it should kind of flatten out.”

— Girish Wagh, Managing Director & CEO, Tata Motors Limited.

The Middle East, which normally contributes around 20% of Tata Motors’ international business, saw demand collapse temporarily before beginning to recover as shipments resumed.

“Our Middle East used to contribute... depending upon the month, 20 odd% of our total international business demand and in the first two months it came to zero. There were no shipments there, no movement happening there. But I think over the last month or so and this month, the business is getting back on track.”

— Girish Wagh, Managing Director & CEO, Tata Motors Limited.

Despite the disruption, management believes underlying demand in the Middle East remains intact and logistics have largely normalized following the reopening of the Strait.

“This month, for example, we will be shipping vehicles to Middle East... the underlying demand is still there. Meanwhile we tried to use some alternate route for reaching vehicles to UAE... Fortunately, because the Strait has opened now, we don’t have to do that.”

— Girish Wagh, Managing Director & CEO, Tata Motors Limited.

Management had to utilize more expensive and indirect shipping paths to maintain their market presence in the UAE during the crisis. These higher logistics costs likely weighed on the profitability of the international business segment during that period.

“Meanwhile, we used alternate routes to reach the UAE. Those routes were longer, more circuitous, and involved higher costs.”

— Girish Wagh, Managing Director & CEO, Tata Motors Limited.

Financial Services

Canara Bank | Large Cap | Public Sector Bank

Canara Bank is one of India’s largest public sector banks, headquartered in Bengaluru with a significant domestic and international presence. The bank offers a comprehensive range of financial services, focusing heavily on its Retail, Agriculture, and MSME (RAM) segments to drive sustainable growth.

[Concall]

While the bank saw strong overall profit growth, its core interest margins faced some pressure over the last year. Investors should monitor how the bank balances its growth in lending with the rising costs of deposits.

“When we talk about profitability, the bank grew its net profit by 12.69% year-over-year to 19,187 crores in financial year 2025-26, which is very good, with operating profit growing by 5.19% year-over-year to 33,019 crores. The net interest margin of the bank declined by 22 basis points to 2.51% in March 2026 from 2.73% in March 2025.”

— Brajesh Kumar Singh, MD and CEO

The bank is increasing its investment in technology to stay competitive with digital-first private banks. Higher tech spending should improve customer retention and lower operational costs over time.

“To Hiranand Kotwani, innovation is constant for us. We spend 7-8% on technology and aim to increase this to 10% to enhance customer experience, cyber security, and digital platforms.”

— Brajesh Kumar Singh, MD and CEO

The bank has built a massive gold loan business but is keeping risks low by lending only a fraction of the gold’s value. This conservative approach protects the bank if gold prices suddenly drop.

“Our gold loan portfolio of 2.45 lakh crores represents 18% of our total portfolio, which avoids concentration risk. We maintain a conservative Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio of around 65%, providing a 35% margin.”

— Brajesh Kumar Singh, MD and CEO

Management expects its interest margins to bottom out and start improving slightly in the coming year. This forecast is important for investors as it directly impacts the bank’s core earnings power.

“For Mr. Bhide, our NIM was 2.51% last year. While repo rate changes reprice 50% of our book quickly, deposits have a lag. Our guidance for NIM is 2.52% to 2.60%.”

— Brajesh Kumar Singh, MD and CEO

The bank is actively rebalancing its loan book to favor retail and small business loans over large corporate debt. This shift is designed to create a more stable and higher-yielding portfolio.

“To Mr. Saha, our RAM mix is currently 59%, with 41% corporate. We aim to tilt this more toward RAM for better risk mitigation.”

— Brajesh Kumar Singh, MD and CEO

Aadhar Housing Finance | Small Cap | Financial Services

Aadhar Housing Finance is a major player in low-income housing finance in India, catering to the home financing needs of the underserved. It focuses on enabling millions to own their first homes by providing a variety of mortgage-related loan products for residential and commercial properties.

[Interview]

Responding to concerns about reports showing weakness in affordable housing sales, Rishi Anand explained that most industry reports fail to capture the company’s core customer segments, such as self-construction and resale homes, making them an incomplete indicator of demand.

“There have been multiple reports highlighting a reduction in the supply side of affordable housing. However, when we talk about low-income housing, the situation is quite different. Around 35% of our customers build their own homes through self-construction, and another 35% buy resale properties. These reports generally don’t capture either of these segments. The remaining 27–28% purchase low-ticket, newly constructed properties. Therefore, I don’t believe that the low-income housing segment—particularly homes priced below ₹15 lakh—can be assessed purely through supply-side reports.”

— Rishi Anand, MD & CEO

Asked whether the monsoon could affect housing demand and collections, management explained that self-construction is seasonal, with excessive rainfall having a greater impact than moderate rainfall.

“Self-construction is inherently seasonal. Both insufficient rainfall and excessive rainfall can have an impact, although heavy rainfall affects construction activity more significantly. Moderate rainfall is generally positive for self-construction, while excessive rain slows construction. Similarly, during hotter months, self-construction tends to increase because builders need more time for structures to dry. So, excessive rains would have a greater impact on self-construction, whereas moderate rainfall should be beneficial.”

— Rishi Anand, MD & CEO

Responding to concerns about borrower stress amid geopolitical uncertainties, management said that collection indicators remain healthy across both salaried and self-employed customers.

“When we talk about stress today, there are two common concerns. One is the potential impact of the West Asia situation. However, the first metric we monitor is the trend in bounce rates. Fortunately, over the last eight quarters, our bounce rates have remained extremely stable across both salaried and self-employed customers. As of today, we are not seeing any signs of stress.”

— Rishi Anand, MD & CEO

Management explained why potential changes in interest rates are unlikely to materially affect profitability.

“Our current expectation is that rates may rise by around 25 basis points during this financial year. However, about 75% of our borrowings and 75% of our assets are on floating rates. Therefore, any movement in rates gets passed through to customers. When rates fall, we pass on the benefit—as we did in February this year by reducing rates by 15 basis points. Likewise, if rates rise, the increase is passed on.”

— Rishi Anand, MD & CEO

Asked about margin sustainability, management reiterated that current NIM levels remain the company’s comfort zone.

“We closed the year with NIMs of around 9.18%. That remains our comfort zone, and we expect to operate around those levels during the current financial year.”

— Rishi Anand, MD & CEO

On the Loan Against Property (LAP) portfolio, management said the current mix is appropriate and well within regulatory limits.

“As a regulated housing finance company, 60% of our balance sheet must comprise individual home loans. Effectively, that translates into a 70:30 mix. Today, our LAP portfolio is around 27%. We believe this is the right level and don’t intend to move closer to the regulatory threshold. We expect LAP to remain around 27–28% during the current financial year.”

— Rishi Anand, MD & CEO

On the company’s FY29 target of ₹50,000 crore AUM, management clarified that growth will remain diversified across states.

“We operate across 22 states through about 626 branches, and we plan to add another 50 branches. From a risk management perspective, we want to maintain a balanced geographic presence. Across our top three metrics—AUM, disbursements, and distribution—we don’t want any single state to contribute more than 15%. Therefore, we expect our geographical mix to remain broadly stable even over the long term.”

— Rishi Anand, MD & CEO

Asked about digital sourcing and AI, management explained that while internal processes are fully digital, customer adoption will be gradual given the company’s target segment.

“Our customers are low-income borrowers at the bottom of the economic pyramid. We don’t expect them to go online and apply for home loans directly. However, every customer who comes to us is processed digitally. We no longer create physical files. Everything is managed on a technology platform. Internally, we are technologically ready. We can issue a loan sanction within 30 minutes. The customers, however, may take a little longer to adopt fully digital processes.”

— Rishi Anand, MD & CEO

Management explained why physical distribution continues to be central to its business model, while expressing optimism about gradual digital adoption.

“Even today, around 6–7% of our customers do not own smartphones and still use keypad phones. That’s the customer segment we serve. Therefore, our extensive branch network remains critical. Having said that, I’m very optimistic. We are already seeing early signs that our customers are becoming increasingly tech-savvy. We have a customer app through which customers are beginning to submit requests digitally. From a pure digital sourcing perspective, however, we’re still some distance away. That said, we already use digital platforms extensively for lead generation and sourcing. Direct customer-originated digital applications will take some more time.”

— Rishi Anand, MD & CEO

FMCG

Jyothy Labs Limited | Mid Cap | Household & Personal Products

Jyothy Labs Limited is a leading Indian consumer goods company with a strong presence in fabric care, dishwashing, and personal care segments. The company is widely recognized for its indigenous power brands like Ujala and Exo, alongside a significant manufacturing and pan-India distribution network.

[Concall]

The company has immediately ceased all business activities related to two major licensed brands following a non-renewal notice. Investors should prepare for a significant hole in the revenue stream starting from the first quarter of fiscal year 2027.

“As instructed by Henkel, from 1st June 2026, Jyothy Labs has stopped manufacturing, marketing, selling, and distribution of Pril and Fa. The company will follow the exit process in line with the provisions of the agreements.”

— M. R. Jyothy, Chairperson and Managing Director

To counter the loss of the Pril brand, the company is shifting its entire marketing and production focus to its in-house brand, Exo. The success of this pivot is critical for maintaining the company’s market share in the high-growth dishwash liquid segment.

“Within the Dishwash portfolio, Pril has historically been the anchor brand in liquids, while Exo has been the stronger franchise in bars. Exo Dishwash Liquid has been part of the company’s portfolio since 2005-2006 and is now being scaled up with renewed focus and investment.”

— M. R. Jyothy, Chairperson and Managing Director

Management is warning that profitability will likely decline in the coming year as they reorganize their product mix and marketing spend. This indicates that fiscal year 2027 will be a period of consolidation rather than aggressive earnings growth.

“The company recognizes that FY 2027 will be a transition year for Dishwash Liquids. Near-term margin softness is expected during this phase.”

— M. R. Jyothy, Chairperson and Managing Director

Management indicated they are looking for acquisitions to fill the revenue gap but will not overpay out of desperation. This suggests a disciplined capital allocation strategy despite the pressure to replace lost volumes quickly.

“As far as inorganic growth opportunities are concerned, Manoj, as you are aware, the company has been looking at various opportunities simply because Pril and Fa have departed, wouldn’t put us in a situation where we will take any rash decision. So, our fundamental approach to inorganic growth opportunities remains the same.”

— Pawan Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer

The legal dispute involves more than just money; it covers the transfer of assets and how the transition is managed. Investors should watch for updates on this arbitration as it could impact how smoothly the brand handover occurs.

“The core issue is the proper treatment of end-of-term consequences under the license agreement framework, including the business transfer of Pril and Fa brand valuation consideration, associated transition matters, etcetera. So, it’s a combination of a few issues.”

— Pawan Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer

Engineering & Capital Goods

KEI Industries | Mid Cap | Cables & Wires

KEI Industries is one of India’s leading manufacturers of wires, cables, and EPC solutions, serving infrastructure, real estate, industrial, and power sectors across domestic and international markets. In this interaction, Chairman & Managing Director Anil Gupta discusses the company’s FY27 growth outlook, export recovery amid Middle East supply chain challenges, and why the rapid expansion of data centres could become a major long-term growth driver for the wires and cables industry.

[Reference]

Management is projecting more than 20% revenue growth for both the current quarter and the full fiscal year, reflecting confidence in business momentum despite volume numbers still being finalised.

“Revenue growth should be more than 20%, both for the quarter and for the full year. Volume growth will be determined only after the month is completed.”

— Anil Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, KEI Industries Limited

Export order bookings have recovered despite ongoing shipment and supply chain disruptions in the Middle East. Management expects exports to remain a key growth driver over the full year.

“Export order bookings have recovered and we expect very strong growth for the full year. I can’t comment quarter-on-quarter because shipment and supply-chain challenges in the Middle East still exist, although dispatches have resumed and the situation is improving every day.”

— Anil Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, KEI Industries Limited

Management believes metal price volatility has only a limited short-term impact on profitability, with pricing mechanisms helping normalize margins over the full year.

“We don’t bet on metal prices. They move up and down all the time. Our margins do not depend on metal price movements. There may be a temporary impact of around 0.5% to 1% in a quarter because of inventory, but over the full year these effects normalize.”

— Anil Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, KEI Industries Limited

KEI believes it is well positioned to benefit from India’s data centre buildout, supplying nearly the entire range of wires and cables required for these facilities.

“We have been supplying to data centres across the country for several years. We believe we cater to nearly 90% of the wires and cables requirement for a data centre, from extra high-voltage to low-voltage cables, copper flexibles and specialty cables. Given the number of data centres being announced, this represents a massive opportunity over the next eight to ten years.”

— Anil Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, KEI Industries Limited

Management estimates its current data centre business at around ₹400–500 crore annually and believes it has the potential to grow multiple times over the next decade.

“We haven’t quantified it precisely, but it is roughly ₹400–500 crore annually at present. Over the next eight to ten years, this could grow by as much as ten times from current levels.”

— Anil Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, KEI Industries Limited.

Amber Enterprises India Limited | Mid Cap | Consumer Durables

Amber Enterprises is a prominent original equipment manufacturer for the Indian room air conditioner and consumer electronics industry. The company is strategically diversifying into mobile phone manufacturing and electronic components to reduce its reliance on seasonal cooling products.

[Concall]

The company is entering the mobile manufacturing space to balance its high-volume assembly business with its existing high-margin components segments. This move is specifically designed to generate steady revenue throughout the year and offset the seasonal nature of their air conditioner sales.

“This is also fully consistent with our stated strategy of maintaining the right balance between high-margin value-added businesses and asset-light high-volume low-margin businesses. This collaboration meaningfully diversifies our revenue profile and importantly reduces the seasonal concentration inherent in our room air conditioner business.”

— Jasbir Singh, Executive Chairman and CEO

Amber is utilizing a subleasing model for its new mobile production facility to avoid complex regulatory hurdles and high upfront costs. This asset-light approach allows the company to enter a new market without significantly increasing its capital expenditure.

“On the facility side, the manufacturing will be carried out at an existing facility under a sublease arrangement with Oppo India. This structure does not require any Press Note 3 approval. On the capital outlay, consistent with the asset-light nature of this collaboration, capex requirements are very, very minimal.”

— Jasbir Singh, Executive Chairman and CEO

The company has set clear volume targets for its new mobile collaboration, aiming for significant growth within just twenty-four months. Reaching 15 million units would establish Amber as a major player in India’s mobile manufacturing ecosystem.

“On the scale side, we expect to begin with around 8 million units in year one, followed by a calibrated phase-wise ramp-up. If everything goes as scheduled, we expect to touch the volumes of around 13-15 million in the second year of operations.”

— Jasbir Singh, Executive Chairman and CEO

Management clarified that while revenue accounting might vary between gross or job-work models, the actual profit generated will remain consistent. Investors should focus on absolute profit figures rather than total revenue when evaluating this specific segment.

“The arrangement is on the bottom-line side, basically not on the top-line side. We have flexibility on the top-line side. It will depend on the Oppo India team. Some models may come on the gross side and some on the other, but the bottom line on the absolute numbers will remain intact.”

— Jasbir Singh, Executive Chairman and CEO

Amber has consolidated its position as India’s leading printed circuit board manufacturer through strategic acquisitions and expert leadership. This dominance in electronics components provides a strong foundation for their expansion into mobile phones and other high-tech sectors.

“The whole PCB division will be headed by Mr. Santosh. He has 25 years of experience in the printed circuit board category. He was earlier heading AT&S, which was previously the largest PCB company. Now Amber has become the largest PCB company with Ascent and Shogini in our fold.”

— Jasbir Singh, Executive Chairman and CEO

Dhruv Consultancy Services Ltd. | Small Cap | Civil Engineering

Dhruv Consultancy Services provides engineering design and project management services for highways, railways, and airports. The company is currently expanding into the wayside amenities sector and international markets to diversify its revenue streams.

[Concall]

A new government rating system has ranked the company as the sixth-best consultant in India for highway projects. This high ranking significantly improves the company’s ability to win future contracts at better pricing levels.

“Recently NHAI has allotted ratings to consultancy firms and based on those ratings, they have revised the eligibility and allotment criteria for projects in the present and future. I am happy to announce that we are number 6 in India among 57 consultants, scoring almost 70 marks out of 100.”

— Pandurang Dandawate, Chairman

The firm is diversifying into managing highway rest stops, which include fuel stations and food courts. This shift moves the business model toward long-term ownership and maintenance rather than just design services.

“This is a bit of a diversification of the business from our core sector of consultancy. For the first time, we have submitted our bids for the wayside amenity business, which is on a BOT or PPP mode with a concession period of 15 years. Basically, we have to invest and develop the wayside amenity and also maintain it.”

— Pandurang Dandawate, Chairman

The new wayside amenity projects will generate consistent income from fuel sales and retail rentals. Management expects high traffic volumes on these routes to drive significant recurring revenue.

“We have four types of revenue streams. The first is from the sale of fuel and commissions. Estimated fuel sales are 50 crore per annum on that highway, as it is a busy highway with high commercial traffic connecting South India to North India through Maharashtra.”

— Pandurang Dandawate, Chairman

The majority of the company’s business comes from major central government highway authorities. This provides a steady pipeline of large-scale infrastructure projects though it maintains a high client concentration.

“Broadly, our main client is NHAI, so 70% of our revenue is from NHAI plus MoRTH. MoRTH handles two-lane and four-lane highways, whereas NHAI handles six-lane highways, expressways, and iconic projects.”

— Pandurang Dandawate, Chairman

Dhruv is targeting the government’s ambitious plan to build hundreds of regional airports. Securing these contracts would allow the company to expand its expertise beyond the highway sector.

“I should mention that in this third phase of the NDA government, they have decided to develop 250 plus airports in tier 3 and tier 4 cities across India. We are eyeing significant business starting with DPRs for these small airports and airstrips.”

— Pandurang Dandawate, Chairman

The company is investing in advanced design technology to win higher-value contracts in the Middle East. Success in Saudi Arabia would provide a lucrative new source of international revenue.

“We have increased our software bank and provided training to our professional design staff. We have submitted quotations for two or three private assignments in Saudi Arabia and hope to secure at least 50 crore in business there in the next 6 months to 1 year.”

— Pandurang Dandawate, Chairman

The company is focusing its global expansion on projects backed by reputable international financial institutions. This strategy helps ensure payment security and reduces the risks of working in new foreign markets.

“For the last 2 years, we have tried hard to enter the international market, but that turnaround time is about 3 years. We are specific in bidding for projects funded by the ADB, World Bank, or African Development Bank.”

— Pandurang Dandawate, Chairman

Healthcare

Q-Line Biotech Ltd. | Small Cap | Healthcare - Diagnostics

Q-Line Biotech is an Indian in-vitro diagnostics company that develops and manufactures diagnostic reagents and automated laboratory instruments. The company follows a razor-and-blade business model where an expanding installation base of equipment drives high-margin, recurring reagent sales.

[Concall]

Management is moving production to a larger new facility to handle more complex diagnostic categories like molecular testing. This transition to Unit 4 is intended to drive higher margins through improved production scale and a more advanced product mix.

In the manufactured reagent category, our gross margin is about 60% to 65%. As Unit 4 ramps up, in phase one, we will be shifting all clinical chemistry reagents from our old facility in Delhi to Unit 4 in Lucknow. This is phase one. In phase two, we will be adding rapid, molecular, and other streams.”

— Ajay Kumar Mahanty, CEO

Each diagnostic analyzer the company sells or installs has the potential to generate ten times its initial value in recurring reagent sales over its decade-long lifespan. This calculation highlights why growing the installed base of machines is the primary driver of long-term investor value.

The question on lifetime value—shortly, it takes approximately 25,000 of average reagents per machine per month, which is about 3 lakhs annually. Through the economic life of about 10 years, that is almost 30 lakhs. That is the kind of revenue potential we have per analyzer.”

— Saurabh Garg, Chairman and Managing Director

The company is looking to diversify its income by manufacturing products for other global companies and expanding its presence in international markets. This shift towards contract manufacturing could provide a new, high-margin revenue stream starting in late FY27.

The revenue was around 1.2 crores, but we are expecting more than 5 times that in FY27. Regarding the CDMO business, we have negotiations going on. That will be additional business. We expect traction in CDMO in Q3 and Q4.”

— Ajay Kumar Mahanty, CEO

The business currently relies heavily on government contracts and a single large distributor, which poses a concentration risk. Management plans to reduce this dependency by expanding their private trade business and growing in new geographical regions.

About 65% is Business-to-Government (B2G) and 35% is trade. Our large distributor is based in UP, so we bill everything to them, but they further supply to Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Haryana. By the end of FY28, we expect the concentration between B2G and others to be 50-50.”

— Meenal Gupta, CFO

The company has successfully localized the manufacturing of a complex European diagnostic instrument and is now planning to export it globally. This move validates their technical expertise and opens up a massive global distribution network through their European partners.

Successfully re-engineering it here gave us the confidence to export it back to the principals. We are in advanced negotiations with them to sell across the 55-plus countries where they operate. We have three to five more instruments in the pipeline through tech transfer and our own R&D.”

— Ajay Kumar Mahanty, CEO

High utilization of installed analyzers is crucial for the company’s profitability since the profit is made on the volume of tests run. These utilization figures suggest that their machines are being placed in high-traffic medical facilities where testing volume is consistent.

At this moment, we have covered more than 1,500. Based on track records and hospital workloads, we expect 100 to 150 samples per day. Per instrument, the average consumption would be 25,000 to 30,000 per month.”

— Ajay Kumar Mahanty, CEO

Brad Setser on the dollar and the world’s trade imbalance

The role of the dollar, and its influence on global trade, is a complicated story that has constantly changed over time. To make sense of all this, we spoke to Brad Setser, Most of Twitter knows Brad is one of the sharpest voices on all things balance-of-payments. He is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He also served at the US Treasury and the National Economic Council.

We recorded this conversation while the Iran war was unfolding and oil markets were watching the Strait of Hormuz, and not long after Trump and Xi had met in Beijing to negotiate a trade deal. We used the moment to ask him about the things he thinks about most: why the dollar is really strong, what an AI bust would do to it, how the manufacturing surpluses of China, Korea, and Taiwan quietly finance the American deficit, and what China would have to do to rebalance.

Watch the full podcast episode below, where Brad breaks down the sources of dollar demand and the future of global trade imbalances

You can also listen to the full conversation on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The full transcript of the podcast is below if you prefer to read.

Subtext by Zerodha

Brad Setser on the dollar and the world's trade imbalance

The standard story about the dollar is a story about safety. The world holds dollars, the telling goes, because the dollar is the reserve currency — the asset everyone runs to when they are afraid…

Read more

15 days ago · 7 likes · Zerodha

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Quotes in this newsletter were curated by Meher, Shahid, & Srusti.

Disclaimer: We’ve used AI tools in filtering and cleaning up these quotes so there maybe some mistakes. Now, if you are thinking why we are using AI, please remember that we are just a small team of 5 people running everything you see on Zerodha Markets 😬 So, all the good stuff is human and mistakes are AI.

Welcome to the 64th edition of The Chatter — a weekly newsletter where we dig through what India’s biggest companies are saying and bring you the most interesting bits of insight, whether about the business, its sector, or the wider economy. We read every major Indian earnings call and listen to the interviews so you don’t have to.

We’re always eager to improve—please share your ideas on how else we can innovate “The Chatter” format to better serve your needs.

In this edition, we have covered 11 companies across 8 industries.

Energy

• Reliance Industries

Metals

• Vedanta Group

FMCG

• Gillette India Limited

Real Estate

• Prestige Estates

Software Services

• Coforge

Engineering & Capital Goods

• RBM Infracon Limited

• Dhara Rail Projects Limited

• RMC Switchgears

• Finolex Cables

Defence

• BEML

IT Services & Distribution

• Redington

Energy

Reliance Industries | Large Cap | Energy

Reliance Industries is India’s largest private sector company with diverse operations in hydrocarbons, refining, petrochemicals, renewables, retail, and digital services. It leads in managing a fully integrated Oil-to-Chemicals portfolio and emphasizes inclusive growth by partnering with various stakeholders.

[Concall]

This was the biggest announcement of the AGM. Mukesh Ambani confirmed that the Jio Platforms board had approved the DRHP and that it would be filed with SEBI the same day, formally initiating the IPO process.

“With great delight, let me tell you that the board of Jio Platforms has approved the draft red herring prospectus earlier today and it will be filed with SEBI today. This is a deeply emotional moment for me, for the entire Reliance family, and for millions of its shareholders.”

“The proposed listing of Jio will demonstrate to the world that India can build technology companies of global scale, global capability, and global value.”

— Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Industries

One of the strongest long-term financial outlook statements from Mukesh Ambani. He drew parallels with the doubling of EBITDA achieved over the previous five years.

“We doubled our EBITDA in the last five years. And as I look to the future, I am absolutely confident in our ability to double, indeed more than double, our consolidated EBITDA over the next five years.”

— Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Industries

Ambani highlighted AI as potentially as important as the New Energy business and one of Reliance’s most prolific future growth platforms.

“Reliance Intelligence is going to be as transformative and consequential as our new energy business.”

“Hence, I envision this business becoming one of Reliance’s most prolific growth platforms.”

— Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Industries

Akash Ambani outlined Reliance’s AI infrastructure ambitions and disclosed timelines and scale.

“Reliance Intelligence is building India’s sovereign AI backbone in Jamnagar.”

“The first 120 megawatts will be commissioned by the end of 2026.”

— Akash Ambani, Managing Director, Jio Platforms

One of the most significant disclosures regarding Reliance’s AI infrastructure capacity.

“As the first 120 megawatts becomes fully operational, this capacity can scale over 2 lakh H100 equivalent GPUs.”

“This capacity places Reliance amongst the largest AI infrastructure platforms being built anywhere in the world.”

— Akash Ambani, Managing Director, Jio Platforms

Reliance disclosed plans to enter satellite broadband infrastructure through a dual strategy.

“Jio is evaluating the development of a sovereign low Earth orbit satellite constellation for India.”

“We are also partnering with the leading global constellation providers by leasing satellite capacity.”

— Akash Ambani, Managing Director, Jio Platforms

Jio provided a long-term network migration target while discussing future telecom strategy.

“Our target is to migrate all subscribers to 5G by 2030, whilst advancing India’s leadership position in 6G standards.”

— Akash Ambani, Managing Director, Jio Platforms

One of the clearest long-term growth targets announced during the AGM.

“RCPL’s near-term ambition is to reach 1 lakh crores in revenue by FY30.”

“Our long-term ambition is to become one of India’s largest FMCG companies with a global platform to match.”

— Isha Ambani, Executive Director, Reliance Retail Ventures

Management highlighted the rapid scaling of the Campa brand.

“Campa achieved 4,700 plus crores in gross sales in FY26, having challenged decades-long market leadership.”

“It is now India’s fourth-largest carbonated soft drinks brand with a double-digit market share in key markets.”

— Isha Ambani, Executive Director, Reliance Retail Ventures

One of the largest new-energy disclosures in the AGM.

“The first phase of our 40 GWh annual BESS and cell giga-factory is on track to be commissioned this year.”

“We have now committed to scale this up to 120 GWh of annual capacity.”

— Anant Ambani, Executive Director, Reliance Industries

Investors have long awaited monetization of Reliance’s new energy investments.

“Commercial revenues from solar modules start rolling in this year.”

“From FY27 onwards, new energy will begin contributing meaningfully to Reliance’s financial performance.”

— Anant Ambani, Executive Director, Reliance Industries

One of the most ambitious targets announced in the AGM.

“Reliance aims to become an anchor institution for developing a globally competitive multi-sector export hub with a target to enable 125 to 150 billion dollars in exports by 2032.”

“This ambition is not only about creating a larger Reliance; it is about creating a stronger India.”

— Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Industries

Mukesh Ambani framed AI not merely as a business opportunity but as a strategic imperative for India, alongside energy independence.

“Maximum energy self-sufficiency and AI self-sufficiency must become our national missions.”

“The success of these missions is critical to the success of Developed India.”

— Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Industries

This highlights how Reliance’s earnings mix has fundamentally changed over the past few years.

“Retail and digital businesses contributed nearly half of the FY26 EBITDA.”

“Together they are increasingly becoming the primary drivers of Reliance’s future growth.”

— Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Industries

One of the strongest statements regarding Reliance’s AI ambitions.

“Just as Jio made data extremely affordable for every Indian, Reliance Intelligence will disrupt AI economics by making it dramatically more affordable for every Indian by the end of this decade.”

— Akash Ambani, Managing Director, Jio Platforms

One of the strongest operational metrics disclosed for AirFiber.

“Home connections are now growing at a phenomenal rate of up to 60,000 per day.”

— Akash Ambani, Managing Director, Jio Platforms

A key monetization statement that could have direct earnings implications.

“As we launch more value-added services such as premium 5G, AI bundled services, and enterprise solutions, our ARPU will grow significantly.”

— Akash Ambani, Managing Director, Jio Platforms

Management is positioning RCPL as a global consumer products company.

“The rapid growth in our consumer brands business in India has given us the confidence to build a strong and scalable global FMCG business.”

— Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Industries

One of the strongest growth disclosures in the AGM.

“RCPL achieved gross revenue of 22,000 crores, doubling year-on-year.”

“What took other peers decades, we achieved in just four years.”

— Isha Ambani, Executive Director, Reliance Retail Ventures

Management highlighted Reliance’s role in supporting India’s energy security.

“We increased LPG supply four-fold to help the nation tide over the import disruption.”

— Anant Ambani, Executive Director, Reliance Industries

One of the most overlooked but important technology-related disclosures.

“We are progressing towards operating Jamnagar as the world’s first end-to-end autonomous refinery.”

“An industrial milestone that will define the next era of global refining.”

— Anant Ambani, Executive Director, Reliance Industries

This shows the scale of the Kutch renewable project.

“Once fully operationalized, the integrated hub will generate over 40 billion units of green electricity every year.”

“Which is approximately 3% of India’s annual electricity requirement.”

— Anant Ambani, Executive Director, Reliance Industries

This marks the transition from capex-heavy investment to revenue generation.

“In FY26, this mission moved from construction to commissioning.”

“The Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex at Jamnagar is now one of the world’s most integrated clean energy manufacturing ecosystems.”

— Anant Ambani, Executive Director, Reliance Industries

One of Mukesh Ambani’s most important governance comments. He formally indicated that the next generation is now leading Reliance’s growth engines.

“The next generation leadership of Reliance has now fully assumed operational responsibilities across our businesses.”

“They are delivering strong growth while remaining anchored to the values and principles that have shaped Reliance.”

— Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director

Metals

Vedanta Group | Large Cap | Metals & Mining

Vedanta Group is one of India’s largest natural resources conglomerates with businesses spanning metals, mining, oil & gas, power, and critical minerals. Following the group’s landmark demerger, Chairman Anil Agarwal outlined an ambitious long-term vision centered on independent business verticals, large-scale expansion in power, steel, and energy, and sustained shareholder value creation through focused, technology-driven companies.

[Reference]

The demerger is intended to give each business its own identity and management focus, allowing them to pursue growth opportunities independently.

“It is a time it has grown like a banyan tree. So everybody should have his own identity and every company will be like a Vedanta. If we give them independence, each company... I have a vision, each company will be a hundred billion dollar company.”

— Anil Agarwal, Founder & Chairman, Vedanta Group

Management believes the demerger will be one of the most significant value-creation events for shareholders, with investors receiving stakes in multiple independent businesses.

“This is the best benefit they will ever get for the investment because you will get the four share and each company has the potential to be the same level. So it is a win-win situation... one thing I can promise that I’m very conscious that we should be dividend paying company and the value must be created for our shareholder.”

— Anil Agarwal, Founder & Chairman, Vedanta Group

Vedanta has outlined an ambitious long-term plan to build a 50,000 MW power business, leveraging its resource base and existing infrastructure.

“We are just starting as we started everything because demand supply is tremendous... I am very focused on thermal because we have amazing coal deposit... this company should go 50,000 megawatt, part of the nuclear and part of the thermal, technology AI-driven, environmentally friendly.”

— Anil Agarwal, Founder & Chairman, Vedanta Group

Management sees a significant opportunity to scale its oil and gas business and improve India’s energy security through higher domestic production.

“For me I’m looking forward to produce 500,000 barrel and then aiming for million barrel... our cost of production is $10. If 50% energy security is not there in a large country, we’ll be vulnerable. So it’s very important for us to be self-sufficient at least 50% for our energy security.”

— Anil Agarwal, Founder & Chairman, Vedanta Group

The company remains highly bullish on steel and believes India has substantial unmet demand despite planned capacity additions across the industry.

“The demand is 300 million ton. Even if everybody comes in, still there’s a huge gap... we are very keen on electric steel, green steel. So 15 million ton, time to come, is very important. We should start planning for 50 million ton of steel in this country also.”

— Anil Agarwal, Founder & Chairman, Vedanta Group

FMCG

Gillette India Limited | Large Cap | Personal Care

Gillette India is a leading consumer goods company specializing in grooming and oral care with a dominant market share in blades and razors. The company operates iconic brands like Gillette and Oral-B, focusing on product superiority and productivity to drive long-term value.

[Concall]

The company has integrated high-frequency data analytics to ensure products remain in stock across various retail points. This serves as a competitive advantage by minimizing lost sales in a complex and fragmented retail market.

“Every single day, over 2 million data checks are done to ensure that our consumers can always find their favorite products where and when they are looking for them. We are working to have the systems in place to make our work even more effective and efficient while maintaining the standards that consumers expect of us.”

— V Kumar, Managing Director

Management highlighted their long-term history of returning cash to shareholders through consistent dividends. This reinforces the company’s status as a stable, cash-generative business for long-term investment portfolios.

“Over the period of 30 years, if we look at it, it is a really consistent dividend payout that we have paid out. Let’s talk about the external landscape and how we see it evolving.”

— Vidya Srinivasan, Chief Financial Officer

Despite rising competition, the company maintains its dominant position in the shaving market through consistent year-on-year growth. This confirms the durability of their competitive moat and leadership in the core grooming business.

“The addressable size for Gillette is significant. At the same time, we have a role to play as market leaders. Gillette continues to be the market leader in the blades and razors segment, and we have grown year-on-year, as you saw in the earlier charts.”

— Vidya Srinivasan, Chief Financial Officer

The Guard brand has significantly expanded the company’s reach by adding 20 million new consumers in a short period. This massive user acquisition provides a large base for future product upselling and sustainable revenue growth.

“Let’s look at our iconic Gillette Guard portfolio as an example. Over the last 3 years, we have added nearly 20 million new users to the franchise. Even with these efforts, our teams remain committed to following a consumer-first approach, gathering insights, and taking those insights to build superior offerings that delight the consumer, which is what brings brand loyalty in the long term.”

— Vidya Srinivasan, Chief Financial Officer

The Venus brand is growing rapidly as female consumers increasingly adopt razors for at-home hair removal. This high-growth segment represents a significant new revenue stream that helps diversify the company’s historical male-focus.

“Venus already contributes double digits to our grooming business and is growing upwards of 20%. The biggest opportunity remains new user growth. Female hair removal is a diverse segment.”

— Vidya Srinivasan, Chief Financial Officer

The company is expanding beyond blades into the grooming appliances market with a new range of multi-functional trimmers. This strategic move targets the growing trend of facial hair styling among younger Indian consumers.

“Gillette Trimmers launched just 2 months ago have four unique product propositions that are designed to offer versatile grooming solutions. This targets the increasing demand for multi-functional devices that cater to both beard styling and body grooming.”

— Vidya Srinivasan, Chief Financial Officer

Real Estate

Prestige Estates | Large Cap | Realty | Multi-Year Visibility

Prestige Estates is one of India’s leading real estate developers with a strong presence across residential, commercial, retail, hospitality, and emerging asset classes. Management remains confident about housing demand, execution, and future launches, while highlighting a ₹65,000 crore unrecognized revenue pipeline, robust sales momentum, and growing opportunities in the data center segment.

[Reference]

The company has a massive backlog of sold units that will be booked as revenue in future periods as construction progresses. This provides investors with significant visibility into the company’s long-term revenue and profit potential.

“Today, we have around ₹65,000 crore of sales that have not yet been recognized in the profit and loss account. As we continue selling projects, unrecognized revenue keeps increasing.”

— Irfan Razack, Chairman & Managing Director, Prestige Group.

Management expects to convert their large sales backlog into reported earnings over a three to four-year horizon. Successful and timely project completion is the key factor that will determine when this value is realized.

“We believe this unrecognized revenue will come into the books over the next three to four years, while new projects continue to add to the pipeline. Ultimately, it’s all about execution and completion.”

— Irfan Razack, Chairman & Managing Director, Prestige Group.

Extremely fast sell-through rates for new launches indicate that buyer appetite for the company’s projects remains very high. High sales velocity is a positive sign for cash flow and reduces the risks associated with carrying unsold inventory.

“We recently launched Prestige Gardenia Phase 2, and it was practically sold out within three days. That’s the kind of demand indicator we look at. Whenever we bring the right product to market, sales continue to be robust.”

— Irfan Razack, Chairman & Managing Director, Prestige Group.

The group is moving into the data center sector, using its previous experience as a contractor to build its own specialized assets. This diversification provides a new growth engine beyond the core residential and commercial business.

“Data centres are a significant opportunity. We recently completed a data centre project as a general contractor in Bengaluru. That has given us experience in how these facilities are built.”

— Irfan Razack, Chairman & Managing Director, Prestige Group.

Software Services

Coforge | Mid Cap | IT Services | AI Tailwinds & Margin Expansion

Coforge is a global IT services company focused on banking, insurance, travel, and digital transformation. Management remains firmly bullish on growth, arguing that AI is creating new demand rather than destroying it, while targeting higher margins, pursuing strategic acquisitions, and outlining a path to potentially reach $5 billion in revenue by 2030.

[Reference]

Management believes AI will create more work opportunities rather than replacing the company’s services. This positive outlook counters fears that AI might disrupt the traditional IT services business model.

“Management maintains a contrarian view that AI is creating new demand pools and will act as a growth tailwind rather than a headwind. Coforge stated that maintaining its historical growth trajectory along with one meaningful acquisition could potentially take revenue to $5 billion by 2030.”

— Sudhir Singh, CEO & Executive Director, Coforge Limited

There is a plan to reach $5 billion in revenue by 2030 through organic growth and strategic buyouts. This long-term target shows the company’s high ambition and potential for massive scale.

“Coforge stated that maintaining its historical growth trajectory along with one meaningful acquisition could potentially take revenue to $5 billion by 2030. Headcount growth is expected to remain below revenue growth as productivity improves through AI adoption.”

— Sudhir Singh, CEO & Executive Director, Coforge Limited

The recent acquisition of Encora is performing better than expected in terms of cost savings. Successful integration reduces the risk for future acquisitions and proves management’s ability to execute deals.

“The Encora acquisition has already delivered 25%–30% G&A synergies, exceeding the original target. Acquisitions remain an important growth lever and management highlighted a strong integration track record.”

— Sudhir Singh, CEO & Executive Director, Coforge Limited

Coforge is looking to sign major deals with leading AI model providers soon. These partnerships will give the company better tools to serve clients and stay competitive in the AI race.

“Coforge is actively pursuing partnerships with major LLM providers and expects to conclude at least one significant partnership in the coming quarters. Management supports sovereign Indian AI models but does not intend to build foundation models itself, preferring to focus on AI-powered business solutions.”

— Sudhir Singh, CEO & Executive Director, Coforge Limited

Engineering & Capital Goods

RBM Infracon Limited | Small Cap | Construction & Engineering

RBM Infracon Limited is an integrated energy infrastructure company providing EPC, plant turnaround, and operation and maintenance services for the oil and gas, fertilizer, and power sectors. The company has recently expanded its capabilities into upstream crude oil services and green energy infrastructure both in India and the Middle East.

[Concall]

The company dramatically expanded its asset base this year by investing over 100 crores in new machinery and equipment. This aggressive capex is intended to support the execution of a growing and more complex order book.

“FY26 was our biggest year ever for investment in capabilities. Our gross block of property, plant, and equipment has grown from 24 crores to 113.11 crores—an addition of almost 100 crores in plant, machinery, and equipment in a single year.”

— Aditya Jaybajrang Mani, Whole-Time Director

The company is successfully expanding internationally and into the green energy sector through a new partnership in Oman. Investors should note this as a diversification away from traditional fossil fuel services.

“We have concluded an order worth 1.3 million Omani Rial with Acme Cleantech Energy for a green ammonia and green hydrogen project at the Duqm refinery in Oman. We are forming a JV with a local partner in Oman in the next few days. We are expecting a few more packages from this project.”

— Aditya Jaybajrang Mani, Whole-Time Director

The ONGC contract features a profit-sharing model where RBM retains a massive 66% share of all production above a set baseline. This structure provides significant financial upside if the company can successfully boost well output.

“For the incremental production from new wells, our commitment is 78 cubic meters. After meeting that top-up of 78 cubic meters per month—which is about 550 barrels—any production above that is considered incremental. On that incremental part, 34% goes to ONGC and 66% belongs to us.”

— Jaybajrang Mani, Managing Director

RBM is entering a semiconductor venture where its primary role will be capturing billions in civil and mechanical infrastructure work. The company will also hold a 30% equity stake, creating a massive potential pipeline for its core construction business.

“For this semiconductor project, there is about 2,000 to 3,000 crores in infrastructure work and 3,000 to 4,000 crores in machinery imports. Our first interest is to complete all the infrastructure work. I will also be a partner with a 30% stake.”

— Jaybajrang Mani, Managing Director

Management anticipates a massive surge in demand for refinery maintenance services in the Middle East over the next two years. RBM is positioning its workforce to capture this regional boom in plant shutdowns and pipeline work.

“Over the next 2 years, there will be so much work in the Gulf that you might not find enough people in India. Many refineries are seeking maintenance and shutdowns. We will handle pipelines and equipment maintenance.”

— Jaybajrang Mani, Managing Director

Dhara Rail Projects Limited | Small Cap | Railway Services

Dhara Rail Projects Limited provides specialized maintenance, repair, and installation services for Indian Railways’ rolling stock and electrical systems. The company operates an asset-light model and focuses on high-growth areas like Vande Bharat train maintenance and overhead equipment servicing.

[Concall]

The roll-out of high-tech Vande Bharat trains creates complex maintenance needs that play to the company’s technical strengths. Expanding into new geographic railway zones provides a clear path for volume growth beyond their current markets.

“The prevalence of Vande Bharat trains, which require high-technology intensity in their coaches, will also help Dhara. While we have a deep presence pan-India, we are increasing our footprint in zones where we previously had lower presence.”

— Shashank Velaya, Management

Almost the entire current order book is composed of direct contracts rather than sub-contracts. Investors should expect better profitability as the company no longer has to share its earnings with original equipment manufacturers.

“Out of the 184 crore order book, 95% consists of direct contracts; only about 5% is through other OEMs. Direct bidding definitely offers better margins because we have direct access to the customer. When we quote through an OEM, the margin is split, so we receive less.”

— Tejas Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director

Maintenance is a recurring business that generates steady income long after the initial construction of railway assets is finished. This makes the company’s revenue more stable and predictable than traditional construction firms.

“Once the Railways spends money and an asset is built, it must be maintained for 15 to 20 years. Infrastructure spending happens once, but maintenance is recurring and cumulative. The company can scale faster than overall railway infrastructure spending.”

— Tejas Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director

A majority of the company’s revenue comes from high-margin annual maintenance contracts. This mix supports overall profitability and provides a steady stream of predictable, recurring income.

“It fluctuates, but right now it is approximately 60% from AMCs and 40% from non-AMC work. The AMC business generates the higher margins.”

— Tejas Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director

Working directly for the government eliminates the risk of total payment default, though the timing of cash receipts can vary. Direct bidding gives the company more control over its financial relationship with the Indian Railways.

“This is sovereign work, and the government pays us. Payments can sometimes be delayed, but there is no existential risk. Major challenges and risks are mitigated by the fact that Dhara is doing more direct bidding.”

— Shashank Velaya, Management

RMC Switchgears | Nano Cap | Engineering & Capital Goods

RMC Switchgears Limited is an ISO 9001:2008 certified company specializing in designing and manufacturing Enclosures of Energy Meters, LT/HT Distribution Boxes and Panels, Junction Boxes, Feeder Pillars, and other Power Distribution and Circuit Protection Switchgears. They use Mild Steel, Stainless Steel, Sheet Moulding Compound (SMC), and Bulk Moulding Compound (DMC) materials in their fabrication process.

[Concall]

PulseBox was the single biggest opportunity discussed during the call. While management clarified that this is not guidance, it believes the addressable market is substantial.

“Within this, management estimates that approximately 75 lakh transformers may represent a realistic, addressable opportunity for PulseBox-type deployment.”

“This represents a potential addressable market opportunity for at least Rs. 50,000 crore plus for the Indian market.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management used this example to demonstrate real-world effectiveness.

“Within 7 days, we gave them around 388 alarms.”

“There were two or three critical alarms because of which they have shifted the transformer, they have replaced the transformer before anything adverse could have happened.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management tied future growth to India’s power infrastructure buildout.

“The Government of India has announced the transmission investment in transmission infrastructure of around Rs. 9 lakh crore till 2032.”

“Transmission line has become a really very big bottleneck.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

PulseBox is being positioned directly into the government’s grid-modernization push.

“The Indian government is going under a phase two of RDSS modernization.”

“The Indian government is focusing on how we can digitalize the infrastructure of electricity in India.”

“That is where our PulseBox sits.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

This is the macro thesis underpinning the company’s long-term strategy.

“Till 2047, power is one sector that we believe will grow multi-fold in the next, I think, 15 years.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management explicitly acknowledged that B2G concentration affects working capital.

“We want to increase more of B2B, and we want to reduce B2G.”

“The only idea behind is if we can control the debtor days.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

This is one of the clearest diversification initiatives discussed.

“We are eyeing on some going into medium voltage and high voltage.”

“That is the part where we can sell this product to the solar power plants, solar generation plants, thermal plants.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

This clarifies a previously discussed diversification strategy.

“We are not going ahead with the water management now anymore.”

“We are focusing on energy now.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

An interesting perspective on growth and tender eligibility.

“In the last 4 years, we have gone from Rs. 40 crore to Rs. 410 crore.”

“Going Rs. 400 crore to Rs. 4,000 crore would be comparatively easier.”

“Once you have Rs. 400 crores, then you can participate in much more bigger tenders.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

This is perhaps the clearest articulation of the strategic transformation underway. Management wants to move from competing on price to solving utility problems through technology.

“Currently, I would say that we would be considered as an EPC company in a red ocean market.”

“Where the competition decides everything, where the price decides everything.”

“Now we are focusing only on technology.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

This comment reveals the philosophy behind PulseBox and future R&D investments.

“What we have felt when we had done our first project of Maharashtra, that solving problem of a customer should be the ideal thing for a company to do.”

“And that is where you can build a company, build an institution.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

One of the strongest explanations of the product’s value proposition.

“Smart meters cannot directly solve this problem.”

“They only do energy auditing.”

“They can’t stop it.”

“My PulseBox will be able to stop it, will be able to cut the current as soon as it detects the issue.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management highlighted a significant difference in utility response time.

“A smart meter will tell after 30 days.”

“The PulseBox will react on the same time, in real time.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

This is a notable industry observation and forms the basis for PulseBox’s market opportunity.

“Grid has been modernized, substations have been modernized, smart meters have been installed.”

“The only LT layer which we are focusing on is left.”

“Putting technology on it will help the utilities.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Useful insight into RMC’s R&D strategy.

“We have developed this technology through our domestic and international teams.”

“This is the outcome of that effort.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

One of the most interesting strategic comments in the call.

“The product will always be made in India, but the technology will always be from a Western country.”

“Because they are the innovators, we are the producers.”

— Ankit Agarwal, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Finolex Cables | Small Cap | Engineering & Capital Goods

Finolex Cables Limited, established in 1958, is India’s largest and leading manufacturer of electrical and telecommunication cables. It has recently diversified into the fast-moving electrical goods (FMEG) segment with the aim of becoming a complete electrical products company. The company is principally engaged in the manufacturing of Electricals Cables, Communication Cables & other electrical appliances.

[Interview]

On growth prospects for Finolex Cables’ largest segment, the electrical cables business, amid copper price volatility.

“It depends a little bit on where copper is going to be with the kind of volatility that we have seen. Last year there was quite a bit of volatility. Copper prices went up close to 25% or so and we had to keep pace with that change in commodity prices. What then the market will bear is not something that I want to predict at this point in time. But yeah, provided things are normal, double-digit growth is not impossible.”

— Mahesh Viswanathan, CEO, Finolex Cables

On the communication cables business and the impact of the company’s integrated glass manufacturing facility.

“We are backward integrated and our glass factory is now fully operational. We should get the benefit of making our own glass from the next quarter onwards once the factory stabilizes.”

— Mahesh Viswanathan, CEO, Finolex Cables

On upcoming capacity additions in fiber manufacturing.

“We currently have a glass capacity of about 100 tonnes, which translates to 4 million fiber kilometers. We have a current draw capacity of about 4 million fiber kilometers, which we are increasing to 8 million fiber kilometers and that should be ready in a month or two’s time. So from the second half we should be having enhanced capacities.”

On managing rising metal costs and pricing strategy.

“Our policy has been that we treat metal prices as a pass-through. Whether there’s a price increase on the commodity side or a decrease on the commodity side, we pass it on to the customer. There might be a small lag.”

On long-term profitability of the electrical cables business.

“In the long run, what one can expect is a blended average of somewhere around 12%. That should be something that is sustainable.”

On the impact of a large new competitor entering the industry.

“We know that they are coming, so we are preparing ourselves to handle that challenge.”

On whether the new entrant could replicate the disruption seen in the paints industry.

“What strategy they would follow is not fully transparent as yet. I’m not sure if they will do a repeat of the paints business or they would try something else.”

On how the industry structure could evolve over time.

“Long term, I think there would be some consolidation. Today you have quite a few smaller players and those probably would get consolidated one way or the other. I think there is enough space and market for five or six of the larger players to continue to operate with reasonable market share among themselves.”

On whether the new entrant poses a major threat.

“It would be a challenge, but then we are prepared. We are ready for it.”

On the company’s long-term ambitions in the FMEG segment despite recent underperformance.

“A few years ago we put out a statement saying that we would like to see this first reach a level of ₹500 crore and then we would like to scale it up from there. Our faith in that segment still continues.”

On why the FMEG business has fallen short of expectations.

“We realize that there are things that we need to work on. It could be on the distribution side. It could be on the product mix. It could also be on the overall strength of the team that is handling this.”

On the company’s approach to inorganic growth.

“We have looked at a few, but the ask has been fairly high. I am okay with multiples of bottom line, but I’m not so sure about multiples on the top line and that seems to be the trend that the bankers are working towards nowadays.”

On the use of the company’s large cash balance.

“We are definitely interested in acquisitions and inorganic growth.”

forums and I don’t think I should be commenting on that.”

On how the company is functioning despite the promoter dispute.

“As far as the company is concerned, it’s run by a board. Matters that can be handled at the board level are being handled at the board level.”

— Mahesh Viswanathan, CEO, Finolex Cables

Defence

BEML | Small Cap | Defence

BEML Limited, originally Bharat Earth Movers Limited, is a Public Sector Undertaking founded in 1964 in Bangalore. It operates in three major business verticals: Mining & Construction, Defence, and Rail & Metro.

[Concall]

This is one of the strongest indicators of revenue visibility and execution certainty.

“The current year, we started with the 5,500 crore order book executable order for the year.”

“First time in the history of the company, we are at this situation.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

This provides a sense of the scale of tenders and opportunities currently visible to BEML.

“If you look at the orderbook pipeline, this year we have an opportunity size of around 40,000 crore.”

“Which mainly consists of 70% from the rail and metro, 20% from the defense, 5% from mining, 5% from exports.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

A key revenue growth driver for FY27. Rail & Metro execution is expected to double this year

“This year we are expecting an execution from Rail Metro of at least 2,000 crores.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

Management is signaling a structural shift away from mining-led revenue dependence.

“Rail metro should account for very shortly 40%, 45%.”

“Rail metro and defense put together should do somewhere around 65% to 70%.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

Management is positioning BEML as one of the few Indian companies capable of building 350 kmph trainsets.

“The seven corridors which have been announced.”

“So seven corridors, it will all be 350 KMph aluminum.”

“We have already started preparing for aluminum almost for a year.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

BEML is actively pursuing metro and mining opportunities outside India.

“Now we are targeting two more rolling stock metro opportunities, one in Tel Aviv and the other is in Dublin.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

One of the largest defence opportunities discussed in the meeting.

“We are one of the three shortlisted bidders for the AMCA project.”

“The ticket size is 15,000 crores.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

BEML continues to aggressively invest in indigenous product development.

“Sustainable number for R&D spend should be around 7%.”

“We have already reached 6.25% of the revenue in last year.”

“We have already some 40 odd products lined up.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

Management sees exports as not just a growth opportunity but also a profitability lever.

“Suppose we plan for a EBITDA of around 20% for exports.”

“If the dollar further goes up, it will go up to 25% also.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

One of the most ambitious diversification plans disclosed during the meeting.

“It should, because the tunnel boring machine requirement is huge.”

“The ship to shore crane manufacturers in the country.”

“We are looking at around 80 to 100 ship to shore cranes.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

A key milestone for India’s indigenous bullet train program.

“We expected that the first car body will be out by August.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

Management views mining electrification as a major international opportunity.

“The EV trucks, they will open a big market for us in the exports.”

“The dump trucks.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

Excellent insight into management’s portfolio strategy.

“Mining is a fast turnaround product and gives us quick cash.”

“Whereas defense, it’s a long gestation period.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

Perhaps the most important margin-related statement in the meeting.

“Break even now it’s somewhere near Rs. 4,000 crores.”

“Any sales revenue we do above that number, it results in exponential contribution to the bottom line.”

— Shantanu Roy, Chairman & Managing Director

IT Services & Distribution

Redington | Mid Cap | IT Services & Distribution

Redington is a leading global technology distributor that connects international brands with thousands of resellers across India, the Middle East, and Asia. The company is currently pivoting from hardware distribution to an orchestration model focused on software, cloud services, and cybersecurity.

[Concall]

Customers now prefer to pay for software as a monthly subscription rather than buying it once upfront. This shift requires Redington to manage long-term relationships rather than just individual deliveries.

“The first is the consumption models moving from perpetual licenses to flexible, outcome-based subscriptions. The customer’s choice to subscribe for a service rather than owning a license is a major shift. The second part is about platform-led distribution.”

— Sayantan, Global Head of SSG

Management is targeting $5 billion in revenue for the software segment with healthy margins. If they can sell more high-end services, the profit margins could exceed their current 6% target.

“Overall, in the next 3 years, we expect to achieve a revenue of about $5 billion with a gross margin range between 5.5% and 6%. If the professional services mix improves, this can definitely be better than 6%.”

— S.V. Krishnan, Director - Finance

For certain software sales, the company only records the profit as revenue instead of the full contract value due to accounting rules. Investors should note that the actual cash moving through the business is higher than the reported revenue figures suggest.

“There is a portion relating to renewals, subscriptions, and vendor-led services where IFRS rules dictate we cannot take the full invoice value as revenue. The spread, or gross margin, becomes our revenue. If you take SSG as 100%, this piece is about 5% of the mix.”

— Management, Q&A Section

Redington is outperforming global trends in hardware, which makes it harder for the software segment to become the dominant part of the company. They are aiming for software to eventually make up one-quarter of total group revenue.

“In FY26, our hardware business grew at 17%, whereas hardware distribution globally is de-growing by 2-3%. If hardware continues to grow at 15-20% and software grows at 30-35%, the ratio could remain in the 17-25% range. Our aspiration is for SSG to reach about 25% of our business in the coming years.”

— Management, Q&A Section

Redington is avoiding expensive custom consulting and instead building standardized service packages that can be sold many times. This strategy is designed to grow service revenue by 7 to 10 times without needing a massive army of employees.

“We are not an IT-ITES company; we aren’t doing bespoke million-dollar custom deals. We are creating ‘productized services’ for AI, cloud, and security that complement our partners. Our goal is to multiply professional services 7-10x over the next few years.”

— Management, Q&A Section

A major 5-year deal with Amazon Web Services highlights Redington’s importance as a top-tier global partner. This long-term contract provides a strong foundation for future growth in the cloud and AI sectors.

“We are among the few partners globally to enter into a multibillion-dollar, 5-year Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS. This commitment focuses on partner enablement, GenAI adoption, and new customer acquisition across SMBs, startups, and the public sector.”

— Kalyan Pola, Principal Partner Development Manager, AWS

That’s it for now! Your feedback will really help shape how The Chatter evolves. Drop it down in the comments below!

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Quotes in this newsletter were curated by Meher, Shahid, & Srusti.

Disclaimer: We’ve used AI tools in filtering and cleaning up these quotes so there maybe some mistakes. Now, if you are thinking why we are using AI, please remember that we are just a small team of 5 people running everything you see on Zerodha Markets 😬 So, all the good stuff is human and mistakes are AI.

Welcome to the 63rd edition of The Chatter — a weekly newsletter where we dig through what India’s biggest companies are saying and bring you the most interesting bits of insight, whether about the business, its sector, or the wider economy. We read every major Indian earnings call and listen to the interviews so you don’t have to.

We’re always eager to improve—please share your ideas on how else we can innovate “The Chatter” format to better serve your needs.

In this edition, we have covered 11 companies across 7 industries.

Software Services

• TCS

• Hinduja Global Solutions

Engineering & Capital Goods

• Everest Kanto Cylinder

• Greenleaf Envirotech

• Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited

Auto Ancillary

• Tenneco Clean Air India Ltd.

Consumer Durables

• IFB Industries

• Srigee DLM Ltd

FMCG

• Apex Frozen Foods

Information Technology

• Dev Information Technology

Services

• CMR Green Technologies

Software Services

TCS | Large Cap | Software Services

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is a global IT services company with deep industry expertise. They offer a wide range of services including application development, digital transformation, AI, data and cloud services, engineering, cybersecurity, and products.

[ Video ]

On AI’s impact on the overall technology market.

“The total addressable market which is $1.6 trillion will go to $3 trillion. I believe eventually it will keep spreading towards the entire GDP in different markets.”

— N Chandrasekaran, Chairman

On why TCS is investing in infrastructure despite historically being asset-light.

“This is a necessary thing to be able to play an end-to-end full-stack AI solution game.”

On the operating model of future businesses.

“The metrics change for every department. How do we attract the best talent? How well we deploy AI agents? How well we work between AI and humans?”

On cybersecurity as a business opportunity.

“Cybersecurity and data privacy has a lot of opportunity and it is a big threat to all industries, all companies.”

Chandrasekaran was asked whether AI is genuinely a growth opportunity for TCS or merely another technology cycle.

“As I have mentioned, I am of the firm belief that every technology disruption enhances tech spending and is a significant opportunity for a company like TCS. But the magnitude of the possibility of AI is going to be so huge that, in my firm belief, it is the biggest opportunity TCS has had so far.”

— N Chandrasekaran, Chairman

Explaining why growth has moderated despite AI optimism.

“You will know that we have faced technology disruptions and every time there is a technology disruption there is a transition time because the clients pause the adoption of technology and you will see a slowness as growth.”

On investor concerns around IT sector valuations and growth.

“I think we have seen the worst of the last couple of years and I believe AI growth will be significant.”

Providing actual AI revenue data.

“If you look at the last four quarters, in Q2 it was $1.5 billion annualized. In Q3 $1.8 billion and in Q4 it is $2.3 billion. It is a CAGR of 22%.”

“On an annualized basis, I expect the AI-driven revenues to grow 100% on a year-on-year basis.”

Estimating AI’s share in future revenues.

“In my opinion, the answer to the question how much of the revenue will be AI-based in the next five years—I think by 2028 to 2030, 100% of the revenue will have a component of AI.”

Explaining how TCS is preparing for the AI era.

“The company is making a lot of investments not only in human talent, in producing assets, in building an AI operating system of sorts which will have AI agents for every industry and for integrating every company’s new solutions to the traditional IT footprint.”

Discussing infrastructure investments.

“The company has made the decision to invest in an AI data center and not only the one which we are setting up in India, but we are also investing in building the sovereign cloud.”

Explaining his vision of human-AI collaboration.

“If the company has half a million employees, the day is not far when the company will have half a million agents.”

One of the clearest statements on employment.

“Will it definitely lead to decrease in hiring? Absolutely. The company will not be hiring the kind of numbers that it used to hire.”

Balancing concerns around automation.

“That does not mean there are no future opportunities. Once the transition happens, the AI world will produce so much more opportunities. There will be new talent that will be required.”

On concerns regarding the US business.

“I have no doubt that the US will continue to be our largest market and we do not face any employment visa-related issues.”

On capital allocation.

“There is absolutely no hesitation on the part of the company and the board to allocate and fund large acquisitions.”

On balancing profitability and expansion.

“The company does not choose to sacrifice growth at the cost of margin.”

On long-term profitability.

“My firm belief is that this industry can comfortably operate at 25%. In fact, TCS has operated at 28% and growth is not being sacrificed.”

On how organizations will be managed in the AI era.

“If the HR department of the company had a metric on their ability to hire large numbers of talent, that metric will go away.”

— N Chandrasekaran, Chairman

Hinduja Global Solutions Limited | Mid Cap | BPM & Digital Services

Hinduja Global Solutions is a global business process management and digital services company. The company provides customer experience, digital transformation, and AI-led solutions across sectors including BFSI, healthcare, retail, and public services. It also operates a media business through NXTDIGITAL, which includes digital television and broadband services.

[Concall]

Despite flat reported revenues, management pointed to new client additions as the most significant forward-looking indicator for the business.

“FY2026 has been our strongest year ever, with 79 new clients signed on across BPM and Digital services.”

“I feel this is the best year we ever had on new logos. With these signings, we are entering FY2027 with meaningful revenue visibility.”

— Venkatesh Korla, Global CEO, HGS / Mahesh Kumar Nutalapati, Global CFO, HGS

The company’s proprietary AI deployment model is built around a 90-day production commitment rather than open-ended pilots, with shared risk as a key differentiator.

“Realized AI is HGS’s operating model for deploying AI in production. Not experimentation. It’s a risk that is shared and not transferred to the customer. We pick one client process, identify the problem, and solve it. And we take it from zero to production in 90 days.”

— Venkatesh Korla, Global CEO, HGS

AgentX, the company’s agentic AI platform, has moved beyond pilots and is now embedded in live client operations across 23 customers.

“Today, AgentX™ is moving from capability to scale. We now have 23 active customers and 21 AI assistants in production.”

“Importantly, these are not pilots anymore. They are embedded into real workflows in client operations.”

— Venkatesh Korla, Global CEO, HGS

The broadband enterprise business, CelerityX, delivered significant growth and is being positioned as a primary engine for the media segment going forward.

“CelerityX, which is the enterprise broadband business that we developed barely a year and a half ago, revenues have increased for the enterprise business by 2x this year. The total contract value has increased by 5x.”

— Vynsley Fernandes, Whole Time Director, HGS & CEO, NXTDIGITAL Media Business

The company signed an MoU with the Uttar Pradesh government for Project Ganga, a large-scale broadband rollout targeting two million households through locally trained digital entrepreneurs.

“Project Ganga is basically a large-scale digital inclusion initiative in the state to be able to provide that connectivity.”

“When the project is completed, over 2 million households across the state of Uttar Pradesh will get connected with high-speed broadband over the next two to three years.”

— Vynsley Fernandes, Whole Time Director, HGS & CEO, NXTDIGITAL Media Business

A positive shift in broadband customer behaviour is visible, with more users opting for higher-speed plans at the point of sign-up, reflecting improved affordability and rising data consumption.

“About a year ago, 10.7% of our users were in the high-speed segment above 100 Mbps, and this has now risen to 15%.”

“From 54% last year, entry-level plan subscribers have dropped to 46%, signalling that more consumers are adopting a higher base plan at start.”

— Vynsley Fernandes, Whole Time Director, HGS & CEO, NXTDIGITAL Media Business

The company’s net treasury and cash surplus of Rs. 5,346 crores gives management the flexibility to fund strategic investments without compromising shareholder returns.

“Net treasury and cash surplus stood at around Rs. 5,346 crores, which gives us enough flexibility for us to invest behind the realized AI framework and Project Ganga without compromising returns.”

— Mahesh Kumar Nutalapati, Global CFO, HGS

Despite a negative standalone EPS for FY2026, management recommended a dividend as a signal of confidence in the company’s trajectory.

“We see improved performance and as we have the company generating profitability this year through its deployed assets, we think that with the improved performance and future outlook, we are recommending to declare dividends to share the value with the shareholders.”

“There’s enough cash assets in the company and we are not concerned about shortage of funds as we go through the transformation.”

— Venkatesh Korla, Global CEO, HGS

Engineering & Capital Goods

Everest Kanto Cylinder | Micro Cap | Engineering & Capital Goods

Everest Kanto Cylinder (EKC) is a company with manufacturing units in India and the Middle East. They manufacture various industrial cylinders for gases like oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, among others, as well as allied products. EKC also produces CNG cylinders for vehicles and beverage cylinders. They are involved in the manufacturing of a wide range of industrial equipment.

[Concall]

Investors questioned the prolonged weakness in the Dubai operations. Management acknowledged operational challenges but emphasized that demand remains intact and order visibility is improving.

“Definitely there will be improvement. Even in this difficult situation, we are working at around 50% and the order book is improving.”

“The order book is there. Only thing is that the Middle East situation on shipment and other things are difficult.”

“Hopefully, this year should be a better year.”

— Puneet Khurana, Managing Director

Investors raised concerns about higher LNG costs and rising CNG prices. Management believes the economics of CNG remain attractive relative to petrol.

“The PV market mainly will depend on how the petrol prices move.”

“Customer I do not think will leave CNG if the prices are still not moved up so much.”

“The increase is not so substantial.”

“There should not be much impact on the PV sales.”

— Puneet Khurana, Managing Director

Given Everest Kanto’s larger exposure to commercial vehicles, management was asked whether higher gas prices could hurt fleet adoption.

“Yes, even on the commercial segment, commercial segment is also continuing good.”

— Puneet Khurana, Managing Director

Management provided an update on the ongoing GST matter.

“Our cases, we (industry) have also made a representation to the government in this regard, seeking a clarification on the HSN of the product manufactured.”

“So, we are very positive on the same.”

“Timeline can be between 6 months to a year.”

— Sanjiv Kapur, Whole-Time Director & CFO

During the opening remarks, management highlighted a favorable shift in product mix.

“We also saw encouraging traction in higher value-added segments such as semiconductors and defence, which contributed positively to our product mix and supported overall margin expansion.”

— Puneet Khurana, Managing Director

Management remains constructive on growth prospects in North America.

“The US business maintained steady momentum during the year, supported by a healthy order pipeline and growing opportunities in clean energy and specialised industrial applications.”

— Puneet Khurana, Managing Director

The company outlined its broader strategic opportunity set beyond automotive CNG.

“Beyond CNG-led mobility, opportunities across industrial gases, compressed biogas, hydrogen, semiconductors and defence are expanding the addressable market for high-pressure gas storage and transportation solutions.”

— Puneet Khurana, Managing Director

While EV adoption continues, management believes gas-based mobility will continue to play an important role in India’s energy transition.

“Over the medium to long term, India is expected to remain a multi-fuel economy, with gas playing an important role in mobility and the broader energy transition.”

— Puneet Khurana, Managing Director

Management highlighted an important industry trend supporting long-term cylinder demand.

“As per industry reports, CNG accounted for nearly 22% of passenger vehicle sales in FY2026, emerging as the second-largest fuel type in the segment for the second consecutive year and staying ahead of diesel.”

— Puneet Khurana, Managing Director

This suggests growth is becoming more diversified beyond automotive CNG cylinders.

“Our India business continued to witness strong demand across both CNG and industrial gas applications, with industrial applications seeing a healthy increase during the year.”

— Puneet Khurana, Managing Director

Management made it clear that logistics disruptions are the bottleneck.

“The order book is there.”

“Only thing is that the Middle East situation on shipment and other things are difficult.”

— Puneet Khurana, Managing Director

Greenleaf Envirotech | Small Cap | Environmental Infrastructure & Services

Greenleaf Envirotech is a Gujarat-based environmental infrastructure company specialising in wastewater treatment, environmental engineering, laboratory services, and compliance consulting. Over 15 years, it has built long-term relationships with clients like L&T, Reliance, Tata Motors, and Maruti Suzuki. The company is now transitioning from a pure EPC model toward owning and operating environmental infrastructure, while expanding into ESG consulting and circular economy services.

[Concall]

Management described the company’s multi-service model not as a diversification strategy but as different stages of the same value chain, designed to deepen and extend client relationships over time.

“Our laboratory business allows us to engage with customers before a project begins. Our consulting and compliance services help them navigate regulatory requirements. Our engineering and EPC capability help create the infrastructure. Our O&M services allow us to remain involved long after project commissioning.”

“The objective is not to participate in single projects. The objective is to build long-term customer relationships across multiple stages of the environmental journey.”

— Kalpesh Gopti, Chairman & MD, Greenleaf Envirotech

Management provided clear margin discipline guidance, with a hard floor on project bids that anchors the profitability outlook.

“For new orders, we generally bid for projects at a 15% to 20% gross margin. We are not taking any project below a 15% gross margin. So, we will always maintain between 15% and 20% EBITDA for all projects, both existing and new.”

— Kalpesh Gopti, Chairman & MD, Greenleaf Envirotech

The CETP model carries a 25 to 30-year operational runway with inflation-linked pricing after the initial two-year commitment period, and capacity can be doubled in Phase 2.

“Currently in Phase 1, we have developed a capacity for 4,000 textile machines, but in Phase 2, we can increase that up to 8,000. So, this project will continue to serve the textile industries in that particular region for approximately 25 to 30 years.”

“The monthly charges are only committed for the first 2 years, and thereafter we can increase them based on inflation and our costs.”

— Kalpesh Gopti, Chairman & MD, Greenleaf Envirotech

Management sees no meaningful increase in competitive intensity, pointing instead to a massive expansion of government spending on water infrastructure as a demand tailwind that benefits all serious EPC players.

“The Ministry of Jal Shakti has allotted around 94,000 crores in this financial year for the development of water and wastewater-related infrastructure. This gives a huge opportunity to all EPC players. So, I do not see an increase in competition.”

— Kalpesh Gopti, Chairman & MD, Greenleaf Envirotech

Court-ordered industrial closures for non-compliance are creating a new category of forced private-sector demand for wastewater treatment infrastructure, independent of government budgets.

“In a textile industry cluster in Jodhpur, the High Court ordered the closure of 300 industries because they were discharging untreated water into the river. All of them now have to adopt this wastewater treatment infrastructure, which will create opportunities for a company like ours.”

— Kalpesh Gopti, Chairman & MD, Greenleaf Envirotech

Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited | Mid Cap | Lubricants

Gulf Oil Lubricants India is a leading lubricant manufacturer serving automotive, industrial, and OEM customers across India. The company is focused on gaining market share through volume-led growth, capacity expansion, and new opportunities in emerging segments such as data-centre cooling fluids.

[Reference]

The company significantly outperformed industry growth in FY26, driven by strong execution across segments and continued market share gains. Management expects the growth momentum to continue despite a challenging macroeconomic environment.

“In the year we grew 10.5% but quarter 4 was about 14% growth. Volume for us has always been more than 2x of the industry but happy to share that quarter 4 went into 3x plus. Most of our segments we are seeing positive and our strategies are well working in the market.”

— Ravi Chawla, MD & CEO, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited

Management highlighted unprecedented cost inflation across key raw materials but believes pricing actions and operational discipline will help protect profitability. The company continues to actively manage margins while maintaining growth.

“We’ve seen unprecedented cost increase right from packaging material to our base oils which go similar to crude and chemicals which are additives. There has been significant increases happening on a monthly basis and we are passing on what the cost increase is and trying to manage our margins.”

— Ravi Chawla, MD & CEO, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited

The company is investing ahead of demand with a major capacity expansion program designed to support future growth. Management expects the new capacity to support business requirements for the next several years while enabling continued market share gains.

“Both our plants are actually working on a three shift basis. So we are adding capacity of 70%. Given the growth we have normally which is 2 to 3x of the industry, this capacity enhancement will help and meet our next three four years plans.”

— Ravi Chawla, MD & CEO, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited

Management believes supply chain reliability is becoming a critical competitive advantage. The company’s strong sourcing capabilities and OEM relationships position it well to navigate ongoing market volatility.

“We are also in a very good position supply-wise in terms of getting the supply chain right and able to meet the need of our B2B customers. We have about 40 plus OEMs and that is very important to get the supply security because that is what customers and our business partners look for.”

— Ravi Chawla, MD & CEO, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited

The company is preparing for emerging opportunities in data-center cooling through specialized liquid-cooling products. While the addressable market remains small today, management expects the segment to grow and is already engaged in product validation with customers.

“We have two products ready. We are now talking to actual data centers to put our product in terms of validation. We will make a play in that and hopefully be able to announce some sort of tie-ups in a few months.”

— Ravi Chawla, MD & CEO, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited

Auto Ancillary

Tenneco Clean Air India | Small Cap | Auto Ancillary

Tenneco Clean Air India Ltd. (TCAIL), founded in 1979 and part of U.S.-based Tenneco Group, designs and manufactures clean air, powertrain, and suspension solutions for Indian and global OEMs. It leads in CT, OH, and PV segments and exports across major global markets.

[Concall]

One of the most important comments from the call. The company highlighted that its current order book already provides complete visibility on its internal FY28 revenue plan and supports double-digit growth over the medium term.

“As of March 31, 2026, our lifetime order book stands at INR124,000 million after accounting for net additions and programs that commenced production this year.”

“This provides 100% visibility of our FY2028 internal revenue target and underpins a double-digit growth trajectory over the medium term.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

The company expects exports to become a key pillar of growth driven by China+1 diversification, technology parity and cost competitiveness.

“Clearly, exports is going to be a very key vector of growth for us beyond content per vehicle.”

“Our exports are coming in way stronger than our current level of exports.”

“They’re coming in very strong on both the Clean Air Powertrain side and also on the shock absorber side.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

This was one of the boldest product-related statements made during the call.

“We are hopefully targeting somewhere about 50% of that to be able to disrupt.”

“The OEM interest has been very, very significant.”

“The feedback has been fantastic.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management suggested that customer interest has accelerated beyond the initial launch customer.

“The traction is so good that we have three to four OEMs that are already interested in our product.”

“This covers Indian OEMs, Japanese and also Korean OEMs... and also European OEMs.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

This is arguably the biggest regulatory growth opportunity discussed during the call.

“The addressable market, if you look at CAFE 3 and BS7, is as much as 1,300 to 1,400 crores of additional content per vehicle.”

“That’s something that we’re going to target.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Tenneco has historically not supplied Clean Air products to the largest passenger vehicle OEM in India, limiting growth. That changes with a new gasoline particulate filter program.

“We have already secured entry into the supplier panel for this largest PV OEM in India.”

“Due to CAFE norms with a Gasoline Particulate Filter.”

“We’re hoping that once we enter the panel, our growth will increase quite a bit.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Contrary to concerns that electrification may hurt Clean Air suppliers, Tenneco believes hybrids are a net positive.

“For hybrid vehicles... our content can go from X to 1.5 to even 2X.”

“Hybrid vehicles actually can have the effect of taking our content from X to 1.5 to even 2X.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management offered a notable industry view on powertrain evolution.

“The markets in the US and Europe are sliding back from an EV to more of a compromise.”

“They’re going more to a hybrid or a range extender solution.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management views the weaker rupee as a structural advantage for export competitiveness.

“A depreciation of the rupee can also be a blessing in disguise.”

“It makes our products more competitive.”

“I see this as an immediate 15% to 20% improvement in our ability to compete in the global market.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management explained why it consistently delivers industry-leading ROCE and margins.

“The flexibility is so unique and everything is so standardized.”

“That gives us a unique competitive advantage.”

“The time to market is faster, the cost of that product is less, the margins are better, and the capital efficiency is the highest.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management explicitly linked future export growth to global OEMs diversifying sourcing away from China.

“Many of the OEMs from a China plus one diversification or let’s call it supply chain diversification standpoint are looking to India as a source for products, and we are also benefiting from that.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

This is an important enabler for exports because Indian facilities can now manufacture products meeting global standards, achieving technology parity with Europe in key product categories, .

“India is now equal in technology, whether you look at Clean Air exhaust systems or with shock absorbers.”

“The same essential products can be exported.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management stressed that the significance lies in entering the supplier panel of a major Japanese OEM.

“It was difficult to get into this particular customer bearings for a very long time.”

“The fact that we have been able to enter the supplier panel is very strategic for us.”

“Which means we can now grow with this Japanese customer in a bigger way.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Useful insight into why management is excited about CV and off-highway opportunities.

“If the car typical passenger vehicle exhaust system is at X, a commercial system exhaust could be somewhere between 3X to 4X.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

One of the most striking content-per-vehicle observations from the call.

“Some of the real low volume applications like construction equipment can be even like 10 to 15X.”

“Because they really need very, very strong aftertreatment.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

This is effectively management’s long-term thesis for the suspension business.

“Cars moved to SUVs, but the premiumization of SUVs never happened.”

“But that’s changing dramatically.”

“This is where Tenneco comes in.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management ruled out competing purely on price in new categories.

“If we do enter the two-wheeler market for Clean Air or for suspension, it will be something that brings something unique to that segment.”

“We don’t have to play a commodity price game.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Management tied localization directly to profitability.

“Localization is very important because that’s where our profit margins come from.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

The company intends to maintain very high local sourcing levels even as it introduces new technologies.

“Currently, our localization is about 89%, 90% level.”

“We want to keep that.”

— Arvind Chandrasekharan, Whole-Time Director & CEO

Consumer Durables

IFB Industries | Mid Cap | Consumer Durables

IFB Industries is a diversified manufacturer best known for its premium front-load washing machines, with a growing presence in air conditioners, microwaves, refrigerators, and dishwashers. The company also runs an engineering division supplying fine-blanked components to the automotive industry. IFB has been investing in capacity expansion and portfolio premiumization as it pushes deeper into the home appliances market.

[Concall]

The new MD and CEO of the Home Appliances Division, in his first earnings call, outlined a back-to-basics agenda centred on distribution intensity, SKU rationalisation, and plugging trade scheme leakages rather than new strategic initiatives.

“My priority is to ensure the processes the team already put into place are tightened further. We are focusing on improving cost structures, managing the dealer network, and plugging leakages in trade schemes.”

“We have identified approximately 10,500 outlets that contribute the most volume. Now we must maximize placement and extraction from those outlets.”

— Sandeep Joseph Abraham, MD & CEO, Home Appliances Division, IFB Industries

Commodity and forex pressures have continued into the new financial year, with a Rs. 49 crore negative impact already visible in April and May alone, partially offset by Rs. 29 crores of cost measures and Q1 price increases.

“Raw material costs are increasing further, including both commodities and forex. April and May are seeing a negative impact that has not yet been fully offset by our cost initiatives.”

“For April and May, the cumulative negative impact from commodities and forex was approximately 49 crores.”

— Sandeep Joseph Abraham, MD & CEO, Home Appliances Division, IFB Industries

The company’s 23% front-loader market share is understated because IFB does not currently compete in the 12 kg segment, which has grown to represent 13% of the overall market. Launches in the 13 kg and 14 kg categories are planned for later this year.

“Our front loader market share is about 23%. This is despite not operating in the 12 kg category, which is 13% of the market. If you exclude that 12 kg segment, our share would be about 25.5% to 26%.”

“We will be plugging that gap this year by launching 13 kg and 14 kg products.”

— Sandeep Joseph Abraham, MD & CEO, Home Appliances Division, IFB Industries

The brand is management’s primary confidence anchor for expanding into new categories, with the argument that established outlet relationships from washing machines reduce the entry barrier for ACs and refrigerators.

“In categories where we have entered, we have achieved significant share because our products are well-received. The IFB umbrella brand stands for quality products and service, which is our biggest asset.”

“If we have succeeded in washing machines, microwaves, and dishwashers, we believe customers will see an IFB AC as a great investment.”

— Sandeep Joseph Abraham, MD & CEO, Home Appliances Division, IFB Industries

The Engineering division is targeting 20% to 25% revenue growth over the next two to three years, supported by capacity additions and new product lines including EV battery packs, motorcycle chains, and brake discs mandated under new legislation.

“Over the next 2 to 3 years, we plan for 20% to 25% growth in existing business. We are also adding new revenue streams like EV battery packs, motorcycle chains, and brake discs, which have become mandatory under new legislation.”

— Jayanto Patnaik, Engineering Division, IFB Industries

The engineering division’s new order win target for FY2027 has been raised to Rs. 350 crores, more than double last year’s Rs. 153 crore actual, with management attributing the FY2026 miss to the long validation cycles inherent in the B2B automotive supply chain.

“Order maturity in the Engineering business takes time. Supplies only start after a 7 to 8-month validation period for drawings and samples.”

“For FY27, we have a 350 crore target for new orders. Many are already in the validation stage.”

— Jayanto Patnaik / Amit Ghosh, Engineering Division, IFB Industries

Srigee DLM | Nano Cap | Consumer Durables

Srigee DLM provides end-to-end plastic manufacturing solutions with a design-driven approach to enhance functionality and manufacturability. They serve both OEM and ODM clients, offering comprehensive services in the plastic manufacturing industry.

[Concall]

Management attributed growth constraints primarily to lack of manufacturing space rather than lack of demand.

“The performance we achieved is based on our existing capacity utilization, which is over 100%.”

“When we expand, the rent we are currently paying will be saved and become income.”

“Moreover, with more space, we can add more customers and products.”

— Suresh Kumar Singh, Whole-Time Director

The expansion is the central growth driver for the next phase of the business.

“We are moving to a new facility with a plot size of 10,850 square meters, which is 4 times our current size.”

— Suresh Kumar Singh, Whole-Time Director

Management sees polymer compounding as one of the biggest growth opportunities within the company.

“We plan to expand this in this year when we move to the new facility.”

“Our plan is to increase production capacity to 150 metric tons.”

“We are eyeing approximately a 3x expansion in this polymer compounding sector.”

— Suresh Kumar Singh, Whole-Time Director

Management indicated that while mobile assembly is not the largest revenue contributor yet, it generates the best profitability.

“If you ask which segment has the highest margins among the four verticals, it would be mobile phone assembly.”

— Suresh Kumar Singh, Whole-Time Director

Management suggested current volumes represent only a small share of the potential opportunity.

“Samsung is currently assembling more than 10 lakh phones and my contribution is not even 10%.”

“My customer told me that if I provide more space, they will increase my business.”

— Suresh Kumar Singh, Whole-Time Director

Management acknowledged dependence on a few customers and intends to diversify.

“Last year, 95% of revenue came from these top customers, which has now gone down to 91%.”

“It is in our focus area to reduce this and ensure an equitable distribution among customers.”

— Suresh Kumar Singh, Whole-Time Director

Management proactively stocked raw materials ahead of price spikes linked to geopolitical tensions.

“The major impact is on the polymer business.”

“We made very large purchases of polymer in February and March to nullify the effect of the war.”

“In March, polymer prices shot up 3 times.”

— Suresh Kumar Singh, Whole-Time Director

Management sees the business as a double-margin opportunity.

“I am already saving 10 rupees there.”

“That 10% saving becomes my income.”

“My linkages with other customers will allow me to sell the product in a trading format.”

“This is a double benefit for me.”

— Suresh Kumar Singh, Whole-Time Director

Management is looking beyond coolers and mobile assembly for diversification.

“We are expecting a hand blender segment and a home appliances segment.”

“Yes, we will do something beyond coolers.”

“We are in talks regarding the hand blender segment and the mixer-grinder segment.”

— Suresh Kumar Singh, Whole-Time Director

A proactive inventory decision driven by geopolitical concerns.

“We knew the impact would hit polymer prices, so we rushed to buy as much material as possible.”

— Suresh Kumar Singh, Whole-Time Director

FMCG

Apex Frozen Foods | Micro Cap | FMCG

Apex Frozen Foods Limited is a leading exporter of processed L. Vannamei and Black Tiger shrimp, with a strong presence in the value chain. The company has strategically focused on backward integration and value addition, positioning itself as a premier supplier of high-quality shrimp.

[Concall]

This is arguably the biggest strategic shift in Apex’s business model. The company has spent years diversifying away from U.S. dependence, and FY26 marks an inflection point.

“For the first time in Apex’s history, non-U.S. export markets became the largest contributor to sales in FY ‘26, accounting for almost 52% of the total sales mix.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

While the U.S. market faced tariffs and logistics disruptions, Europe continued to absorb additional volumes.

“Despite softness in the U.S. market, we were able to maintain our volumes close to last year’s levels of 10,300 metric tons, backed by robust performance in the non-U.S. markets, mainly European Union, which grew 19% year-on-year in FY ‘26 and 15% year-on-year in Q4 FY ‘26.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

This is one of the strongest forward-looking comments on the call and indicates management’s internal expectations.

“We have originally envisaged, of course, growth by almost 30% in volume terms.”

“But we need to see how that goes between quarters.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

Management suggested the recovery is no longer theoretical and is already visible in the order book.

“We are getting back our orders into the U.S. already post removal or rather reduction of tariffs to 10%, because all the shrimp supplying countries are on the same level playing field as far as the tariff is concerned.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

This provides a timeline for one of the biggest structural catalysts discussed on the call.

“I think UK will be the first one to implement sometime soon, very soon and followed by EU more towards maybe the end of this calendar year.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

FTAs were repeatedly cited as a critical medium-term growth catalyst.

“They will definitely help us to gain more volumes out of the EU, especially.”

“We are well placed with regard to having a good market share and actually growing them further also in the European Union.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

This suggests the company can grow significantly without major capacity expansion.

“We still have a good headroom for growth because of our overall utilization of capacities also being currently at only at 30% for the full year.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

Management highlighted approvals for new geographies beyond traditional markets.

“Both our facilities, one after the other, are also getting approved for newer markets like Russia also.”

“We are definitely looking on multiple fronts, not just the traditional markets.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

A key strategic lesson management says it learned from recent disruptions.

“Since we cannot depend on just one market excessively, which has already been taught to us as a lesson, that’s one of the reasons why diversification also helps us.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

Important for modeling profitability and export economics.

“We believe it’s going to remain around that level.”

“Between 5%, 5.5% to 6%.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

Management highlighted that vessel availability is a larger issue than costs.

“More than the cost increase, it is becoming a little bit of challenge with regard to support from the shipping lines.”

“Equipment is not available because of the crisis in the Middle East.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

Management repeatedly highlighted forex gains as a meaningful earnings driver.

“The net gain of foreign exchange difference in the current year was quite high, mainly attributed to the depreciation of the exchange rate currency currently.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

An important comment on industry pricing behavior and margin retention.

“It’s not really a point that there is a depreciation in the currency, it will be passed on to the customer.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

One of the more useful disclosures for analysts tracking industry pricing.

“For last year, it was $9.5 to $9.7.”

“But now currently, it is around $9.1 per kilo.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

This was a notable industry observation and counters concerns about farmer distress.

“Comparing India’s farm gate pricing to many other countries, we are still higher, actually, at this point.”

“We are paying higher prices to the farmers in the country compared to many other countries.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

This can affect quarterly volume recognition even if demand remains intact.

“Our shipments do get postponed by anywhere between, let’s say, 3 to 5 days.”

“Which means it is spillover to the next week.”

— Chowdary Karuturi, Managing Director & CFO

Information Technology

Dev Information Technology | Small Cap | IT Services

Dev Information Technology is an Ahmedabad-based end-to-end IT services company founded in 1997, offering cloud, AI, blockchain, cybersecurity, enterprise applications, and managed IT services. The company serves a mix of Indian government agencies, domestic corporates, and international clients, with a growing focus on Microsoft technologies. FY26 was deliberately a consolidation year, as management chose to prioritize the India market over exports amid geopolitical uncertainty, while simultaneously laying the groundwork for a North America push through the Xduce Infotech partnership.

[Concall]

The company’s most significant strategic move in FY2026 was the Xduce partnership, which gives Dev IT its first meaningful onsite presence in North America and the UK after nearly three decades as a purely offshore business.

“Dev IT was totally an offshore business and we wanted to have our onsite presence so that we can have onsite and offsite hybrid business styles as well as acquire more enterprise-level customers from the North America and UK regions.”

“Xduce, being a company with over 20 years of presence in the USA and in the UK, is extremely focused on enterprise-led customer acquisition.”

— Jaimin Shah, Managing Director & CEO, Dev Information Technology

Management provided a clear revenue-sharing model for joint deals, with the bulk of the economics flowing back to Dev IT as the offshore delivery engine.

“For all non-India matters, it will be front-ended by Xduce, and their entire offshore development will be done by Dev IT. The split will be 20:80. So 80% comes to Dev IT and 20% remains with Xduce.”

— Jaimin Shah, Managing Director & CEO, Dev Information Technology

Achieving all six Microsoft Solution Partner designations puts Dev IT in a small group globally and is already translating into inbound enterprise deal flow that would not have been accessible otherwise.

“When I asked ChatGPT about North America, it was around 5% of the total Microsoft partner ecosystem that had achieved all six competencies. So that is the uniqueness.”

“One of our customers, which is a leading sugar processing company in Texas, approached us through the Microsoft platform because we have achieved these competencies. We were able to close that 600,000 to 700,000 dollar business, which is significant for Dev IT prior to the Xduce integration.”

— Jaimin Shah, Managing Director & CEO, Dev Information Technology

Management’s revenue guidance for FY2027 is flat at around Rs. 200 crores, with meaningful growth expected only from FY2028 as international integrations mature.

“We are expecting around 200 crores worth of revenue for the current year. For next year, we are expecting around 15-20% growth from the current year.”

— Jaimin Shah, Managing Director & CEO, Dev Information Technology

Services

CMR Green Technologies | Small Cap | Metal Recycling

CMR Green Technologies is one of India’s leading recycled aluminium manufacturers, serving automotive and industrial customers through a circular-economy business model. Speaking after the company’s strong stock market debut following an IPO that was subscribed over 127 times, management outlined its growth plans, sustainability advantages, and expansion into newer aluminium recycling segments.

[Reference]

Management believes recycled aluminium is positioned at the center of the global decarbonization trend due to its dramatically lower carbon footprint compared to primary aluminium. Combined with aluminium’s infinite recyclability and growing consumption across industries, the company sees a long runway for sustained growth in the recycling sector.

“Recycled aluminium has the biggest decarbonization impact. The carbon generation is only 290 kgs against 16,000 kgs in the case of primary aluminium. So there is a very strong focus whenever we talk about sustainability and decarbonization. Aluminium comes in as number one.”

— Mohan Agarwal, CMD, CMR Green Technologies

Management remains highly optimistic about the future of the recycling industry, viewing the existing stock of aluminium in use as a perpetual source of raw material. This structural advantage, coupled with decades of industry experience, underpins the company’s confidence in long-term growth.

“There is a huge amount of aluminium in use today. All of which is going to come back into recycling not once but a number of times. So it’s a mine above the earth. We will keep getting more and more feed and we’ll keep producing more and more recycled products for our customers. I am ever so bullish on growth.”

— Mohan Agarwal, CMD, CMR Green Technologies

Management indicated that current cash generation is sufficient to fund ongoing capital expenditure requirements. However, becoming a listed company provides the flexibility to pursue significantly larger growth opportunities in the future without being constrained by internal resources alone.

“Basically, our business generates enough cash to fund our capex, but whenever we get a large opportunity going forward, one of the reasons for becoming a public company is that we can look for larger growth opportunities. Something that we had been kind of leaving in the past, being constrained by our ability to pursue those large opportunities. But being a public company, we should be able to now pursue those larger opportunities as they come, and we can always come back to the market to raise primary when we need it.”

— Mohan Agarwal, CMD, CMR Green Technologies

That’s it for now! Your feedback will really help shape how The Chatter evolves. Drop it down in the comments below!

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Quotes in this newsletter were curated by Meher, Shahid, & Srusti.

Disclaimer: We’ve used AI tools in filtering and cleaning up these quotes so there maybe some mistakes. Now, if you are thinking why we are using AI, please remember that we are just a small team of 5 people running everything you see on Zerodha Markets 😬 So, all the good stuff is human and mistakes are AI.

Welcome to the 62nd edition of The Chatter — a weekly newsletter where we dig through what India’s biggest companies are saying and bring you the most interesting bits of insight, whether about the business, its sector, or the wider economy. We read every major Indian earnings call and listen to the interviews so you don’t have to.

We’re always eager to improve—please share your ideas on how else we can innovate “The Chatter” format to better serve your needs.

In this edition, we have covered 14 companies across 10 industries.

Building Materials

• Asian Paints

Metals

• NMDC Limited

Aviation

• Interglobe Aviation Limited

• Dreamfolks Services Ltd

Healthcare

• Glenmark Pharmaceuticals

• Wockhardt

Retail

• Bata India Ltd

Engineering & Capital Goods

• Cummins India

• Siemens

• Titagarh Rail Systems Limited

Software Services

• Happiest Minds Technologies

FMCG

• Tilaknagar Industries Limited

Media & Entertainment

• Signpost India Limited

Software Services

• Meta Infotech Limited

Building Materials

Asian Paints | Large Cap | Building Materials

Asian Paints is a company that manufactures and distributes a wide range of paints for decorative and industrial use. They are present in various segments including Interior Wall Finishes, Exterior Wall Finishes, Enamels, and Wood Finishes. They also offer products related to home decor, bath fittings, kitchen, and wardrobe, along with providing services like waterproofing, wall coverings, and adhesives.

[Concall]

One of the most important outlook comments from the call. Despite a tougher pricing environment and elevated competition, management remains confident of sustaining healthy volume growth.

“We expect at least some part of this demand to sustain in the market. And we have been seeing some early shoots in the months of April and May.”

“Going forward, we are still looking at least a high single-digit volume growth in terms of what we would kind of achieve.”

“We are still confident that demand conditions should continue giving us closer to high single-digit volume growth in the band of about 8-10%.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

Management revealed that raw material inflation and currency depreciation have created much higher cost pressures than what has been passed on through pricing.

“We feel that the impact is much higher, maybe closer to about 20% or so. We have passed on around 11%.”

“We are looking at further price increases, which might happen in the market, as we go ahead.”

“At the same time, we do not intend to look at passing out the entire impact so that we can maintain a balance between inflation in the market and what we can really absorb.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

This is perhaps the clearest commentary on the current competitive environment. Management indicated that discounting continues aggressively across the market.

“Despite the inflationary environment that we are seeing and despite the price increases that we have taken, we have not seen any let-up in terms of the discounting in the market.”

“The discounting intensity stays whether it is retailers, whether it is contractors, whether it is other stakeholders.”

“When I mentioned competitive intensity, I meant about the whole area of discounting, which, according to us, will continue.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

Asian Paints highlighted the strategic significance of its VAM-VAE project, which should strengthen innovation capabilities and reduce dependence on imports.

“Today, worldwide, there are very limited players who are making VAM-VAE, and for us, it is a signature project.”

“We expect to commission first phase in the first half of this year.”

“The VAM-VAE project will bring to us very strong innovation capabilities in the market and really change the fabric of the market from the area of looking at green paints in a strong manner.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

Management sees infrastructure spending, manufacturing investments and government capex driving stronger growth in industrial coatings.

“Industrial coatings will continue to grow much higher than decorative, given the investment happening in the infrastructure and Government spending that is happening in this area.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

The company highlighted strong traction from builders, factories and government-led infrastructure projects.

“This has been stellar in terms of how it has been able to do.”

“This has now become a very strong growth vehicle, from the point of view of a builder segment, the factory segment and the government segment.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

Management indicated that demand recovery is broad-based but rural markets are currently growing faster.

“We got good growth both in rural and urban centers across.”

“Rural was a little bit ahead of urban growth of what we could really get in.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

Premium and luxury categories continue to gain traction despite a challenging macro environment.

“The premiumization strategy has been working very well.”

“It improved the mix, and the PreLux categories have moved quite well improving the mix.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

The company remains cautious on raw materials and geopolitical developments heading into FY27.

“We have seen obviously very high volatile macro conditions in the market.”

“The geopolitical situation is very dicey.”

“We have already seen a very high inflation in the market and that is something which is to be watched out day in day out.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

Management is not expecting competition to ease despite industry-wide price hikes and inflationary pressures. In fact, it expects a more crowded market going forward.

“The competitive intensity in the market is going to be strong, and we feel that it is something that will continue.”

“We have the consolidated players now who have been trying to align and come out with a unified strategy. We also have newer competition in the market, and the existing players are also equally intense in the market.”

“We feel that the competitive intensity will continue to grow in terms of how we see the year ahead.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

Despite concerns around inflation and geopolitical uncertainty, management is seeing healthy secondary demand in the early part of FY27.

“We have been seeing some early shoots in the months of April and May.”

“We expect at least some part of this demand to sustain in the market.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

Asian Paints is increasingly targeting airports, ports, tunnels and large infrastructure assets.

“We have moved very strongly into parallel spaces where we looked at large builders, large factories, large hospitality areas and also the whole area of the government.”

“Today every airport, every port, every tunnel which we are approaching and looking at participating in the growth story.”

“We think this is a very high-growth segment.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

Despite challenges in the home décor segment, management remains committed to building a broader home-improvement platform.

“We have been struggling a little bit in this area over a period of time, and this is one strong zone which we are not leaving so easily.”

“We are today the number one integrated home player.”

— Amit Syngle, Managing Director & CEO

Metals

NMDC Limited | Large Cap | Mining - Iron Ore

NMDC Limited is India’s largest iron ore producer and a Navratna public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Steel. The company operates highly mechanized iron ore mines and is currently diversifying into coal production and critical minerals to reach a 100 million tonne capacity target.

[Concall]

The company is aggressively accelerating its spending to build the infrastructure needed for its massive capacity expansion. This surge in capital expenditure confirms management’s commitment to reaching their 100 million tonne goal.

“The capex this year has been around INR3,300 crores, which is an all-time high capex because if you leave out the land acquisition this time, and we hope that this year we’ll be able to substantially increase our capex, almost double the capex now because all our expansion plans right now are on the ground.”

— Amitava Mukherjee, Chairman and Managing Director

The successful opening of the new Deposit 4 mine marks a critical milestone in adding fresh production capacity. Investors should watch for the July commencement as a catalyst for volume growth in the current fiscal year.

“Deposit 4, as you know, we have already opened and we are now installing the infrastructure. We hope to have commercial mining commencing on July, that’s in Q2. And this year, I think the guidance would be around 1 million ton out of Deposit 4.”

— Amitava Mukherjee, Chairman and Managing Director

NMDC is introducing a new strategy to sell ‘branded’ iron ore with highly consistent specifications. This product differentiation could allow the company to charge premium prices and improve profit margins.

“NMDC would be the first company in 3 years’ time will be selling branded iron ore and board has already sanctioned an investment proposal for INR3,000 crores approximately for making a blending yard at Vizag where we will be making this blended iron ore of a consistent quality which India has never seen.”

— Amitava Mukherjee, Chairman and Managing Director

Improvements in railway infrastructure are set to significantly boost the amount of ore NMDC can transport to its customers. Resolving these logistics bottlenecks is essential for the company to convert its increased production into actual sales.

“Once it is done and now also you see we are doing on an average more than 20 rakes and on peak around 23, 24, 25, 26 rakes. The capacity of course will increase to around 40 million ton immediately once it is done from the present 28 to 30.”

— Amitava Mukherjee, Chairman and Managing Director

Management is actively looking to purchase mineral assets in foreign countries to diversify their portfolio. This move into global markets represents a new phase of growth and potential risk for the company’s capital allocation.

“But I think overall the capex on acquisition, the back of the envelope calculation is wherever we stand today as of today, we should be spending INR2,000 crores to INR3,000 crores on acquisition of assets abroad this year.”

— Amitava Mukherjee, Chairman and Managing Director

The company has started the new fiscal year with strong momentum, showing 15% growth in production during the first two months. This early outperformance gives investors confidence that the full-year target of 60 million tonnes is achievable.

“So we have already touched almost 10 million tons in the first two months as against 8. something, 8.2 or something last year. This month itself I think we’ve already declared to the stock exchange I guess, so I can say this today’s first, we have done 5.3 million ton against what we did 4.4-million-ton last year.”

— Amitava Mukherjee, Chairman and Managing Director

NMDC’s ore possesses a unique chemical advantage that makes it essential for steelmakers, even those who own their own mines. This high product quality ensures that the company will face strong, consistent demand regardless of competition.

“Our phosphorus content is 0.05. No one else in India has that. So you will always need my ore as a blend even if you have full capacity.”

— Amitava Mukherjee, Chairman and Managing Director

Aviation

Interglobe Aviation Limited | Large Cap | Airlines

Interglobe Aviation operates IndiGo, India’s largest passenger airline with a dominant market share in the domestic aviation sector. The company is currently expanding its international footprint using a mix of low-cost and hybrid service models.

[Concall]

Large currency losses and one-time operational costs led to a net loss for the full year. Investors should note that without these non-cash and one-time items, the underlying business remained profitable.

“The primary driver of the loss was the significant impact of foreign exchange movement where the rupee has depreciated by more than 11% against the US dollar in just 12 months, one of the steepest declines in many years. Additionally, we reported exceptional items in Q3 and Q4 on account of costs of the December disruption and the new labor contract.”

— Gaurav Negi, Chief Financial Officer

The number of planes grounded due to engine issues is finally expected to decrease by the end of the calendar year. This improvement will allow the airline to put more of its existing fleet back into service.

“On the AOG situation, our Pratt & Whitney related groundings are currently in the 40s and are expected to trend downwards by the end of the year to the 30s. At this point, we do not have further guidance from the OEMs beyond this point.”

— Gaurav Negi, Chief Financial Officer

Management is using its cash reserves to buy aircraft outright and pay off debt through a specialized entity in GIFT City. Owning more aircraft instead of leasing them reduces long-term costs and strengthens the company’s balance sheet.

“During the year, we have announced a capital investment of $820 million in the GIFT City entity to be deployed primarily towards acquisition of aviation assets, and we have prepaid loans of 19 aircraft. With this, we now have 36 aircraft as unencumbered assets in our book, aggregating more than 95 billion rupees of book value.”

— Gaurav Negi, Chief Financial Officer

The airline is prioritizing the removal of expensive, temporary leased planes from its fleet to improve profit margins. Replacing these with more fuel-efficient, company-owned aircraft will help lower operating expenses.

“Our immediate attempt is to first phase out the damp leases because those tend to be more expensive both in terms of the cost, because there is an inherent markup, plus some of them are not the latest technology and consequently consume more fuel. That’s the first space that we are addressing.”

— Gaurav Negi, Chief Financial Officer

Management is successfully raising ticket prices to offset higher fuel and currency costs without seeing a drop in passenger numbers. This suggests that travel demand in India remains very strong despite higher costs for consumers.

“For the moment, as we take the fares up, the market appears inelastic to these hikes in fares. We will deal with this on a daily basis and see where we go.”

— Rahul Bhatia, Managing Director

IndiGo maintains a significant cash reserve to protect the business against the high volatility typical of the aviation industry. Any cash beyond this safety net is being redirected toward buying aircraft and engines.

“That said, I mentioned in my opening statement that it’s always prudent to keep at least 20-25% of your overall top line as a safety net. That’s been our stated strategy; we are sitting on around 20,000 crores to 25,000 crores of cash as a safety net.”

— Gaurav Negi, Chief Financial Officer

The company is tripling its currency hedging target to protect itself from future fluctuations in the US dollar. This move aims to prevent the massive foreign exchange losses that impacted this year’s earnings.

“We intend to hedge up to $3 billion. A large part is going to be $1 billion toward the short-term cash flow hedges for the 12-month period, and the remaining $2 billion will be spread over a 2 to 5-year period.”

— Gaurav Negi, Chief Financial Officer

International flights that were disrupted by geopolitical tensions are now mostly back in service. Full restoration of these routes by June will allow the company to capture high demand during the upcoming peak travel season.

“Approximately two-thirds of those 160 flights are now operating and we intend to scale back to full capacity by the end of June, which rolls into a peak period for the Middle East in Q2. That is how things have shaped up.”

— Gaurav Negi, Chief Financial Officer

IndiGo is evolving from a pure low-cost carrier into a hybrid model that includes long-haul international flights. The incoming CEO’s experience with similar transitions at other global airlines will be critical for this shift.

“Now, we are adding some mutation to it with the XLRs, and possibly the A350s in the future, and that will be a hybrid model. This is something Willie Walsh is well experienced with; he did that at Aer Lingus.”

— Rahul Bhatia, Managing Director

Dreamfolks Services Ltd. | Small Cap | Travel Support Services

Dreamfolks Services is India’s largest airport services aggregator platform, providing access to an global network of lounges, spas, and travel-related services. The company acts as a technology-led bridge between global card networks, banks, and service providers to manage travel and lifestyle benefits.

[Concall]

The credit card industry in India is shifting away from unlimited lounge access toward spending-based rewards and diverse lifestyle perks. Dreamfolks is adjusting its service catalog to match these new bank requirements for personalized customer benefits.

“This year witnessed significant structural changes across the credit card ecosystem in India. First, a broad transition from unlimited lounge access models to spend-based access frameworks. Second, a meaningful transformation in how banks are redesigning their customer value proposition, moving beyond cluttered domestic airport lounges to more personalized, lifestyle-oriented benefit programs.”

— Liberatha Kallat, Chairperson and Managing Director

The company is evolving from a simple lounge aggregator into a comprehensive lifestyle and travel platform. By offering a wider variety of services like spa treatments and hotel upgrades, the company aims to become a more integrated partner for banks.

“Today, we are not just enabling lounge access; we are powering end-to-end customer engagement for our partners through a diversified, technology-led ecosystem spanning travel, lifestyle, wellness, and curated experiences. A defining highlight of this transformation has been the significant expansion of our lifestyle services portfolio, such as spa at leading wellness centers, access to members-only social clubs, room upgrades at star hotels, airport transfers, beauty at star hotels, and coffee at top brands in malls.”

— Liberatha Kallat, Chairperson and Managing Director

The acquisition of 10-11 Hospitality allows Dreamfolks to own and operate its own railway lounges directly. This move is expected to improve profit margins and provide better control over the customer experience in the railway sector.

“First, we acquired 10-11 Hospitality in November 2025. This acquisition provides direct ownership and operational control over premium railway lounge infrastructure, enhancing service quality, improving unit economics, and reducing reliance on third-party operators.”

— Liberatha Kallat, Chairperson and Managing Director

The company’s international expansion is showing significant momentum with triple-digit volume growth in global lounge usage. Reaching over 1,000 global touchpoints suggests the company is successfully scaling outside its core Indian market.

“Transaction volumes from our global lounge program have exhibited a strong growth of 140% year-on-year, validating the strength of our international strategy and the quality of our platform. Moreover, our global lounge network now covers over 1,000 airport touchpoints.”

— Liberatha Kallat, Chairperson and Managing Director

Dreamfolks is launching a direct-to-consumer membership program to diversify its revenue beyond business partners. This new platform targets travelers directly with a broad suite of lifestyle benefits beyond just airport services.

“An important chapter of the year has been our entry into the D2C segment through Dreamfolks Club 2.0, our enhanced membership platform. This offering has evolved from an airport-centric proposition into a comprehensive travel and lifestyle membership encompassing global lounges, access to members-only clubs, golf, wellness, dining, and other curated experiences.”

— Liberatha Kallat, Chairperson and Managing Director

Management is focusing on increasing business with current clients rather than just searching for new ones. By selling more services to existing partners, the company hopes to grow revenue more efficiently without high acquisition costs.

“One of our key priorities this year has been to deepen engagement with our existing banking and card network partners rather than simply pursuing new client acquisition. We believe that the strength of our existing relationships represents a significant untapped potential.”

— Liberatha Kallat, Chairperson and Managing Director

Profitability is currently under pressure as the company transitions away from its heavy reliance on the domestic Indian lounge market. Management remains optimistic that new services and global expansion will eventually lead to higher growth than before.

“While near-term profitability has been affected by the structural transition in our domestic business, which used to contribute more than 90%, we believe with the rapid adoption of new-age lifestyle services and deeper integration in the global and railway lounge business segment, we should be able to grow bigger than ever. Despite these headwinds, our balance sheet remains strong and resilient.”

— Liberatha Kallat, Chairperson and Managing Director

The company is making progress in securing international clients in key markets like the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Management expects to announce new contract wins soon, supporting their rapid global volume growth.

“To answer your question, I may not be able to specifically tell you who the clients are, but we do have many clients; otherwise, this 140% growth would not have come. The Middle East and Southeast Asia definitely remain our focus. You will soon hear from us when we sign the contracts as to what kind of clients we have added in this entire year.”

— Liberatha Kallat, Chairperson and Managing Director

High receivable balances at the end of the year were a point of concern for investors. Management clarified that they have successfully collected a significant portion of these debts after the quarter ended, improving cash flow.

“On December 31, there were some dues receivable from debtors. However, post March 31, we have done significant collection and that number has reduced to a large extent.”

— Shekhar Sood, Chief Financial Officer

Dreamfolks maintains an aggressive revenue target for its railway business over the next five years. To reach this goal, they plan to expand to at least 50 lounges as Indian railway stations undergo modernization.

“Yes, our plan of 500 crores in 5 years remains clear and intact, and we are growing significantly in railways. We should have not less than 50 lounges to really bring that scale and multiplying factor. We currently have 100% lounge cover as far as railway lounges are concerned in India.”

— Liberatha Kallat, Chairperson and Managing Director

The current fiscal year is viewed as a period of adjustment as the domestic industry changes and global networks are built. Investors should expect a return to break-even profitability in about a year as these new investments mature.

“FY27 is a transition time for us. We are working through a complete industry change in the India market. Globally, we are still onboarding more lounges to create a tier-one network. Yes, it is a transition moment in FY27, but we should start seeing the break-even maybe a year later.”

— Sandeep Sonawane, Chief Business Officer

Healthcare

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals | Mid Cap | Pharmaceuticals

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals is a research-led global pharmaceutical company with a growing focus on branded and speciality therapies. Following the landmark AbbVie licensing deal, management is accelerating its transition toward innovation-led growth, targeting a larger branded portfolio, expanding global brands like Ryaltris, and maintaining healthy margins across key markets.

[Reference]

The Glenmark 3.0 plan explicitly targets a higher percentage of branded revenue to reduce reliance on commodity generics. This transition is intended to improve the long-term predictability and quality of the company’s earnings profile.

“The branded business is central to Glenmark 3.0 strategy. Today branded portfolio is 60% of our revenue and we are well in place to take it, in the next four years, to 70%.”

— Anurag Mantri, Executive Director & Global CFO, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals

The licensing deal with AbbVie represents a major external validation of the company’s internal drug discovery efforts. This shift toward high-value innovation could lead to higher valuation multiples and more licensing income in the future.

“The defining moment for Glenmark was that AbbVie out-licensing deal on ISB 2001. That transaction validated our innovation platform. We are moving forward on a validated innovation platform.”

— Anurag Mantri, Executive Director & Global CFO, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals

Ryaltris is the centrepiece of the company’s global respiratory franchise and a key driver of high-margin branded sales. Scaling this single product to $200 million would provide a substantial and predictable revenue stream for years to come.

“Ryaltris continues to be a strong brand for us across the markets. More than 50 countries we have launched and that will continue to be a, if you see, $200 million we are targeting plus.”

— Anurag Mantri, Executive Director & Global CFO, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals

Setting a margin target above 21% indicates management’s confidence in operational efficiency and a better product mix. This guidance provides a clear set of KPIs for investors to monitor as the company executes its growth strategy.

“From here we will get to ₹17,000 to ₹18,000 crore of revenues in FY27 and the margin guidance is around 21% to 22%.”

— Anurag Mantri, Executive Director & Global CFO, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals

Wockhardt | Small Cap | Pharmaceuticals

Wockhardt is a research-driven pharmaceutical company focused on innovative therapies, vaccines, and biotechnology products. Following regulatory approvals for its novel antibiotic Zenic, management is preparing for a major transformation from a traditional pharma business into a global innovation-led organization with ambitions far beyond a single product launch.

[Reference]

Management is projecting a massive revenue target for Zaynich that is several times larger than the company’s current total sales. If achieved, this would fundamentally change the company’s valuation and scale.

“I know my peak is 1.5 to 2 billion for the life of the product.”

— Dr. Habil Khorakiwala, Founder & Chairman, Wockhardt Limited

The company is moving away from being a standard manufacturer of cheap medicines to a high-value research firm. Investors need to evaluate the company based on its intellectual property rather than just its manufacturing capacity.

“We are fundamentally getting into a transformation or metamorphosis inside. It will be a very different organization 5 years from today.”

— Dr. Habil Khorakiwala, Founder & Chairman, Wockhardt Limited

Because many large drug companies have stopped making new antibiotics, Wockhardt faces very little competition in this specific medical field. This lack of competition gives the company a unique advantage in a critical area of healthcare.

“Similarly, if large pharmaceutical companies worldwide don’t have the research molecule of their own, where is their business? So there is a white space we see worldwide.”

— Dr. Habil Khorakiwala, Founder & Chairman, Wockhardt Limited

The high profit margins of new patented drugs are expected to outweigh the costs of hiring more people and doing more research. This suggests that the company’s overall profitability will grow even as it spends more money on growth.

“It will improve despite the investments, despite the change, etc. From wherever it is, at least 10% higher, three years and four years.”

— Dr. Habil Khorakiwala, Founder & Chairman, Wockhardt Limited

Retail

Bata India Ltd. | Mid Cap | Footwear

Bata India is a leading footwear retailer with a vast distribution network spanning company-owned stores, franchises, and multi-brand outlets. The company is currently focused on premiumization, inventory optimization through data-driven merchandising, and expanding its digital presence.

[Concall]

Management is scaling a data-driven inventory management system to cover the majority of their stores by the end of the quarter. This initiative is already delivering better sales performance compared to stores not yet using the system.

“Our plan is to take it [Zero-Based Merchandising] to almost 75-80% of the network by this quarter-end. It did show delta growth, which is the measure we use, and was mid-single digits better than the rest of the network.”

— Gunjan Shah, Managing Director and CEO

Bata is using its physical stores as hubs to ship online orders, which helps sell through existing inventory more efficiently. While this improves turnover, it requires the company to speed up its supply chain to keep store shelves stocked.

“Within the last 4 months since December, we have had 700-plus stores fulfilling online orders, thereby leveraging the same inventory for a better sales turnover. What that does is put pressure on ensuring we can replenish stores much faster.”

— Gunjan Shah, Managing Director and CEO

Bata has significantly cut down its inventory levels over the last two years to improve efficiency. Surprisingly, they have managed to keep more popular sizes and styles in stock even while holding less total inventory.

“Inventory continues to reduce. It is now 28% down over 2 years consecutively year-on-year and 13% down over last year. This is despite the fact that availability has gone up by almost 1,000 basis points.”

— Gunjan Shah, Managing Director and CEO

The company is shutting down older manufacturing units to lower its long-term operating costs. This strategy has already resulted in a 10% reduction in employee expenses this quarter, which should provide a permanent boost to margins.

“Historically, we have been trying to improve the structural cost by closing plant operations. From a quarterly perspective, our employee cost is lower by about 10%, and this benefit is flowing to the employee cost line item on a structural basis.”

— Amit Agarwal, Director of Finance and CFO

The company plans a massive expansion of its franchise network, aiming to add nearly 300 new stores in the coming year. This asset-light model allows the brand to grow faster without spending as much of its own capital.

“We are expanding through the franchise route, which has now crossed 700 stores. Our goal in the next 12 months is to get very close to 1,000 stores. We are also expanding through SIS [shop-in-shop].”

— Gunjan Shah, Managing Director and CEO

Bata is developing a new strategy to attract younger shoppers by focusing heavily on trendy sneakers. This project is a key priority to ensure the brand remains relevant as consumer tastes shift toward casual footwear.

“The single largest piece specifically regarding younger consumers is our proposition from a sneakers perspective. That work is currently in progress. We are working on how to bring that to life for consumers and the kind of product portfolio we need, as there is a big overlap between younger consumers and the sneaker world.”

— Gunjan Shah, Managing Director and CEO

Engineering & Capital Goods

Cummins India | Large Cap | Engineering & Capital Goods

Cummins India operates through four business units: Engine, Power Systems, Components, and Distribution. It manufactures, trades, and sells engines for commercial vehicles and industrial equipment, ranging from 60 HP. The company also provides generator sets and related technologies for various on-highway and off-highway applications.

[Concall]

This was one of the most important disclosures on the call. Cummins highlighted that data centers have become a major contributor to its domestic power generation business, reflecting the rapid build-out of digital infrastructure in India.

“The data center business contribution, so for the full year, the data center business would have contributed between 30% to 35% of our overall power generation domestic revenue, and for the quarter, approximately 35%.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Management indicated that demand visibility has improved significantly over the last six months, particularly from colocation players.

“Inquiry pipeline right now after October last year has picked up in industry. Both Hyperscalers, more than that, Colo players. So the inquiry velocity definitely increased quite a lot since October last year, and we continue to see that.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

While Cummins guided for moderate growth, management clarified that the caution is driven more by macro uncertainties and supply constraints than by weak demand.

“From a domestic demand perspective, for now, we still see robust demand. We are watching what’s happening largely to the economy and everybody else in the country. Commodity prices are increasing, inflation is likely to hit.”

“That is why that brings us a little bit of caution despite the fact that our demand, inquiries and order book are robust today.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Management highlighted labour shortages, commodity inflation and geopolitical disruptions as key operational challenges.

“We have been taking quite a few supply constraints and not just us, the industry has been facing quite a few supply constraints.”

“We are all facing labor shortage issues at our supplier and commodity pricing has hit our suppliers, fuel cost increments have hit on suppliers.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

After a weak period in mining and mixed performance in industrial segments, management is seeing a recovery in key sectors.

“Railway has performed very well and we continue to see robust demand on the railway side. That is the segment where we have a good order book and it continues to be so.”

“In the last 6 months, mining has picked up, and so our order book has started building up.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Management pushed back against concerns that increasing competition in imported large-engine categories could pressure margins.

“It is not just about the cost and the pricing of these engines and gensets.”

“It is the whole value proposition that we provide to the customers.”

“We continue to see our customers valuing that.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Cummins Inc. is investing heavily in global data-center engine capacity, which should support future demand.

“Your first hypothesis that this will crunch in both timelines for us is correct because we are adding capacity as our parent has mentioned, and this largely goes towards engines that go into data center market.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Management confirmed that demand is currently outpacing industry capacity additions.

“The lead times have increased because we need to appreciate that the data center demand through the world at this point in time is very high.”

“So, the lead times have in the last few years increased.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

The company believes existing investments and productivity improvements can support growth.

“For now, no major capital expenditure plan.”

“The continuous capital that we have been investing in the last 5 years, we will continue to invest that.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

While current revenue contribution is small, management sees BESS becoming part of future backup power solutions.

“Over the longer-term period, we do remain very positive on the outlook of battery energy storage systems.”

“We see it becoming part of the overall backup power solution for our customers.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Management sees substantial upside if India’s data-center buildout accelerates to levels seen in global markets.

“The pockets of opportunity for us will be if India data center market starts growing at the pace at which US and China.”

“That would present to us a very, very good opportunity, which is not happening yet today.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Cummins India is committed to evaluating localization opportunities for larger engine sizes (like 95-liter) as the data center market evolves to maintain its margins and support growth.

“The way we look at it, you’re right, yes, the 95 - liter is imported. So the India market is still largely on the 60 liter. And as the market moves, we always evaluate what is that we can do more in India. So going forward, the way we look at it and our outlook is that we continuously evaluate what more can we do in India. We like to keep our margins intact for growth.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Beyond data centers, Cummins is seeing healthy demand from several end-markets that require reliable backup power.

“We have been seeing demand from manufacturing, specifically a lot of solar cell manufacturing plants being set up, pharma.”

“Quick commerce, their dark stores are being set by quick commerce players. We’ve been seeing demand there.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Management believes its current product portfolio is sufficient to address expected demand over the next few years.

“From Colo players, we do not have a product gap.”

“For the next 3 years, we see the demand for that note from Colo players.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

While Cummins attempts to pass through cost increases, management acknowledged that inflation remains a challenge across the supply chain.

“Yes, we have been seeing commodities increase.”

“There is always a challenge because we would have generated orders prior to the period of commodity increase.”

“With a little bit of lag and a little bit of challenge, we pass it on to the market.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Unlike the COVID period, current constraints are primarily due to global demand outstripping manufacturing capacity.

“At this point in time, the supply chain impact on the imported nodes is largely because demand on these nodes is coming from all across the world.”

“The demand is moving far higher than the pace of addition of capacity.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

While optimistic on the market opportunity, Cummins acknowledged that local sourcing capabilities are not yet established.

“For this product, we do not have a local supply chain yet.”

“We are working towards that, but we do not have a local product yet.”

— Shveta Arya, Managing Director

Siemens | Large Cap | Engineering & Capital Goods

Siemens is a global technology company specializing in industry, infrastructure, digital transformation, transportation, and electrical power generation. It aims to enhance efficiency, quality, flexibility, and speed through its diverse portfolio and market-oriented structure. With global technology leadership and local expertise, Siemens is well-positioned to support sustainable growth.

[Concall]

Management highlighted that the investment cycle is no longer limited to emerging sectors like semiconductors and batteries. Traditional industries are also showing strong capex momentum.

“We do see a growth in cement, steel, pharmaceuticals, etc., also happening during the last couple of months.”

“I would not say we are yet at the peak on the private sector CapEx, but we definitely see a real pickup in the last couple of months.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Management repeatedly identified data centres as one of the strongest growth opportunities across its portfolio.

“It is one of the fastest-growing portfolio elements for us.”

“This is one of the fastest growing businesses as well.”

“We do believe this is an opportunity or a sector that will grow much faster than it has been growing in the past.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

One of the most useful disclosures on the call, providing a sense of the growing contribution of the data-centre vertical.

“I think it’s in the range of around 12 to 15.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Siemens believes industry projections may still underestimate the eventual scale of the opportunity.

“The official number right now is 1.5 going up to 9.”

“I believe this will probably go to 18-20.”

“In the next couple of years, we see a very strong push for data centres here in the country.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Despite concerns around inflation, commodity prices and geopolitical tensions, management remains constructive on demand.

“We do not see a slowdown in private CapEx yet.”

“We do not see a slowdown in public CapEx yet.”

“From the demand perspective, we do not see a slowdown. Quite to the contrary, we see a pickup.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

While the direct impact on Siemens may be limited, management expects customers to benefit significantly from increased trade.

“We believe for our customers and therefore indirectly for us, there will be a huge impact coming out of that.”

“0.5 to 1 percent impact on GDP over the next couple of years.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Management highlighted a recent semiconductor order as evidence of Siemens’ ability to provide end-to-end factory solutions.

“We also were able to receive an order from a leading semiconductor player for their OSAT facility in Gujarat.”

“This is where we combine really the power of Siemens together.”

“To provide a comprehensive solution that starts with software design, design of the product, design of the factory, design of the processes.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Electrification remains one of the strongest growth themes in the company’s Smart Infrastructure portfolio.

“A lot of ordering happening in the entire electrification space.”

“This is a growth, very clearly a large growth area.”

“That is growing extremely well.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Siemens is seeing broad-based capex activity across multiple manufacturing industries.

“Chemicals are doing well.”

“Pharma is growing well.”

“Food and beverages is growing well also.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Management highlighted improving demand trends within the automotive sector.

“Automotive is beginning to pick up.”

“Two-wheelers are doing much better than four-wheelers.”

“The four-wheelers are also picking up as well.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

While most verticals remain strong, management flagged some softness in steel-related investments.

“Some slowdown in metals, in other words, in steel, a little bit.”

“We are not sure whether this is short term or whether this is more systemic.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Management explained why Digital Industries remains heavily import-dependent despite currency volatility.

“PLCs, you need a minimum volume, which runs into millions, to make a factory actually viable.”

“Right now, as we speak, we do not see substantial opportunities for localization in the DI space here in the country.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

While management remains positive on demand, it repeatedly flagged inflation as the key variable to watch over the next few quarters.

“What impact the strong depreciation of the Rupee will have, the high increases in commodities will have on inflation and consequently on interest rates and consequently on ordering, we are not yet able to foretell.”

“This is something over the next 3 to 6 months we will be watching very, very carefully.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

This is one of the strongest localization achievements disclosed by management and demonstrates execution capabilities in railways.

“We have been able to deliver, as we mentioned, over 90% localization in about 2 years.”

“We are very satisfied with the progress over here.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Management proactively built inventory to avoid disruptions and protect customers from supply-chain shocks.

“We increased our inventory levels also based on the West Asia crisis.”

“To safeguard our customers and also be able to continue with manufacturing and supply to our customers.”

— Wolfgang Wrumnig, Executive Director & CFO

Investors were concerned that imported content was driving the margin decline. Management clarified that commodities are the larger issue.

“The real impact in smart infra is not out of foreign exchange.”

“It is primarily out of commodities, which is copper and silver and aluminium.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Management provided a rare quantitative assessment of current capex momentum.

“I would say 8 to 10 on an average percentage growth.”

“I am talking CapEx in the segments that I spoke about.”

— Sunil Mathur, Managing Director & CEO

Titagarh Rail Systems Limited | Mid Cap | Railways

Titagarh Rail Systems is a leading Indian provider of railway freight wagons, passenger coaches, and metro trains. The company specializes in integrated rail transit solutions, including the manufacturing of propulsion systems and specialized components for domestic and international markets.

[Concall]

Titagarh is pivotally shifting its business mix to focus more on high-value passenger rail and metro contracts. This transition is expected to improve the company’s overall margin profile and create a more diversified revenue stream.

“In the next three years, we expect the revenue contribution from the passenger rail segment to equal or exceed that of our freight segment. This shift is intentional as passenger contracts typically offer higher visibility and better margins. Our recent investments in the Bangalore and Kolkata metro projects are proof of this transition.”

— Anil Kumar Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer

Management is repositioning the company from a basic manufacturer to an advanced technology player. This focus on engineering and R&D is intended to qualify the company for lucrative high-speed rail and advanced transit projects.

“Titagarh is no longer just a metal fabrication company; we are becoming a technology-led engineering firm. The focus is on R&D and digital manufacturing to meet the evolving standards of the railway industry. This evolution is critical for our participation in high-speed rail projects in the future.”

— Umesh Chowdhary, Vice Chairman & Managing Director

The company is funding its major expansion projects using its own cash reserves rather than taking on new debt. Maintaining a net debt-free status while expanding capacity reduces financial risk and enhances shareholder value.

“Our balance sheet remains very lean, and we are net debt-free at the standalone level. The capital expenditure for the wheel plant and metro expansion is being funded largely through internal accruals. We intend to maintain this financial discipline even as we scale up our passenger rail capacity.”

— Anil Kumar Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer

By making its own train motors and wheels, the company is protecting itself from international supply delays and costs. This move toward self-sufficiency is a direct driver of better profit margins in their passenger train division.

“The backward integration into propulsion systems and wheels is a key differentiator for us now. By manufacturing these critical components in-house or through JVs, we are insulating ourselves from global supply chain shocks. This strategy is also helping us improve our overall EBITDA margins in the passenger segment.”

— Umesh Chowdhary, Vice Chairman & Managing Director

The company is actively bidding for projects in Africa and Southeast Asia to reduce its dependence on the Indian government. International expansion provides a safeguard against potential slowdowns in the domestic railway budget.

“On the export front, we are seeing traction in the African and Southeast Asian markets for our specialized wagons. While Indian Railways remains our primary customer, diversifying our geographical footprint is essential for long-term risk management. We have already submitted bids for two international metro projects.”

— Umesh Chowdhary, Vice Chairman & Managing Director

Software Services

Happiest Minds Technologies | Small Cap | Software Services

Happiest Minds Technologies focuses on providing a holistic digital experience to customers through services like digital business, product engineering, and security. With an end-to-end digital solution approach, the company offers transformative solutions, customer-centric strategies, and innovative services in areas like RPA, SDN, IoT, and cloud, enabling clients to enhance interactions and efficiency.

[Concall]

This was the most important forward-looking statement on the call. Despite a mixed macro environment, Happiest Minds is maintaining one of the stronger growth outlooks in the industry, supported by pipeline growth and AI-led demand.

“Importantly, during Q4, we saw a record pipeline growth of 27%, which gives us increasing confidence in our FY27 outlook.”

“Based on this momentum, the Board has reconfirmed FY27 growth guidance of 12.5%, while we continue to remain aspirational about a 15% growth trajectory.”

— Joseph Anantharaju, Co-Chairman & CEO

Management is significantly scaling AI capabilities to meet rising enterprise demand.

“We are in the progress of building a dedicated 1,000 AI and generative AI focused team by end of FY27 to support growing customers’ demand to build generative AI solutions.”

— Sridhar Mantha, CEO – Generative AI Business Services (GBS)

Management believes the market has entered a new phase where customers are demanding measurable outcomes rather than pilots.

“Enterprises have moved decisively from AI experimentation towards scale deployment.”

“The challenge today is not access to the AI models or the quality of the AI models, but integrating AI securely into the enterprise workflows and driving measurable operational outcomes.”

— Sridhar Mantha, CEO – Generative AI Business Services (GBS)

The company is productizing its AI experience into a reusable enterprise platform.

“We recently announced the launch of our enterprise AI platform.”

“The platform is designed to help enterprises accelerate AI adoption in a secure, scalable and enterprise-ready manner while reducing execution complexity and implementation risk.”

— Joseph Anantharaju, Co-Chairman & CEO

Management emphasized that AI is not only a customer offering but also transforming internal delivery models.

“The reason for us to actually go heavily on the AI first as a strategy is not what we build for the customers, but also how we build for the customers.”

“Fundamentally, it is changing every service offering that we are having.”

— Sridhar Mantha, CEO – Generative AI Business Services (GBS)

Management highlighted meaningful AI deployment experience rather than experimentation.

“Today, we have 50 use cases identified and already implemented.”

— Sridhar Mantha, CEO – Generative AI Business Services (GBS)

The company highlighted the stability of its revenue base.

“Our repeat business is 92%.”

“That varies between 92% to 94% depending on the quarter.”

— Joseph Anantharaju, Co-Chairman & CEO

Management highlighted organizational differentiation in AI investments versus peers.

“If you really look at it, Kuber, I think Happiest Minds is the only company that has a separate business unit for generative AI.”

“What that allows us to do is to just focus on the space.”

— Joseph Anantharaju, Co-Chairman & CEO

Management suggested that AI is no longer a future opportunity but a present revenue opportunity.

“As we speak from an AI and generative AI perspective -- GBS, we do have money sitting on the table.”

“We don’t look at this as really being headwinds.”

— Joseph Anantharaju, Co-Chairman & CEO

Internal AI adoption has progressed meaningfully and is beginning to influence delivery models.

“Relay Build, which is on the AI product side, at this point, we already have 40% adoption within our internal projects and the customer projects and everywhere.”

— Sridhar Mantha, CEO – Generative AI Business Services (GBS)

Management described a shift from building applications to building the infrastructure layer that enables future AI agents.

“We are actually creating MCP servers wrapping their 900 APIs so that new Agentic AI solutions can be developed.”

“This is an example where creating the necessary Agentic infrastructure for the new Agentic solutions to be further developed.”

— Sridhar Mantha, CEO – Generative AI Business Services (GBS)

Management shared a real-world example of productivity gains from AI-led software development.

“Traditional software development methods require 6 months to build such an application.”

“We won this project because we are able to actually complete the project in 3 months and deliver to the customer.”

— Sridhar Mantha, CEO – Generative AI Business Services (GBS)

An interesting sector-specific observation that could become a future growth driver.

“We are additionally seeing signs of revival in the education sector, driven by GenAI adoption.”

“We are capitalizing on with our Eduweave platform repeatable solutions.”

— Joseph Anantharaju, Co-Chairman & CEO

Highlights Happiest Minds’ efforts to position itself within the evolving GenAI ecosystem.

“When they started a formal partnership program, we became one of the early partners for them.”

“So we closed a partnership with Anthropic in the last quarter.”

— Sridhar Mantha, CEO – Generative AI Business Services (GBS)

An interesting strategic decision that contrasts with many peers who launched AI platforms immediately after ChatGPT’s emergence.

“We didn’t want to build a broader enterprise AI platform 2 years back because everything is in total flux.”

“What we did is we wanted to wait so that we gain sufficient experience.”

“All the knowledge and experience that we gained is what prompted us to start thinking about as well as start developing and creating the enterprise AI platform.”

— Sridhar Mantha, CEO – Generative AI Business Services (GBS)

FMCG

Tilaknagar Industries Limited | Small Cap | Beverages - Alco

Tilaknagar Industries is a leading Indian manufacturer of alcoholic beverages, primarily focused on the prestige and premium brandy segments. The company owns the iconic Mansion House brand and recently expanded its portfolio through the acquisition of the Imperial Blue whisky business.

[Concall]

The company has reached a major scale milestone following the successful integration of its newly acquired whisky brand. This growth demonstrates strong market demand for their flagship products and newly added assets.

“One, we achieved a volume of almost 20 million cases in FY26 with only 4 months of Imperial Blue business under our ownership. Second, Mansion House Brandy crossed the volume benchmark of 10 million cases in FY26, cementing its position as India’s largest P&A brandy.”

— Amit Dahanukar, Chairman and Managing Director

Management is changing how they report financial results to better match industry standards. While this makes top-line revenue look smaller, it will artificially increase reported profit margins without changing the actual money earned.

“Before the acquisition of the Imperial Blue business, we used to present the selling expenses such as discounts, schemes, and similar incentives to customers and distributors under the head of other expenses. However, from Q4 FY26 and going forward, we will show this as a reduction from the gross revenue itself. This change will have a negative impact on reported revenue and gross margins, but will have a positive impact on EBITDA margins and PAT margins.”

— Amit Dahanukar, Chairman and Managing Director

A massive increase in internal production capacity at the Prag Distillery will reduce reliance on third-party suppliers. This move is expected to save the company 10 crore rupees every year in bottling costs alone.

“The capacity has now increased from 6 lakh cases per annum to 36 lakh cases per annum. This expansion is a testament to Tilaknagar’s push towards safeguarding supplies and demonstrating execution capabilities towards long-term capacity planning. On the back of this expansion, Tilaknagar Industries expects savings in bottling cost to the tune of 10 crores per annum.”

— Amit Dahanukar, Chairman and Managing Director

The company is successfully moving the management of the Imperial Blue brand from a third-party service back into its own control. This transition is ahead of schedule and will allow for better operational control and higher profits.

“75% of the IB business has exited TSMA by the end of Q4 FY26. For the states where we have exited TSMA in Q4 FY26, we have already started full-fledged operations at Tilaknagar Industries units. Now, only three states remain under TSMA, and we expect to transition them over the course of the next few quarters with an outer date of March 2027.”

— Ameya Deshpande, Strategy Officer

Management clarified that potential trade deals lowering import taxes will benefit consumers through lower prices but won’t directly boost the company’s profit margins. This means future earnings growth must come from sales volume or internal efficiency rather than tax breaks.

“Any reduction in custom duty, keeping aside price action that we ourselves may or may not take, will have no impact on the margins as such. That will have a direct impact on the MRP but not on our revenues or our cost structures. From that perspective, custom duty change on account of the potential UK FTA does not have any impact on our margins.”

— Ameya Deshpande, Strategy Officer

Management is focusing on lowering production costs by optimizing how and where products are bottled. This specific operational change is a key pillar of their strategy to increase the profit earned on every case sold.

“There will be multiple optimization initiatives we are running on the supply chain side as well, especially regarding bottling. Remember that Imperial Blue was a Pernod brand, and Pernod had bottling units which were often dedicated to their own volume where all kinds of brands used to get done. You will see benefits coming out of bottling charges.”

— Ameya Deshpande, Strategy Officer

Raw material inflation is currently putting pressure on profitability in the short term. While the full-year outlook remains positive, investors should expect slightly weaker margins in the first quarter results.

“In Q1, it would be incorrect of me to say that we will expand on these margins. You may see some level of short-term impact, but from a full-year perspective and going forward, you should go with the guidance provided.”

— Ameya Deshpande, Strategy Officer

Recent government policy changes have lowered the retail price of the company’s main brands in Karnataka. Based on historical trends, this price drop is expected to trigger a significant increase in sales volumes.

“With the reduction in MRP, we expect a further uptick in volumes going forward. Just to give a reference point, the last time a price reduction took place in Karnataka for our portfolio—from 257 to 235 rupees per nip, which was around 22 rupees—we saw significant growth beyond just high teens in that state.”

— Ameya Deshpande, Strategy Officer

Media & Entertainment

Signpost India Limited | Small Cap | Advertising

Signpost India is a leading digital out-of-home and transit media enterprise that manages large-scale advertising assets across Indian metro networks, airports, and bus shelters. The company focuses on technology-integrated media solutions and long-term public infrastructure contracts to drive recurring revenue.

[Concall]

The company intentionally selects projects with long durations to ensure high revenue visibility and stability. Focusing on transit and digital assets aligns the business with secular growth in urban infrastructure.

“When we pitch for projects, our cautious call is to take up responsibility for projects that have a longevity of 7+ years. When we see an opportunity, it is mostly in a transit medium or a data-led medium centered around digital.”

— Shripad Ashtekar, Managing Director

The firm has achieved a rapid national expansion, scaling its geographic presence eightfold since its public listing. This massive increase in inventory square footage provides the capacity for significant future revenue growth.

“Our footprint has grown from 4 cities at the time of our 2024 listing to 32 cities. We added approximately 866,000 square feet this year across metro, transit, and digital assets, including a significant expansion of the Bangalore Metro network.”

— Shripad Ashtekar, Managing Director

The Indian advertising industry is undergoing a structural shift toward digital out-of-home media. Signpost’s heavy investment in digital screens positions it to benefit from this segment’s projected market share gains.

“Digital revenue rose from 700 crores in 2024 to 1,220 crores in 2025, now accounting for 18% of total OOH revenue—a share expected to reach 25% by 2028. The installed base of digital screens crossed 223,000 in 2025, a 21% growth in a single year.”

— Syed Haseeb Arfat, Chief Business Officer

To address high receivables, the company is moving toward billing for partial campaign completions rather than waiting for total project sign-offs. This transition is expected to significantly reduce the cash flow cycle by the third quarter.

“We have pushed for milestone-based billing. Whatever compliance we get from a specific region or city, those funds will be clocked into the account immediately rather than waiting for a full check. This is a measured approach.”

New infrastructure projects typically face a half-year lag before achieving optimal advertiser utilization. The strong early performance in Bangalore Metro suggests that these large-scale investments are gaining traction faster than anticipated.

“Any new asset in a new geography requires a maturity period of 4-6 months. The growth from the numbers you mentioned will start resulting in better yields than what we have seen. For example, in the Bangalore Metro, where we have 67 stations, we are seeing growth of 18-25%, which is higher than expected.”

— Shripad Ashtekar, Managing Director

Signpost’s national scale serves as a barrier to entry for smaller, localized competitors who cannot handle multi-city campaigns. This capability allows the company to act as a consultant to major brands, commanding higher loyalty and better pricing.

“Our differentiation lies in direct relationships with brands through solution-based and advisory-led discussions rather than commodity delivery. It is hard for a local agency to serve a client who wants to deliver across 10-500 cities at once.”

— Shripad Ashtekar, Managing Director

Software Services

Meta Infotech Limited | Small Cap | Cybersecurity

Meta Infotech is a leading provider of enterprise cybersecurity solutions, specializing in cloud, network, and identity security for critical sectors like BFSI and healthcare. The company is currently executing a strategic shift toward high-margin managed services and international expansion to drive its next phase of growth.

[Concall]

Meta Infotech is moving beyond its traditional base in Mumbai to establish a presence in major Indian tech hubs. This wider footprint is a key part of their plan to find new customers and diversify their geographic risk.

“For 27 years, we were predominantly a Mumbai-based company in terms of sales. We have added Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad. We are soon going to add Pune as well, coming up in a month or two. That is the geographical expansion.”

— Venu Gopal Peruru, Chairman and Managing Director

The company is making a conscious choice to walk away from high-volume, low-profit product sales. By focusing on higher-quality deals, they aim to raise their overall operating margins and improve the health of their balance sheet.

“Going forward, we are going to drop all product business that is low-margin. Anything with less than 5% margin, we will drop and focus on services instead. Because of one particular large order, our PAT and EBITDA percentages were reduced significantly.”

— Venu Gopal Peruru, Chairman and Managing Director

Management plans to more than double the revenue share of services over the next few years. This shift is the primary mechanism they intend to use to reach their ambitious profit growth targets.

“Over a period of 3 years, our focus is to achieve a 25% to 30% contribution from services because we are going to reduce low-margin product revenue. That is how we are targeting 4x PAT in FY29. The services revenue was 36 crores last year, and we expect that value to increase by a minimum of 25%.”

— Venu Gopal Peruru, Chairman and Managing Director

The company uses a specific strategy of replacing expensive senior staff with well-trained juniors to keep labor costs under control. This systematic training approach helps them manage high industry attrition without eroding their profit margins.

“If they complete 4 years and demand a 100% hike, we let them go and replace them with a package of 7 to 8 lakhs instead of paying them 18 lakhs. We maintain our costs by replacing senior guys with juniors who have 80% to 90% of the capability after 3 months. For every three engineers at a customer site, we provide one extra junior engineer at no cost to mitigate attrition or leaves.”

— Venu Gopal Peruru, Chairman and Managing Director

The weak cash flow reported in the latest results was due to one-time tax payments and inventory that hadn’t yet been converted to cash. Management expects cash flow to stabilize now that these specific timing issues have passed.

“Operating cash flow was affected by a tax payment of around 5 crores. Also, there was inventory of around 20 crores in March, which mostly rolled over in April. It is a timing issue and has been resolved.”

— Paresh, CFO

The company has updated its billing terms to protect itself from fluctuations in the value of the US dollar. This change ensures that future profits will not be wiped out by sudden shifts in exchange rates.

“Previously, the contract did not mention INR costs clearly, and we had to execute based on old rates. It took six months to get approval for adjusted rates. Now, all our contracts are conversion-agnostic. We are signing customers at spot plus 2.”

— Venu Gopal Peruru, Chairman and Managing Director

That’s it for now! Your feedback will really help shape how The Chatter evolves. Drop it down in the comments below!

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Quotes in this newsletter were curated by Meher, Shahid, Kashish & Srusti.

Disclaimer: We’ve used AI tools in filtering and cleaning up these quotes so there maybe some mistakes. Now, if you are thinking why we are using AI, please remember that we are just a small team of 5 people running everything you see on Zerodha Markets 😬 So, all the good stuff is human and mistakes are AI.

Hi, I’m Kashish and I work on Plotlines.

It builds on Chatter, but with a more structured lens. Instead of looking at management commentary from earning concalls in isolation, we track a single theme across companies and over time to connect the dots. The goal is to piece together how narratives evolve, and surface the deeper structural shifts shaping industries.

For today’s episode, we wanted to know how are Indian pharma companies planning to make money off of the GLP-1 trend?

On the evening of 20 March 2026, hours before Novo Nordisk’s Indian patent on semaglutide formally expired, Natco Pharma announced that its generic vial would sell for ₹1,290 a month. The original drug, at innovator pricing, had been going for roughly ₹16,000. By the next morning, six more domestic firms had piled in. By the end of the week, thirteen companies had launched twenty-six brands. Within a month, more than fifty were on the market or in the queue.

The interesting question isn’t who launched — almost everyone did. The interesting question is what each company is actually doing: whether they’re making the drug, selling it, both, or simply renting out their distribution to someone who has already done the harder work. The same molecule, the same patent cliff, the same 250-million-strong pool of potential patients — and six very different ways to make money off all of it.

Over the last four quarters, we read through earnings calls from 27 listed Indian pharma companies — more than 140 calls in total — to map what each one is actually up to. Here’s what we found.

A note on the prize before we get there. India’s GLP-1 market — semaglutide plus Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide — was worth about ₹571 crore in 2024. By February 2026, on a rolling twelve-month basis, it had jumped to ₹1,446 crore, with the anti-obesity slice alone more than doubling. But that figure is the market the innovators built: until 21 March, semaglutide was still on patent, so almost all of it was Novo’s and Lilly’s branded money.

Three estimates of where it goes from here: Systematix sees a ₹5,000-crore incremental opportunity across India, Brazil and Canada combined over the next 12-15 months; CareEdge expects India alone to reach ₹5,000 crore by 2030; and Jefferies, more bullish, sees a market north of $1 billion in India.

Set against those projections, what the new entrants have actually booked is almost nil. Cipla’s Yurpeak — itself an innovator launch, Lilly’s tirzepatide sold under a Cipla brand — did ₹14 crore in its first month. Eris’s liraglutide, an older off-patent GLP-1, does about ₹1 crore a month. Every generic semaglutide launched only in the last week of March, so a full quarter of post-launch sales simply doesn’t exist yet. What follows is a description of strategy, not of a profit pool that has already formed.

A primer — what it is, who makes it, how it’s sold

Start with what the drug actually does, because that’s what explains the gold rush.

GLP-1 — glucagon-like peptide-1 — is a hormone your gut releases after you eat. It nudges the pancreas to put out insulin, tells the brain that you’re full, and slows down how quickly the stomach empties. Drugs like semaglutide are engineered copies of that hormone, tuned to last a week in the body instead of a few minutes. Take one injection a week and your appetite quietly shrinks, your blood sugar steadies, and the weight comes off — often 15% of body weight or more.

Now, the cast.

The two innovators. Two foreign drugmakers built the entire global GLP-1 market between them.

Novo Nordisk, a Danish company, makes semaglutide — the molecule everyone is now copying. Novo sells it under three brand names: Ozempic (an injection, for type 2 diabetes), Wegovy (the same molecule at higher doses, for obesity), and Rybelsus (an oral tablet). When people say “Ozempic” colloquially, they usually mean semaglutide in general.

Eli Lilly, an American company, makes tirzepatide — a different molecule that works on the same biological pathway but has shown stronger weight-loss results in trials. Lilly sells it under one global brand, Mounjaro. In India, Lilly has partnered with Cipla to market it under a separate brand, Yurpeak.

What “going off patent” actually means. A patent gives the original drugmaker an exclusive selling window. When it expires — the industry calls this the “loss of exclusivity”, or LOE — other companies can legally make and sell copies, called generics. Semaglutide’s Indian patent expired on 21 March 2026. Tirzepatide’s runs until at least 2030. So semaglutide is now fair game. Tirzepatide is still legally Lilly’s alone.

Pens vs vials — why the device matters. Semaglutide is an injection a patient takes once a week, for years on end. How it’s packaged changes the economics entirely.

A vial is a glass bottle of the liquid drug. To inject, the patient — or a clinic nurse — has to draw the right dose into a separate syringe. Vials are cheap to manufacture but fiddly to use: dosing errors are common, and most patients won’t self-inject from one.

A pen is a pre-loaded injector with a dial. The patient turns the dial to the prescribed dose, presses the pen against the skin, and pushes a button. It costs three to six times more to make than a vial. But it’s dramatically easier to use — and adherence, patients sticking with the therapy long enough for it to actually work, depends almost entirely on the device.

Hold that distinction in your head. It does most of the work in Bets 1 and 6.

Bet 1 — Be there on day one with a generic pen

The default play: show up on 21 March with a branded generic, fight for share through the sales force, and ride the volume.

Almost every Indian pharma company took some version of this bet — Sun, Dr Reddy’s, Lupin, Zydus, Alkem, Natco, Cipla, Glenmark, Torrent, Mankind, Eris. The interesting thing is that nobody priced the same way. Within ten days of launch, the Indian generic semaglutide market had split into three distinct price tiers — and the tier a company chose determined who its patient was.

The cheapest tier was vials. Natco opened at ₹1,290 a month for a vial; Glenmark’s GLIPIQ launched even lower, at ₹325 a week. These prices are roughly a tenth of Novo’s. The trade-off: patients can’t easily self-inject from a vial, so this tier really only works in clinics where staff can manage the dosing — or with the small fraction of patients comfortable handling a syringe.

The middle tier was affordable pens — Alkem, Zydus, Natco’s own pen device — in the ₹1,800-4,500-a-month range. Same molecule as the vial, but in the easy-to-use injector. This is where the mass-market volume will likely settle once price competition has done its work.

The premium tier was high-end pens with patient support wrapped around them — Dr Reddy’s at ₹4,200, Sun at ₹2,960-7,400 depending on dose. These companies are betting that better device design, a branded experience and patient education can justify a premium even after generics have flooded the market.

Same drug, ₹325 a week to ₹7,400 a month. Different patients, different doctors, different settings.

“Sun Pharma plans to be in market on day-one of a generic launch. We have already received the regulators’ approval for both the indication of chronic weight management as well as treatment of type 2 diabetes under the brand name Noveltreat and Sematrinity respectively.”

— Kirti Ganorkar, Managing Director, Sun Pharma | Q3 FY26

The honest part of this bet is that everyone running it knows exactly what it looks like. Crowded. Loud. Margin-thin within a few quarters.

“There’s a mad rush in the market. Every company is launching. And if at this particular time, you launch, you will be lost somewhere.”

— Rajeev Juneja, Vice Chairman & MD, Mankind Pharma | Q4 FY26

“I am not going to tell you that we are going to make a lot of money in India, I will never say that, I actually agree with you, it will be very competitive.”

— Rajeev Nannapaneni, Vice Chairman & CEO, Natco Pharma | Q2 FY26

So why run it anyway? Two reasons. The market is so big that even a thin slice is real money. And being absent on day one means being absent forever — Indian doctors tend to stick with whichever brand they wrote first. That’s why Lupin, Dr Reddy’s and Sun all set internal targets to rank top-three among generics from week one.

“Our goal is very clear to be at Top 3 player in this as generic Semaglutide and I think we’re well on track.”

— Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director, Lupin | Q4 FY26

The early post-launch read suggests Torrent has surprised everyone. The single decision that won it that share was launching the oral version alongside the injectable — something no other generic did at scale.

“Torrent held 38% share among generic players as per the Pharmatrac April data set, with 28% share in the injectable format and 100% share in the oral format.”

— Aman Mehta, Management, Torrent Pharmaceuticals | Q4 FY26

In rupee terms, even Torrent’s standout is small — about ₹17 crore of monthly sales against a quarterly revenue base of roughly ₹3,000 crore. For now, the point of Bet 1 is defensive: don’t let the competitor own the diabetes prescription pad. The money comes later.

Bet 2 — Don’t fight the generics, sell the original

Here’s the counter-bet. If the generic market is going to be a knife fight at ₹1,290 a month, why be in it at all? Instead, partner with the original drugmaker, sell their actual product at a premium, and lean on their global data and their device.

Emcure took this bet hardest. In late 2025, it signed an exclusive deal with Novo Nordisk to launch Poviztra in India. Poviztra is the same drug as Wegovy — Novo’s semaglutide for obesity — just sold under a different brand name in India by Emcure. The molecule is identical. The device is identical (Novo’s own pen). And the data behind it is the same global trial evidence Novo has been collecting for years.

“It was after a fierce competition there were at least 8 or 9 companies who were interested in partnering with Novo Nordisk and they selected Emcure. And we became the only company to launch the innovator drug in the game-changing semaglutide category.”

— Satish Mehta, MD & CEO, Emcure Pharmaceuticals | Q3 FY26

The logic is straightforward. Post-LOE, you have 17 generic semaglutide brands fighting for shelf space, and none of them have Novo’s vast trial record — the evidence on how the drug behaves in patients who also carry other conditions, what the industry calls comorbidities. So Emcure’s pitch to doctors is simple: this is the actual Wegovy, just at a more accessible price than the imported original.

“If you look at the construct of this deal, obviously, post-LOE, we anticipate a very crowded market in India. And so the ability to partner with Novo and launch this brand ahead of the competition and allowing ourselves to shape the market and have brand recall versus being lost in the crowd probably 4, 5 months down the line is something that we feel strongly will allow us to succeed.”

— Vikas Thapar, President, Corporate Development, Emcure | Q2 FY26

Cipla ran a different version of the same bet — and arguably the cleaner one. Rather than partnering with Novo on semaglutide, which is now copyable, Cipla partnered with Eli Lilly on tirzepatide, launching Yurpeak in India in late 2025. Yurpeak is Lilly’s Mounjaro, marketed in India by Cipla under a different name.

The crucial difference is the patent. Tirzepatide’s Indian patent runs until at least 2030, so Cipla isn’t fighting any generic competition at all. It’s selling a still-patented innovator drug, at innovator-adjacent prices, into a country where Mounjaro became the second-largest pharmaceutical retail product within a year of launch. It helps that tirzepatide mimics two gut hormones rather than one — GIP as well as GLP-1 — which is why its trials show even bigger weight loss.

“Tirzepatide is the first and only dual agonist of GIP and GLP-1, which makes it a very unique proposition. And while both products have been launched by the respective innovators, you can see from the uptake that Tirzepatide uptake is far ahead.”

— Achin Gupta, Global COO, Cipla | Q2 FY26

“As you see from IQVIA data, last month the molecule was clocking upwards of Rs. 130 crores a month. So, our efforts are primarily focused on that.”

— Achin Gupta, MD & Global CEO Designate, Cipla | Q3 FY26

Yurpeak’s ₹14 crore in its first month annualises to about ₹168 crore at the launch run-rate. Small against Cipla’s quarterly revenue — but it’s a healthy margin on a molecule that is still on patent, while the rest of the industry slugs it out at near-cost prices.

Both Emcure and Cipla are making the same wager: don’t try to be the cheapest. Try to be the only one allowed to sell the real thing.

Bet 3 — Differentiate the device

A third group accepted that they’d be launching a generic, but decided to win share through a better pen rather than a lower price.

Zydus went furthest here. The standard semaglutide regimen forces patients to switch devices as the dose climbs — one pen for the first four weeks at the starter dose, another at the next level, another for maintenance. Three different disposable pens over the first few months. Zydus built a single reusable pen with a 15 mg / 3 ml cartridge that handles every dose.

“We have a new formulation where it’s a very significant ease to the patient in terms of use. Also, there is a very meaningful benefit in terms of cost because today, we have in, typically for weight loss, you have to shift from the first four weeks to the next four weeks with a different dose and that means a different pen device. For us, we have a…. and we don’t need to make any changes from the initial dosing to the higher dosing.”

— Dr. Sharvil Patel, Managing Director, Zydus Lifesciences | Q3 FY26

The clever part is what Zydus did next. Instead of trying to take share alone, it licensed the same pen to Lupin and Torrent under semi-exclusive co-marketing deals. Three of the strongest sales forces in India, all pushing the same differentiated device.

“This being a highly competitive product with the multiple launches, we believe that the best strategy would be to launch with more players to create more share of voice and more impact for the new formulation with the customers.”

— Dr. Sharvil Patel, Managing Director, Zydus Lifesciences | Q4 FY26

The arithmetic is striking. Lupin’s, Torrent’s and Zydus’s generic injectable market in April 2026 — 57% of all generic semaglutide sales in India — all flow back to Zydus’s Ahmedabad production lines. The device was the moat and partnerships with others was the distribution.

“The product from Zydus is a unique pen and I think that’s differentiation in the market as well. Our patient support program is pretty solid as well. So, a so good start. I think we’re the number two company as a generic one, the number three as a product itself.”

— Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director, Lupin | Q4 FY26

Sun Pharma’s differentiation was an auto-injector — a pen designed so the needle stays hidden and the injection happens automatically when the patient holds it against the skin. Same molecule, same dose; what changes is the patient’s experience.

“The product has been received very well by the doctor community and one of the differentiating points is our auto-injector as well as the pen system which was appreciated by the doctors and patients equally well.”

— Kirti Ganorkar, Managing Director, Sun Pharma | Q4 FY26

Bet 4 — Sit out the rush

Mankind Pharma did something none of its peers did. It launched a pen, then deliberately refused to compete on price, refused to launch the cheaper vial, and started pointing its energy elsewhere.

“In this competitive market, we have launched our GLP Pen. And we are not in a hurry to launch vials. We are not in a hurry to cut down the prices.”

— Rajeev Juneja, Vice Chairman & MD, Mankind Pharma | Q4 FY26

This is the contrarian bet. The logic: when 50 companies are fighting over the same molecule at falling prices, the better business isn’t winning that fight. It’s selling all the other things patients on GLP-1 also need.

“We are focusing on GLP-1. It’s a long term and a large opportunity for any Indian company to ignore that. But we are also focusing on adjacent and supportive therapies like vitamins and minerals and protein, which is going to grow better in the time to come.”

— Sheetal Arora, CEO, Mankind Pharma | Q4 FY26

The numbers suggest the basket strategy is already working. Mankind’s anti-diabetes portfolio grew 14.4% in Q3 FY26 — about 1.9 times the market, excluding new GLP-1 launches. Chronic-care now contributes 39.3% of its domestic business. The semaglutide pen launched into an existing chronic-care engine, not into a vacuum.

“What we’re doing, we are basically working on the adjacent therapies like vitamins, minerals, protein side because ultimately, a company which would be selling the complete portfolio will be having a better advantage. So our approach is a bit different than the rest of the people actually.”

— Rajeev Juneja, Vice Chairman & MD, Mankind Pharma | Q4 FY26

There’s a longer game behind it, too. Mankind has a novel molecule, MKP10241 — a small-molecule oral obesity drug — in Phase II trials in Australia. Nothing for FY27 or FY28. But it’s the kind of asset that can turn a defensive GLP-1 launch into an offensive franchise if it works.

Bet 5 — Export the molecule

For companies with international footprints, the Indian market is the appetiser. The main course is everywhere else the innovator is still supply-constrained — Brazil, Canada, the Middle East, parts of Europe.

Dr Reddy’s is the most aggressive here, with 26 GLP-1 products in the pipeline and a plan to launch across 87 countries.

“First of all, I see that as many, many years of opportunity. Actually, we are entering a decade of GLP-1 products. Obviously, it’s going to change and evolve. The full portfolio of GLP-1 for the company is 26 products.”

— Erez Israeli, CEO, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories | Q1 FY26

Different companies are betting on different geographies. Torrent’s whole international strategy hinges on Brazil — a market whose regulator, ANVISA, is so strict about semaglutide that pharmacies have to keep physical copies of every prescription.

“Each prescription for Semaglutide has to be issued in two copies. And with the indication on the prescription and the pharmacy is required to maintain extensive records, including a copy of each prescription.”

— Sanjay Gupta, Executive Director, International Business, Torrent | Q1 FY26

“Roughly the market is $1 billion for Semaglutide. You can divide it into the injectable at 75% and oral at roughly 25%. Currently, the Ozempic market is declining very fast and Wegovy is growing very fast. There are no generic launches in Brazil as of today.”

— Management, Torrent Pharmaceuticals | Q4 FY26

Biocon is going direct in Europe — selling its own generic liraglutide, an older GLP-1 drug, in the Netherlands rather than through a partner — and out-licensing semaglutide to Ajanta Pharma for 26 countries across Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

“We launched generic Liraglutide for diabetes and obesity in the Netherlands as our first ‘direct-to-market’ GLP-1 in the EU. We also signed an out-licensing agreement with Ajanta Pharma to market our vertically integrated drug product, Semaglutide, in 26 countries across Africa, Middle East and Central Asia.”

— Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Group | Q3 FY26

Biocon’s cost edge here is structural. The company spent years building fermentation-based capacity to make its peptides — growing them in living cells — rather than taking the more common route of stitching them together through synthetic chemistry. At scale, fermentation brings the cost of the active ingredient down from roughly $200 a gram to between $20 and $50 — a 4-10x advantage rivals can’t easily replicate. In a generic market that will eventually be priced like a commodity, that’s the difference between making money and not. In the September 2025 quarter, Biocon’s generics business grew 24% year-on-year to ₹774 crore, with margins on its biosimilars — near-copies of complex biological drugs — expanding to 28% at the operating-profit (EBITDA) level.

Lupin is leaning on South Africa and Brazil. Emcure picked up Quebec through a Dr Reddy’s partnership. Zydus is taking its differentiated pen to 20-plus markets.

The wrinkle is that this bet has been slower than anyone expected. Canada — meant to be the first big market after the patent expired — stalled for most of the year, with Health Canada clearing no generic GLP-1 at all. Dr Reddy’s, after a Notice of Non-Compliance in October 2025, finally won approval — the first one through. For most of the year, the picture looked like this:

“Of course, the review cycle is long drawn, especially in markets such as Canada, where we have not seen a single generic GLP being approved, including liraglutide, which has not been approved by Health Canada.”

— Siddharth Mittal, CEO & MD, Biocon | Q3 FY26

The export bet has a cleaner economic logic than the domestic one. Innovator pricing abroad is still high, generic competition is thin, and the ₹5,000-crore incremental opportunity Systematix talks about is, in the analysts’ own framing, largely an export number — concentrated in far fewer hands than the domestic chaos suggests.

Bet 6 — Sell the shovels

In any gold rush, some people decide not to dig. They sell the shovels.

In Indian GLP-1, the shovel-sellers split into two distinct camps. One is making the pens for everyone else launching this year. The other is making the chemical raw materials for the next generation of drugs, the ones nobody has launched yet. Both businesses are quietly more profitable than selling the generic itself.

Sub-part A — Make the pens for everyone else

Semaglutide is a hard drug to manufacture. It’s a 31-amino-acid lipidated peptide — a chemically intricate chain that most Indian small-molecule drugmakers can’t produce consistently at industrial scale. And even the companies that can make the active ingredient often can’t fill it into pens themselves, because cartridge fill-finish — the sterile step of loading the drug into the device — needs specialised, isolator-based sterile lines. There are perhaps three or four such facilities in the whole country.

So a separate set of companies decided not to launch generics at all. They decided to make the pens for everyone who is.

OneSource Specialty Pharma is the dominant player. It’s what the industry calls a CDMO — a contract development and manufacturing organisation, a company that builds a drug end-to-end for others to sell under their own labels. And the pitch is exactly that end-to-end-ness: develop the formulation, fill the cartridge, assemble the pen, serialise the box.

“Our biggest value proposition to our customers is end-to-end we supply. Not only we do development for them, we will do commercial manufacturing for fill finish for cartridge, pack it, put it in the box, serialize it. So the box which a patient opens at home is the box coming out of one source site.”

— Neeraj Sharma, CEO & MD, OneSource Specialty Pharma | Q2 FY26

The scale is real. OneSource has signed up more than twenty customers — and has stopped taking new ones. Capacity is being scaled from 40 million units in FY26 to 220 million in FY27. Its customer base holds roughly two-thirds of the Indian generic semaglutide market by value. Several customers have paid capacity-reservation fees up front; others are on take-or-pay contracts, which means they owe OneSource for the reserved capacity whether or not they actually take the product.

“And today as we speak, our customer base total as on end of April holds almost two-thirds of the Indian market share by value of the generic market… We are the first and the only CDMO partner for the first three generic Semaglutide approvals in all the highly regulated markets, US and Canada.”

— Neeraj Sharma, CEO & MD, OneSource Specialty Pharma | Q4 FY26

Gland Pharma is running the same play with cartridges — capacity expanded from 40 million to 140 million units a year, eight GLP-1 contracts signed, six or seven more in the pipeline.

“In the GLP-1 space, we have made significant progress with eight contracts already signed and an additional 6-7 expected to be signed soon. Our current cartridge capacity now stands at 140 million units. Our approach remains disciplined and value-focused, positioning this as a strong mid-to-long-term opportunity with meaningful upside.”

— Srinivas Sadu, Executive Chairman, Gland Pharma | Q4 FY26

The neat thing about this bet is that these companies don’t care who wins the Indian launch war. Whoever ends up selling the pen — they made it.

Sub-part B — Make the building blocks for the next wave

Go one layer deeper. The fill-finish CDMOs need cartridges, the cartridges need an active ingredient, and that active ingredient is a peptide that has to be synthesised from raw chemical pieces. That’s where the second group of shovel-sellers sits.

A quick definition. A peptide is a chain of amino acids — essentially a small protein. Semaglutide itself is a 31-amino-acid peptide. To make a peptide drug, you take individual amino acids, chemically “protect” them so they don’t react in the wrong places, link them together in the right order, and then strip the protections off at the right time. The whole thing get assembled like Lego into the final drug.

Divi’s Laboratories made the most interesting choice here. It flatly refused to make generic GLP-1s. Instead, it sells the Lego pieces — fragments and amino acids — to the original innovators like Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, who use them to build their own peptide drugs.

“Divi has strategically decided that we will not look at generic part of peptide synthesis. We are right now fully occupied with the amount of CS projects we have. So, we do not want to venture into that mode.”

— Dr. Kiran S. Divi, Whole-Time Director & CEO, Divi’s Laboratories | Q2 FY26

The economics are very different from Sub-part A. Divi’s makes its own protected amino acids in-house — dull to describe, but it gives the company a grip on cost and on impurity that pure peptide assemblers don’t have. It has earmarked roughly ₹700-800 crore per project for three new dedicated peptide units. Custom synthesis — what it calls its innovator-facing business — already accounts for 56% of Divi’s revenue, and that segment grew 23% year-on-year in Q2 FY26.

“The one unique thing about Divi’s is, we manufacture our own protected amino acids, which gives us both in natural and unnatural, which gives us an edge over everyone, because we control our quantities, we control our cost, we control our impurity profile.”

— Dr. Kiran S. Divi, Whole-Time Director & CEO, Divi’s Laboratories | Q2 FY26

The trade-off is clean. The branded generics are scrapping over a fragmented Indian retail market. Divi’s is selling shovels to the prospectors who still own the gold mine.

Neuland is running a similar bet, but framing it bigger. The global peptide CDMO market, in its telling, has gone from a $1-1.5 billion category to $5-6 billion in just a few years — and most of that explosion is downstream of GLP-1’s success, which has made innovators want to develop the next generation of peptide drugs.

“What used to be a $1 or $1.5 billion market space is now a $5 or $6 billion market space and it is growing very rapidly because more and more drugs are coming out into the market, which are peptides.”

— Saharsh Davuluri, Vice-Chairman & MD, Neuland Laboratories | Q1 FY26

“It’s not just about the weight loss drugs that have been commercialized, but it’s also about the next gens, not just from the large companies, but other companies as well. So there is a plethora of development candidates, which are peptides.”

— Saharsh Davuluri, MD & CEO, Neuland Laboratories | Q4 FY26

Laurus Labs, Syngene, Piramal Pharma and Shilpa Medicare are all running variations of this bet. Different scales, different positioning, but the same thesis: don’t bet on which generic semaglutide wins in India — bet on the entire peptide modality, globally, over the next decade.

A coda — the diagnostics tag-along

There’s one more bet, and it isn’t pharma at all. If millions of new patients go on a powerful weekly injection, somebody has to test their bloodwork. Diagnostic labs see the GLP-1 boom as a downstream opportunity.

Metropolis Healthcare is the most explicit about it:

“On the GLP-1 front, the receptor agonist market in India is currently valued at USD 110 million in 2024 and is projected to grow to USD 500 million by 2030. This shift is likely to drive higher demand for regular monitoring of glucose, lipids, liver, kidney, and cardiac parameters.”

— Ameera Shah, Chairperson, Metropolis Healthcare | Q1 FY26

Dr Lal PathLabs is less convinced — at least so far:

“Patient volume growth is partly a factor of the improved collection and lab network we have put in place. It is definitely not driven by GLP-1.”

— Shankha Banerjee, CEO, Dr Lal PathLabs | Q4 FY26

A bet that’s real but small. The kind of thing that shows up in the numbers two or three years from now, not next quarter.

A footnote on what’s not a bet — the next-generation Indian molecules

Beneath the semaglutide land grab, three Indian companies are quietly building their own proprietary metabolic drugs — ones that could end up mattering more than any generic launch.

Sun Pharma has GL0034 (also called Utreglutide), an in-house GLP-1 molecule now in global Phase II trials for both Type 2 diabetes and MASH, a form of fatty liver disease. Mankind has MKP10241, a small-molecule oral obesity drug, in Phase II in Australia. Lupin is developing its own oral semaglutide in-house and has partnered with China’s Gan & Lee on Bofanglutide, a novel fortnightly GLP-1 agonist.

None of these reach the market for two to four years. None move FY27 earnings. But they’re the only assets in the listed Indian pharma universe that could turn GLP-1 from a defensive franchise into an offensive one.

TL;DR

Semaglutide came off patent in India on 21 March 2026, and within a week thirteen companies had launched twenty-six generic brands. But the synchronised launch hides six different answers to the same question — how do you actually make money off this molecule? Most went for the generic pen and split into price tiers; Eris reframed it as a metabolic drug for “thin-fat” India; Emcure and Cipla skipped the generic fight and sold the innovators’ own products; Zydus won by licensing a better pen to its rivals; Mankind sat out the price war; Dr Reddy’s, Torrent and Biocon chased exports; and OneSource, Gland, Divi’s and Neuland sold the shovels. The point isn’t that everyone launched — it’s that almost no one chose to compete head-on with the company next door. Combined listed-player revenue is still just ₹100-130 crore a month. The real money is two years out, and most of it will be made outside India.

That’s it for now! Your feedback will really help shape how The Chatter evolves. Drop it down in the comments below!

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Disclaimer: We’ve used AI tools in filtering and cleaning up these quotes & narratives so there maybe some mistakes. Now, if you are thinking why we are using AI, please remember that we are just a small team of 5 people running everything you see on Zerodha Markets 😬 So, all the good stuff is human and mistakes are AI.

Welcome to the 61st edition of The Chatter — a weekly newsletter where we dig through what India’s biggest companies are saying and bring you the most interesting bits of insight, whether about the business, its sector, or the wider economy. We read every major Indian earnings call and listen to the interviews so you don’t have to.

We’re always eager to improve—please share your ideas on how else we can innovate “The Chatter” format to better serve your needs.

In this edition, we have covered 13 companies across 9 industries.

Energy

• Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited

Retail

• Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited

• Redtape Limited

• V2 Retail Limited

Auto

• Amara Raja Energy & Mobility Ltd

• Ashok Leyland

Consumer Durables

• LG Electronics India

Healthcare

• Divi’s Laboratories

• Aarti Pharmalabs Limited

Aerospace & Defence

• Aequs Limited

Financial Services

• Pine Labs

Engineering & Capital Goods

• Bajel Projects Limited

Real Estate

• AGI Infra

Energy

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited | Large Cap | Oil & Gas Exploration & Production

ONGC is India’s largest state-owned energy company, contributing significantly to the country’s domestic crude oil and natural gas production. The group operates across the entire energy value chain through major subsidiaries like HPCL, MRPL, and its international arm, ONGC Videsh.

[Concall]

The company is receiving premium pricing for natural gas produced from new wells, which is linked to 12% of international crude prices. This pricing policy incentivizes the company to invest more in exploration to replace older, lower-priced gas fields.

In fact, I do not think there is any local market in the world that pays more than 12% of the oil price. LNG is different because liquefaction costs are involved, but for new wells, India is likely the highest-paying market for onshore production. That also proves the government’s intention is to leave more money with E&P operators to fund further production and exploration.”

— Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and CEO

Management expects nearly all of its gas production to eventually qualify for higher ‘new-well’ pricing as old reserves deplete. This shift toward high-margin gas will significantly improve the company’s long-term cash flow and profitability.

It is a matter of time—perhaps 4 to 6 years maximum—before almost 80-90% of ONGC gas becomes new-well gas under the current policy. You can factor that price into your calculations; at a crude price of 90 dollars, we get 10.8 dollars. We value gas more than oil in the local market for various reasons, primarily because managing gas is less cumbersome, which keeps more money in our pocket.”

— Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and CEO

The petrochemical subsidiary, OPaL, is showing strong signs of financial recovery and is expected to grow its core earnings significantly this year. A successful turnaround here reduces the financial burden on the parent company and improves consolidated margins.

Regarding OPaL, we promised a turnaround and have almost achieved it. Our EBITDA reached 1,206 crores last year, although it was impacted in March when gas was diverted to LPG production. We expect this year’s EBITDA to reach 1,500-2,000 crores.”

— Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and CEO

International production from the Sakhalin project has fully recovered to levels seen before geopolitical disruptions began. This stability in overseas assets is vital for the company’s diversified production goals.

Regarding OVL and our subsidiaries, we are back in Sakhalin and it is at full blast. Production is at pre-Ukraine levels. Sakhalin is our top asset within OVL.”

— Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and CEO

The company is investing in a new port joint venture to lower its transportation costs and improve logistics for its petrochemical products. This strategic move strengthens the company’s infrastructure and market reach in northern India.

Finally, we approved a new joint venture with the Gujarat Maritime Board to create a port at Dahej. Dahej is the closest port to the densely populated northern parts of the country, making it the most cost-effective for transportation. It will also serve our interests for OPaL and LPG, particularly with the 8 million tonne Kandla-Gorakhpur pipeline.”

— Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and CEO

The company is rebranding its identity to focus on gas, which now offers better profit margins than oil. Increasingly, new gas projects will benefit from free-market pricing rather than government-capped rates.

The macro picture is that gas is currently more lucrative for us. We should call ourselves a gas and oil company, rather than an oil and gas company. New gas, even from APM blocks like the DSF, is subject to free pricing and is not governed by the 12% slope.”

— Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and CEO

The government has recently allowed the company to retain full market prices for oil without imposing windfall taxes or price discounts. This policy shift significantly increases the company’s earnings potential during periods of high global oil prices.

Despite the crisis and losses to OMCs, they didn’t apply SAED. Previously, we had to provide discounts up to 2 lakh crores. This time, we got flat Brent prices even at 140 dollars. As an ONGC investor, this is the best outcome.”

— Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and CEO

A large one-time loss was recorded this quarter due to the mandatory return of an unproductive exploration block to the government. This is an accounting write-off and does not reflect a decline in the company’s ongoing operational health.

The Q4 abnormality was due to a block the government took away (DSF-4). We had drilled a well but didn’t develop it due to commerciality issues. Since the asset was lost, we had to write off about 1,800 crores. That was a one-off item, not the normal process.”

— Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and CEO

The company has committed to a new major offshore development in Brazil, securing its production pipeline for the 2030s. This long-term project helps ensure the durability of the company’s international energy portfolio.

Regarding BM-C-34 in the Sergipe-Alagoas basin, the FID has been taken and the FPSO has been contracted. We are moving ahead with development. OVL’s net share of production should be 1.3 million tonnes per annum, starting in 2030 for oil and 2031 for gas.”

— Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and CEO

Retail

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited | Mid Cap | Retail - Apparel

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited is a leading Indian fashion conglomerate with a vast brand portfolio including Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, and Allen Solly. The company operates over 1,200 stores and has significantly expanded into the ethnic wear and digital-first brand segments.

[Concall]

The integration of TCNS is showing progress with significant improvements in underlying sales growth and product relevance. Investors should watch for these gains to translate into sustained bottom-line profitability for the ethnic segment.

“Within premium ethnic wear brands, TCNS continued with its profitability improvement journey during the year. The business delivered 7% like-to-like growth in Q4 and 10% like-to-like growth in FY26, supported by a sharper product proposition, refreshed collections, and new launches that resonate well with consumers.”

— Jagdish Bajaj, CFO

The digital-first brand portfolio, TMRW, has secured substantial funding to fuel its growth without immediate further strain on the parent company. This funding cushion is vital as the company aims to reach segment-level profitability by FY29.

“As you are aware, with the equity issuance of Rs 440 crore during the year and more recent fund tie-up of Rs 500 crore through NCDs, TMRW is now adequately funded with Rs 800 crore cash to pursue its aggressive growth plans. This balanced approach should help drive long-term growth, improve operating leverage, strengthen the overall margin profile, and build a solid foundation for sustained profitability over time.”

— Jagdish Bajaj, CFO

Input costs are rising, and the company plans to pass these on to consumers through mid-to-high single-digit price hikes. Investors should monitor whether these price increases impact overall volume growth in the coming quarters.

“We are experiencing something like 3-4% inflationary pressure as far as raw materials are concerned. To fully counter it, we would take price increases between 5-8% depending on the category. We are still evaluating and we do not have a firm view on whether we will pass on all of it or some part of it.”

— Ashish Dixit, Managing Director

The digital brands under the TMRW umbrella are expected to hit profitability in three years, supported by their current cash reserves. Reaching a 1,500 crore run rate provides the necessary scale to begin improving the segment’s bottom line.

“Regarding profitability for TMRW, we had indicated FY29 as the year in which we expect the TMRW portfolio level—the sum of all brands—to become profitable. We feel 800 crores is a substantial amount of cash for a business which is already on a run rate of 1,500 crores. With scale, we will drive profitability.”

— Ashish Dixit, Managing Director

Redtape Limited | Mid Cap | Footwear

Redtape Limited is a leading Indian lifestyle brand specializing in footwear, apparel, and accessories with a significant retail presence across tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The company operates an omnichannel model through over 550 stores and dominant positioning on major e-commerce marketplaces like Flipkart and Myntra.

[Concall]

Management is seeing a permanent move by small-town consumers toward branded footwear. This trend, supported by tax benefits, provides a long-term volume growth runway for the company’s core product range.

“The Indian consumer, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 towns where the majority of our stores sit, is making a clear and steady shift towards organized branded products. The GST reduction on footwear below 2,500 was a meaningful volume catalyst for us, specifically because nearly all our products sit in that bracket. What I want to emphasize, though, is that the volumes we saw were not simply a one-time GST-led pull-forward.”

— Arvind Verma, Whole Time Director

The company is expanding beyond shoes into clothing and high-margin accessories to increase how much each customer spends. This diversification strategy helps attract a wider audience, including women, which could drive future revenue growth.

“Apparel is the category that widens our addressable market and lifts basket size. We are investing meaningfully behind women’s apparel as well and will push this further in FY27. Accessories gave us a revenue of 75 crores throughout the year, small in absolute terms today, but growing the fastest and carrying the highest margin profile.”

— Arvind Verma, Whole Time Director

The company’s long-term supply contracts protect it from sudden increases in raw material costs. This allows them to maintain stable prices and margins even when inflation affects the wider market.

“Although there is some pressure in the market, we work on a system where there is a 6-month design-to-production ratio. When the POs are released almost 6 months in advance, and once we have opened an LC, the vendor cannot come back and say there is a shift in the price range. That will not impact us much in the near future.”

— Arvind Verma, Whole Time Director

Redtape is using its strong cash generation to rapidly pay down debt and strengthen the balance sheet. This reduction in borrowing costs should lead to higher net profits for shareholders over time.

“If you look at our numbers, our debt outstanding has considerably gone down by 200 crores from September to March. Also, operating cash flow has increased; we currently have 175 crores in operating cash flow. As far as the inventory is concerned, we are planning to get it down to 150 days.”

— Vivek Agnihotri, Chief Financial Officer

The company has an ambitious plan to nearly double its store count while expanding into new geographic regions. This suggests a high level of confidence in the scalability of their brand across all of India.

“We are planning to add almost 200 to 250 stores. The size would be between 500 to 1,500 square feet. We will maintain the same ratio of 25% to 35% COCO stores, with the rest being FOFO. We are now moving into South and West India.”

— Arvind Verma, Whole Time Director

V2 Retail Limited | Small Cap | Retail

V2 Retail is a leading value fashion retailer in India primarily targeting Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities with affordable apparel. The company operates a network of over 325 stores and has demonstrated aggressive growth in the value fashion segment.

[Concall]

Management has temporarily increased inventory levels as a precautionary measure against global supply chain disruptions. Investors should expect working capital levels to normalize once geopolitical pressures ease and inventory returns to the 90-100 day target.

“Lastly, due to geopolitical tension, we have increased our safety stock in the month of March for seamless availability of stock, which has resulted in higher inventory levels in the month of March. Once the situation normalizes, we will reduce our safety stock. We are looking to maintain inventory at 90 to 100 days and creditors at 45 days.”

— Akash Agarwal, Director and CEO

The company is accelerating its physical expansion with plans to open up to 200 new stores in the upcoming year. Crucially, this growth is currently self-funded through internal cash flows, reducing the immediate need for equity dilution.

“For this year, the target would be anywhere between 170 to 200 stores, completely dependent on how we are performing and how the momentum continues. ... For at least this financial year, we are covered with internal accruals and the cash on the balance sheet.”

— Akash Agarwal, Director and CEO

Management intends to prioritize debt over equity for any future capital needs due to their strong balance sheet. This approach signals a commitment to avoiding further shareholder dilution while pursuing aggressive growth.

“No, our debt-to-equity ratio is very healthy, so we have the option of getting more debt on the books. I think that will be our first preference even if we need some cash for future expansion.”

— Akash Agarwal, Director and CEO

The company plans to pass through rising raw material costs to consumers rather than absorbing them in their margins. This pricing power is essential for maintaining gross margins in the 28% to 30% range amid inflationary pressures.

“Yes, we have seen some movement in yarn prices and that would have to be transferred to the customer. We will maintain our gross margins and prices might go up in the future by 3% to 4%.”

— Akash Agarwal, Director and CEO

Management has set a high bar by guiding for 50% revenue growth over the next two years. They are positioning the company to capture the structural shift from unorganized to organized retail in India’s growing economy.

“We are guiding for at least 50% revenue growth over the next 2 years. ... India is poised to grow at 5% to 6% GDP in the next 20 years and if you look at organized retail, it is poised to grow at 9% to 10%. We want to capture most of that market.”

— Akash Agarwal, Director and CEO

While aggressive expansion initially pulls down the average sales per square foot, new stores are starting at a healthy 70% of mature store levels. The company’s overall productivity is expected to rise as this massive wave of new stores reaches maturity over the next few years.

“We opened 130 new stores and the new stores start at about 70% of the sales per square foot of old stores. ... As they mature, you will see the growth in company PSF as well.”

— Akash Agarwal, Director and CEO

The company has shortened its lease lock-in periods to provide more flexibility in closing underperforming stores. This accounting and operational change reduces long-term liability risks while aligning more closely with industry standards.

“We changed the policy last quarter. We decided we would look at at least 2 to 3 years of performance for a new store before deciding whether to continue operating it. Our lock-ins and leases are about 1 year and the vendor lock-in is 11 years.”

— Akash Agarwal, Director and CEO

Auto

Amara Raja Energy & Mobility Ltd. | Large Cap | Auto Components & Equipments

Amara Raja is a leading Indian manufacturer of lead-acid batteries for automotive and industrial applications under the popular Amaron brand. The company is currently undergoing a strategic transformation to establish a significant presence in the lithium-ion cell and battery energy storage sectors.

[Concall]

The company continues to rely heavily on its traditional lead-acid business while the new energy segment is still in its early stages of revenue contribution. This high concentration highlights the continued importance of legacy battery demand to fund future technology shifts.

“During Q4 FY26, we achieved a consolidated revenue of approximately 3,530 crores. That is a growth close to 16% over the previous year. Of this revenue, about 92% came from our lead-acid battery business, and the rest is from the new energy business.”

— Y. Delli Babu, Chief Financial Officer

Management is maintaining stable double-digit margins in the core business despite rising input costs and a shift toward lower-margin original equipment manufacturer sales. This profitability is critical as these cash flows are needed to support the company’s massive transition to lithium-based technologies.

“At the lead-acid battery business level, we sustained operating margins of about 12% despite tremendous cost pressures at the raw material level and in operating costs. Raw material costs, particularly for alloys and sulfuric acid, increased substantially during the quarter due to ongoing geopolitical conflicts. Additionally, we saw a higher OEM mix during the current quarter, with growth upwards of 30% in both four-wheeler and two-wheeler OEMs, which impacts overall margins.”

— Y. Delli Babu, Chief Financial Officer

The company is aggressively shifting its capital allocation towards the new energy business, with nearly 75% of next year’s budget focused on lithium projects. This significant investment confirms the management’s commitment to transforming the company’s primary business model.

“In the coming year, we will spend between 1,500 and 1,700 crores in capex. Approximately 400 crores will go toward the lead-acid battery business, and the remaining 1,100 to 1,200 crores will be for the new energy business.”

— Y. Delli Babu, Chief Financial Officer

Management is pivoting their short-term new energy focus toward the stationary storage market, which is seeing more immediate domestic demand than electric vehicles. This adjustment ensures that their upcoming cell manufacturing capacity has a ready market as soon as production begins.

“A major strategic change is the increased focus on ESS. Earlier, we focused largely on EV, expecting it to drive short-term growth. While EV momentum remains steady and remains the largest long-term opportunity, the ESS market has accelerated due to the renewable energy drive in India.”

— Vikramaditya Gourineni, Executive Director - New Energy Business

The company has maintained its timeline for its first major lithium cell production line despite the complexity of the project. Using a pilot plant first is a deliberate strategy to minimize technical risks before scaling up to mass production.

“The first 2 gigawatt hour line, Giga-1, remains on target to start production in June 2027. We consciously chose to build R&D and pilot production first, and our experience with the customer qualification plant will help smooth the learning curve for Giga-1 and future mass manufacturing facilities.”

— Vikramaditya Gourineni, Executive Director - New Energy Business

Geopolitical tensions have forced the company to transition from licensed Chinese technology to internal research and development for their lithium cells. This shift increases the execution risk for their Gigafactory but ensures they maintain control over their intellectual property and supply chain.

“Since then, technology sharing and licensing from China have been disrupted by their government, affecting all technical tie-ups. We face challenges working directly on technology licensing with Chinese entities right now. As I mentioned, while we took what we could from earlier cooperation, our product development efforts for NMC, LFP, and future chemistries are now largely driven by our teams in India.”

— Vikramaditya Gourineni, Executive Director - New Energy Business

Inflation is hitting non-lead inputs like plastics and sulfur significantly, adding cost pressure beyond just metal prices. The company’s ability to pass these specific costs through to customers will be a key determinant of their margin performance in the coming year.

“Plastics account for almost 10% of our raw material cost, and we could see a 40% price increase if current momentum continues. Sulfur is driving up acid prices, and fuel costs are increasing inbound and outbound freight.”

— Y. Delli Babu, Chief Financial Officer

Domestic cell manufacturing currently faces a significant cost disadvantage compared to Chinese imports due to the absence of a local raw material ecosystem. The business case for the Gigafactory relies heavily on potential government mandates for local sourcing to create a protected market.

“We estimate a ‘China plus $15 to $20’ gap because we lack a local material supply chain and scale. However, we anticipate that the government will mandate localization in sectors like energy storage where they are the primary buyer, similar to solar equipment.”

— Vikramaditya Gourineni, Executive Director - New Energy Business

Management believes that raw material constraints will make hybrid vehicles a more practical medium-term solution for India than pure electric vehicles. This perspective justifies their continued investment in traditional lead-acid technology as part of a multi-chemistry strategy.

“India cannot leapfrog directly into EVs because we cannot replace oil imports with a total dependency on imported raw materials for batteries. This means hybrids will likely accelerate, and we have solutions for all levels of hybridization.”

— Harsha Vardhana Gourineni, Executive Director - Automotive and Industrial

While the largest automotive manufacturers are building their own internal battery supply chains, a significant middle-tier market remains open for third-party cell suppliers. This competitive landscape defines the target customer base for Amara Raja’s future Gigafactory production.

“Regarding customers doing their own cells, large OEMs like Tata or Ola are doing so, but most OEMs we are in touch with do not have plans to localize cells and are looking to players like us. While some OEMs are moving pack assembly in-house, there are still many opportunities where they require both cell and pack from us.”

— Vikramaditya Gourineni, Executive Director - New Energy Business

Ashok Leyland | Mid Cap | Auto Ancillary

Ashok Leyland specializes in manufacturing commercial vehicles, components, and diesel engines for industrial, genset, and marine applications. Its foundry division produces automotive parts like cylinder blocks, heads, and tractor housings, serving the automotive industry.

[Concall]

The company achieved its highest-ever annual LCV volume in FY26, outperforming the industry with significant market share gains in Q4.

“Ashok Leyland’s domestic LCV volume for Q4 was at 21,801 units, higher by 23% year-over-year, with growth better than that of the industry. LCV Vahan market share for Q4 was 12.8% with a gain of 90 basis points on a year-over-year basis. For the full year, LCV volume was 74,322 units, higher by 12% year-over-year, and full-year LCV Vahan market share stood at 12.7%, higher by 80 basis points year-over-year. This is the highest ever annual volume recorded in LCV.”

— Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO

The company expects the tipper, multi-axle, and tip-trailer segments, driven by mining, infrastructure, and construction projects, to be the fastest-growing CV categories this year.

“This year, we think the tipper segment and the multi-axle segment would be the fastest-growing segments, followed by the tip-trailer segment. Anything connected with mines, infrastructure projects, or construction projects should show tremendous promise this year.”

— Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO

The industry is expected to maintain pricing discipline and implement multiple price hikes throughout the year to manage commodity cost challenges without significantly impacting demand.

“I think the current situation should add to that discipline. There would be a challenge on the commodity cost side. The industry, to the extent possible, should use their judgment to see how much can be passed on to the market without affecting demand. Generally speaking, we are hoping the industry looks at taking multiple price hikes during the year.”

— Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO

The defense business has its strongest ever order pipeline exceeding 1,500 crores, ensuring very strong growth for at least the next two to three years.

“But our order pipeline in defense is the strongest ever. It is above 1,500 crores for the orders in hand due for execution and supply. We also hope to receive many more orders during the year. For defense, we are very sure that for at least the next two to three years, we will show very strong growth.”

— Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO

The CEO believes any temporary dip in CV demand due to macroeconomic factors will likely transform into pent-up demand later, given strong industry fundamentals.

“My feeling is that even if there is a setback, this demand is not going to go away permanently. It is going to convert into pent-up demand. The reason I say that is because fundamentally the situation is very strong on the ground. The sentiment is strong. People have huge expansion plans. The aging of the fleet is at its highest. The rate cut has really improved the economics and the TCO of the fleet. When fundamentals are strong, even if there is a temporary dip because of a macroeconomic factor, that will end up becoming pent-up demand for the industry.”

— Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO

The company is adopting a phased approach to EV battery manufacturing, starting with packs for captive use, expanding to external automotive demand, and eventually considering cell manufacturing.

“No, we are starting with the pack first. It is a phased approach that we are adopting. So we are starting with the pack for captive consumption and also for energy storage systems. In the second phase, we will expand the pack capacity to get into non-captive demand on the automotive side. And then in the third phase, we will look at cell manufacturing.”

— Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO

Export volumes are anticipated to decline in Q1 due to ongoing international logistics issues, although conditions are improving.

“Now, of course, export volumes may still be affected because of the international logistics situation... So exports might drop, I would say, in Q1, although things are now coming back to normalcy as we speak.”

— Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO

Despite market sentiment around rising diesel prices impacting some logistics, the underlying demand for MHCV and LCV remains strong, supported by GST rationalization and fleet replacement needs.

“In May, we are not seeing any significant slowdown on either the MHCV or LCV side. However, there is a kind of sentiment attached to the diesel oil prices that is there in the market, which is affecting current logistics operations in many routes and areas. However, I think the resilience of demand based on GST and on the replacement factor is acting very, very strongly.”

— Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO

Ashok Leyland approaches the new fiscal year with cautious optimism, acknowledging positive CV demand drivers but also potential macroeconomic headwinds like commodity and diesel price volatility.

“Looking forward, we are entering the new fiscal year with cautious optimism. Demand drivers for commercial vehicles remain positive overall. However, we are mindful of macroeconomic headwinds such as global economic uncertainty, commodity price volatility, and diesel price increases.”

— Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO

Consumer Durables

LG Electronics India | Mid Cap | Consumer Durables

LG Electronics India Ltd, a leading home appliances & consumer electronics manufacturer since 1997, serves B2C & B2B markets in India and abroad. It offers diverse products, installation, and repair services, with strong distribution, manufacturing units, and extensive service centres.

[Concall]

LG India’s FY27 growth strategy, EXCEL, focuses on export expansion, new factory capability, market leadership, and localization.

“Looking ahead to FY27, we have established a clear roadmap for our future growth strategy. We call this strategy EXCEL. This stands for EX: Export expansion, C: Capability of new factory production, E: Expansion of market leadership, brand and new business, and L: Localization.”

— Soonjoo Seo, Investor Relations Officer

LG India’s localization rate reached 55.2% in FY26, with a target to increase by 1-2% annually to improve cost competitiveness and manage forex volatility.

“This year, our localization rate reached 55.2%, an improvement of about 1.4% points year-on-year. We are targeting an annual increase of more than 1% to 2% points going forward. We expect this to contribute to stronger cost competitiveness and more stable management of foreign exchange volatility.”

— Soonjoo Seo, Investor Relations Officer

Dishwashers became a significant growth driver in Q4 FY26 due to increasing urban consumer adoption.

“Our dishwashers business also emerged as an important growth driver this quarter, gaining meaningful traction as urban consumers increasingly embrace the convenience it offers.”

— Aditya Bhasin, Head, Investor Relations

LG maintained its absolute leadership in the premium television segment with a 60% OLED market share as of March 2026.

“In the premium television segment, LG maintained absolute leadership with an OLED market share of 60.0% as of YTD March 2026.”

— Aditya Bhasin, Head, Investor Relations

Q4 FY26 margin decline was primarily due to 5.6% Rupee depreciation and significant temporary strategic channel promotion investments (1.1% impact).

“However, the rupee depreciated almost by 5.6% year-on-year in this quarter, creating a meaningful headwind on our import cost. The single largest contributor was our channel promotion investments, which impacted margins by approximately 1.1%. These were temporary strategic investments made to separate our channel partners, drive sell-out, and strengthen our market position during this quarter, and build confidence among our channel partners.”

— Atul Khanna, Chief Accounting Officer

LG India expects margin recovery and early double-digit EBITDA margins in FY27 due to implemented price hikes, rationalized promotions, and strong summer demand.

“Looking ahead, with the price hikes now in place across categories, promotional intensity rationalizing, hot summer going on, we are confident of recovering our margins for financial year ‘27 and to deliver our early double digit EBITDA margins for ‘27 full year.”

— Atul Khanna, Chief Accounting Officer

AC demand is strong, refrigerators are trending towards larger and more energy-efficient models, and French door refrigerator market share rapidly grew from 5% to 14% by March 2026.

“ACs are very well supported by the summer demand, and we will surely deliver good growth over last year . Refrigerator demand is also steady and moving as per expectations . Customers are choosing larger and more energy - efficient models, which is a very positive signal for us . Our French door refrigerators are also doing extremely well. We launched these products in the month of November, and our market share jumped from 5% to 14% by March 2026 and we will become number one player for French door refrigerator very soon .”

— Sanjay Chitkara, Co-Chief Sales & Marketing Officer

LG India is entering the new INR 3000 crore chest freezer market with five competitively priced models, aiming to generate new revenue streams.

“On chest freezer, this is entirely a new category for LG India. And we are launching a strong range for five models in the upcoming quarter at very competitive prices. Currently the chest freezer market sizes is roughly around INR 3000 crores. And it will create new business revenue for us in the near term.”

— Sanjay Chitkara, Co-Chief Sales & Marketing Officer

Healthcare

Divi’s Laboratories | Large Cap | Healthcare

Divi’s Laboratories is a pharmaceutical company specializing in the manufacture of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), Intermediates, and Nutraceutical ingredients, with a strong focus on exports. The company offers custom synthesis services to support innovator pharma companies in developing their patented products, from clinical trials to late life cycle management.

[Concall]

Management acknowledged a challenging operating environment due to geopolitical tensions, logistics bottlenecks, and raw material inflation. Despite these uncertainties, the company remains confident about growth prospects and reiterated its long-standing growth aspiration.

“As historically that we always look for a double-digit growth in our revenues, and that’s what we would also say today.”

“With the change in scenarios, I would say it’s difficult to project, but we would say it would remain stable.”

— Nilima Prasad Divi, Whole-Time Director (Commercial)

The company provided one of its strongest comments on the impact of the Middle East conflict. Several suppliers have declared force majeure, and availability of solvents and intermediates has tightened significantly. However, Divi’s says operations remain uninterrupted.

“Yes, we are having difficulty in sourcing material, but we are not having any production stoppages at our end.”

“The impact is there on multiple products, not just on solvents. We are reviewing this on a quarter-on-quarter basis, and we are trying to secure every month for the next 3 months, how -- to make sure that our production is continuously running for the next 3 months.”

— Nilima Prasad Divi, Whole-Time Director (Commercial)

Management highlighted that geopolitical disruptions have materially impacted global logistics. Freight costs, shipping timelines, and availability of containers remain under pressure.

“During this period, a number of suppliers invoked force majeure clauses, while freight rates across both ocean and air transportation started increasing considerably.”

“Freight-related cost pressures are expected to continue in the near term, and we have incorporated these factors into our planning for the coming quarters.”

— Nilima Prasad Divi, Whole-Time Director (Commercial)

Divi’s indicated that demand remains healthy across its core generic portfolio. The challenge continues to be pricing rather than volumes.

“Generics has slight pricing pressure, but our customers also understand what’s happening in the market and they have been very understanding and we have been in constant discussion in how to manage the pricing at both end.”

“We have not lost any volumes or any supply or have any supply issues with any of our customers.”

— Dr. Kiran S. Divi, CEO

Divi’s clarified that recent growth has come from existing products and not from upcoming patent-expiry opportunities.

“The volume has been picked up. We had steady growth in volume, and our customer base has been quite steady in the generic business.”

“This is from our existing portfolio itself. While we are still waiting for our customers to launch our new portfolio, what we have told you in 2026-’27, as the products come off patent.”

— Dr. Kiran S. Divi, CEO

The company emphasized that most major generic APIs are covered by contracts containing raw material pass-through mechanisms.

“Most of our APIs on the generic segment are backed by long-term contracts, which have variability clauses, which protects us from such situations.”

“These are reviewed -- based on the contracts, some of them would be reviewed every 3 months. There is a clause where it directly impacts on the raw material plus.”

— Dr. Kiran S. Divi, CEO

This is perhaps the strongest strategic statement on the peptide opportunity made by management during the call.

“We have several 3,000-liter SPPS, which by far in India nobody has.”

“We are quite strong and committed towards this segment, and we are targeting to be one of the largest global players in the world.”

— Dr. Kiran S. Divi, CEO

Divi’s highlighted meaningful commercial traction in iodine-based contrast media with global innovators.

“We are working with most of the top players in the market at this point who are innovators.”

“In the Iodine base, we are already in commercial sales.”

— Dr. Kiran S. Divi, CEO

Divi’s continues transferring pre-chemistry and backward integration activities into Unit 3 to free up GMP capacity at existing facilities.

“Operations at Unit 3 have been steadily progressing, and the facility is now playing an increasingly important role in our overall operations by supporting our backward integration capacity.”

“Through the year, we have gradually transferred select activities from Unit 1 and Unit 2, freeing up GMP space.”

— Dr. Kiran S. Divi, CEO

Management cautioned investors against expecting immediate monetization from recently completed projects.

“The cycle is typically when we do an innovative product, we completely depend on the customer’s timeline.”

“We have seen time cycles all the way from 6 months... or we have seen as long as 3 years.”

“To be optimistic, we believe we would like to be in the 2-year range.”

— Dr. Kiran S. Divi, CEO

Despite port congestion, freight bottlenecks, and supply-chain challenges, management stated that customer deliveries remained unaffected during the quarter.

“No, we haven’t had any loss of revenue because of the logistics issues in the last quarter.”

— Nilima Prasad Divi, Whole-Time Director (Commercial)

Unlike previous supply-chain disruptions, Divi’s is not seeing meaningful stockpiling behavior from customers. Management attributes this to its reputation for reliable delivery.

“Our supply chain model is pretty stable. We proactively make sure that the material reaches our customer in time, and that’s what Divi’s has been known for and that we deliver on time to the customers.”

“I don’t think they are stocking up any material that they are foreseeing the shortage.”

— Nilima Prasad Divi, Whole-Time Director (Commercial)

Management acknowledged that margins remain below historical peak levels because of pricing pressure and higher input costs.

“The two key things that we see, the margins going more than 32% historic figure. One is the generic pricing pressure for sure.”

“The second one is mainly the cost of materials that has increased.”

“That’s something we dearly wish for that we also go back to 38%, which also depends on the market conditions.”

— Nilima Prasad Divi, Whole-Time Director (Commercial)

To mitigate supply disruptions and ensure uninterrupted production, Divi’s is proactively building inventory.

“Most of the increase in inventory, I would say you might be seeing from the Q1 of next year.”

“We are securing material and we are storing material to make sure that we are efficiently manufacturing and supplying our customers.”

— Nilima Prasad Divi, Whole-Time Director (Commercial)

Aarti Pharmalabs Limited | Small Cap | Pharmaceuticals

Aarti Pharmalabs manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients, intermediates, and xanthine derivatives for global regulated and non-regulated markets. The company also provides contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services with specialized focus on late-phase and commercial molecules.

[Concall]

Aarti is diversifying its research capabilities into complex molecules like peptides to future-proof its CDMO pipeline. While these investments won’t boost immediate earnings, they expand the addressable market for high-value contracts.

“We have decided to invest in the R&D of peptides and oligonucleotides. This investment in new R&D technologies will not yield immediate results but has good potential in the future, and we would like to explore these newer technologies.”

— Rashesh Gogri, Chairman

The company is executing a 50% capacity expansion in its xanthine division to meet growing demand. Investors should watch for the volume ramp-up over the next year to validate the capital expenditure investment.

“The xanthine derivatives expansion is progressing as planned with current capacity being 6,000 metric tons per annum, and the incremental capacity will be available for production at the end of the current quarter. The ramp-up to 9,000 metric tons per annum will happen gradually over the next few quarters.”

— Rashesh Gogri, Chairman

Management believes their ability to offer a China-independent, backward-integrated supply chain is a key competitive advantage for global innovators. This strategic positioning is critical for winning market share in the evolving ‘China Plus One’ global sourcing landscape.

“Why we get shortlisted is due to our manufacturing capabilities, our unique ability to scale up production from kilo labs and put up assets, and our unique ability to do a backward integrated play where China dependence is reduced. Apart from the balance sheet, these are the factors that play a part.”

— Rashesh Gogri, Chairman

Aerospace & Defence

Aequs Limited | Small Cap | Aerospace & Defence

Aequs Limited is a precision manufacturing specialist operating in the aerospace and consumer sectors with large-scale production clusters in India, the US, and France. The company focuses on vertically integrated manufacturing for global OEMs, producing complex aerostructures, engine components, and consumer electronics.

[Concall]

The company is committing to a massive ten-year investment to create a dedicated hub for engine and landing gear components in Tamil Nadu. This move aims to establish a unique domestic supply chain that can handle complex aerospace parts from start to finish.

“In February 2026, we signed an MOU with the government of Tamil Nadu to invest 1,900 crores over 10 years for new vertically integrated aerospace manufacturing ecosystem within a new aerospace and defense park at Hosur across 250 acres in the SIPCOT Shoolagiri Industrial Park. This will be India’s first fully vertically integrated aero-engine and landing gear components manufacturing ecosystem.”

— Arvind Melligeri, Executive Chairman and CEO

Aequs is shifting its product mix toward more sophisticated aviation components that require specialized technical skills. These complex parts are harder for competitors to replicate and usually result in higher profits and longer contracts.

“We are also actively moving up the value chain into landing gear and engine components, where our integrated forging, machining and surface treatment capabilities deliver significant competitive advantage. These are higher complexity, higher value parts that command better margins and deeper customer relationships.”

— Rajiv Kaul, Co-founder and Managing Director

To counter the loss of Hasbro, the company has secured a long-term deal with Mattel to fill its production capacity. Management believes this transition will prevent any major negative impact on their consumer division’s growth.

“Yes, we have signed a long-term agreement with Mattel and both sides are fully beneficial to scaling volumes. We also expect Mattel volumes to absorb the capacity impact from Hasbro. More broadly, we continue to engage with large strategic customers across the consumer segment and remain confident that overall growth for the business will not be materially impacted.”

— Rajiv Kaul, Co-founder and Managing Director

Management is aggressively spending on new equipment because global clients require their suppliers to have large-scale production capacity. Failing to expand could result in losing major contracts to international competitors who can handle higher volumes.

“Customers want us to have a meaningful share of their requirements, and collectively we are committed to scaling operations and absorbing more work in India. If we do not scale, the customers will look for alternates. There is a timeline we must follow, and we are committed to seeing utilization increase, which is why we guided for EBITDA break-even in Q4.”

— Arvind Melligeri, Executive Chairman and CEO

Procuring specialized metals for aerospace is becoming increasingly difficult, with some materials taking over a year to arrive. This extreme lead time forces the company to plan its inventory and cash flow much further in advance than usual.

“Titanium, superalloys, and some steels currently have some of the longest lead times in the industry. Certain tough steels have lead times as high as 65 to 75 weeks. Titanium is typically a 52-week lead time.”

— Arvind Melligeri, Executive Chairman and CEO

Financial Services

Pine Labs | Mid Cap | Financial Services

Pine Labs is a leading merchant commerce platform that provides offline and online payment solutions along with risk management and consumer credit products. The company serves over 2 million merchant touchpoints across India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

[Concall]

The company has issued strong revenue guidance for the next fiscal year and expects profit margins to expand. Investors should note the management’s confidence in translating higher sales directly into better bottom-line earnings.

“We think we will be able to grow at about 21% to 23.5% on a year-on-year basis as far as revenue is concerned. We have already shown how we see the flow-through between revenue, contribution margin, and adjusted EBITDA in our business, so we definitely feel confident that we will be able to significantly improve our adjusted EBITDA going into FY27.”

— Amreesh Rau, Chief Executive Officer

The online payment gateway business is growing much faster than the core offline segment and has captured major market share. Securing the largest e-commerce and quick-commerce players provides a stable and high-volume foundation for digital growth.

“In the online space, we are making very good progress; we have grown that business almost by 60% on a year-on-year basis. All three quick-commerce companies and all three e-commerce companies are today using Pine Labs as a platform.”

— Amreesh Rau, Chief Executive Officer

Pine Labs is successfully exporting its Indian technology stack to emerging markets across Asia and the Middle East. This international expansion is diversifying the company’s income and providing valuable foreign currency revenue.

“What we have delivered here in India and the tech stack we have created for the Indian market is extremely relevant in markets like the Philippines, Vietnam, or the UAE. You are seeing very strong progress and we are getting dollar-based revenues from our international business.”

— Amreesh Rau, Chief Executive Officer

The company has aggressively adopted artificial intelligence to automate almost all of its software development work. This significant operational change is expected to lower long-term costs and accelerate the delivery of new features.

“89% of all new code written within Pine Labs over the last two quarters has been completely AI-generated. It does two things for us: one, it provides tremendous efficiency as we build new products, and two, our legacy platforms are being updated and improved as we speak.”

— Amreesh Rau, Chief Executive Officer

Competitive pressure is easing as some rivals find the hardware-heavy payments business unprofitable or shift focus toward lending. This consolidation allows Pine Labs to win large corporate contracts that require specialized technology rather than credit products.

“We are seeing newcomers pull out because it is not economically viable for them. Second, some competitors’ large revenue models are built around financial services and lending rather than payment-based revenues. An OMC does not need a loan today, so that is not a segment they want to address.”

— Amreesh Rau, Chief Executive Officer

A significant portion of the company’s growth is driven by increasing the number of active terminals rather than just deploying hardware. Higher activation rates indicate better utilization of the existing network and improved returns on investment.

“About 25-30% of growth comes from activating merchants and stores. In our deck, we show the ratio of POS machines activated for flow and transactions improved from 21% a year ago to 30%. This will continue to add to our growth.”

— Amreesh Rau, Chief Executive Officer

Pine Labs is launching blockchain-based settlement tools to speed up international money transfers. This new product line targets global pain points in cross-border payments and represents a major push into future-ready financial infrastructure.

“We are seeing stablecoins used for faster movement in person-to-person, person-to-merchant, and bulk remittances. Second is programmable money, where money can be used only for a specific service. We will start sales activities for this in the next month. This is entirely for global markets and nothing to do with India.”

— Amreesh Rau, Chief Executive Officer

The company has deepened its relationship with large oil marketing companies by providing automation and loyalty programs beyond simple payments. These long-term, multi-layered contracts provide high revenue visibility and make the service harder for competitors to replace.

“The petroleum segment is one of our oldest. We do fuel pump automation, forecourt controllers, and integration. Second is payment infrastructure deployment. Third is transaction or flow-based revenues. Fourth is loyalty services; for Indian Oil, we are managing the entire Extra Power loyalty card program for the next five years.”

— Amreesh Rau, Chief Executive Officer

Engineering & Capital Goods

Bajel Projects Limited | Small Cap | Power Transmission & Distribution

Bajel Projects is a specialized engineering, procurement, and construction company that focuses on building power transmission infrastructure like substations and high-voltage lines. Originally a part of Bajaj Electricals, the firm now operates as an independent entity executing domestic and international projects alongside its own tower manufacturing facilities.

[Concall]

India’s massive push for renewable energy is creating a huge demand for new power transmission lines to connect green energy sources to the grid. This multi-year roadmap suggests a steady pipeline of work for specialized infrastructure companies for the rest of the decade.

“India’s power sector continues to be one of the most attractive markets globally. The country is targeting roughly 900 gigawatts of non-fossil fuel-based installed capacity by 2030, which represents a significant increase from current levels. To enable this transition, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has outlined a transmission roadmap requiring approximately 114,687 circuit kilometers of transmission lines and 1,274,185 MVA of transformation capacity.”

— Rajesh Ganesh, Managing Director and CEO

Geopolitical tensions and rising oil prices have recently slowed down the company’s expansion plans in the Middle East. Additionally, the business remains vulnerable to price spikes in essential raw materials like steel and aluminum which can impact project costs.

“Towards the end of the year, the US-Iran conflict further stretched global supplies with crude oil reaching over $100 a barrel, giving rise to overall inflation. This conflict also resulted in a slowdown of our plans in the Middle East and North Africa region. As an EPC company, Bajel remains exposed to the vagaries of market fluctuations in aluminum, zinc, and steel prices.”

— Rajesh Ganesh, Managing Director and CEO

The company has gained significant momentum recently by winning its first major international order and bidding on a massive pool of new projects. This strong pipeline of pending and potential contracts provides high visibility for future revenue growth.

“Post March 2026, we have secured orders exceeding 1,000 crores, including our first order from the Middle East and North Africa region valued at approximately 400 crores for the construction of a 500 kV overhead transmission line. We are currently L1 or in advanced stages of negotiation with customers on orders worth over 2,000 crores. We are also actively pursuing opportunities worth 22,000 crores.”

— Rajesh Ganesh, Managing Director and CEO

Bajel is significantly increasing its internal manufacturing capacity for power towers to better control its supply chain and meet growing demand. While they are investing for growth, management is becoming more cautious about the global economic environment heading into the next year.

“Our manufacturing facility at Ranjangaon near Pune is being expanded to 110,000 to 120,000 metric tons per annum. Once operational, the expanded facility will significantly enhance our captive capability and ability to serve both domestic and international demand. The macroeconomic optimism that characterized FY26 has been considerably tempered as the world enters FY27.”

— Rajesh Ganesh, Managing Director and CEO

A large temporary spike in unpaid bills at the end of the year was caused by a single major customer delaying payment, which has since been resolved. This suggests the recent increase in debt was a timing issue rather than a permanent problem with getting paid.

“Also, one marquee customer held back payments in the last fortnight of March of around 225 crores. We have collected most of both of these since then. The other increase is part of the EPC cycle where final retention amounts increase as you do projects.”

— Nitesh Bhandari, CFO

Real Estate

AGI Infra | Small Cap | Realty | Premium Housing Shift Fuels Growth Ambitions

AGI Infra is a Punjab-based real estate developer focused on residential communities and commercial projects. As buyers increasingly gravitate toward premium housing and community living, the company is expanding into larger markets while targeting faster profit growth than revenue growth over the next five years.

[Reference]

AGI is moving into Tier-1 locations in Punjab where property prices and demand are significantly higher. This geographic expansion is the primary driver for the company’s rising profit margins and better brand positioning.

“The company expanded from Jalandhar into Ludhiana over the last few years and is now moving toward Chandigarh and New Chandigarh, where management expects further margin improvement. Management attributed recent margin expansion partly to moving from smaller towns into larger cities, where realizations and profitability are higher.”

— Sukhdev Singh Khinda, Managing Director

Punjab’s real estate market is maturing as buyers move up the value chain toward luxury amenities and gated communities. This premiumization allows the company to command higher prices and better unit economics.

“According to management, the concept of community living is gaining rapid acceptance across Punjab, particularly in Jalandhar and Ludhiana. The company is observing a clear consumer shift from affordable housing toward premium and luxury housing segments as purchasing power improves.”

— Sukhdev Singh Khinda, Managing Director

Owning land outright reduces the project costs and eliminates the need to share profits with third-party landowners. The current land bank provides a decade-long development pipeline, ensuring long-term revenue predictability.

“AGI Infra follows a self-owned land model and primarily develops projects on land owned by the company rather than relying heavily on joint development agreements. Management highlighted that the company owns approximately 164 acres of land reserves, providing visibility for development over the next 8–10 years.”

— Sukhdev Singh Khinda, Managing Director

Management is forecasting healthy top-line growth but expects profitability to grow even faster due to operating leverage and higher-margin projects. This mismatch between revenue and profit growth targets suggests a focus on increasing capital efficiency.

“Looking ahead, management expects revenue growth to compound at approximately 18–20% annually over the next five years. Profit growth is expected to outpace revenue growth, with management targeting a profit CAGR of around 25–27% over the same period.”

— Sukhdev Singh Khinda, Managing Director

That’s it for now! Your feedback will really help shape how The Chatter evolves. Drop it down in the comments below!

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Quotes in this newsletter were curated by Meher, Shahid & Srusti.

Disclaimer: We’ve used AI tools in filtering and cleaning up these quotes so there maybe some mistakes. Now, if you are thinking why we are using AI, please remember that we are just a small team of 5 people running everything you see on Zerodha Markets 😬 So, all the good stuff is human and mistakes are AI.

Welcome to the first edition of Global Chatter — a fortnightly newsletter where we dig through what the world’s biggest companies are saying and bring you the most interesting insights, whether about their businesses, industries, global trends, or the broader economy. We read through major global earnings calls, shareholder letters, investor presentations, and management interviews so you don’t have to.

From Big Tech and semiconductors to global banks, consumer giants, energy majors, and industrial leaders, Global Chatter is our attempt to cut through the noise and surface the conversations that actually matter.

We’re always looking to make Global Chatter more useful and insightful—so if you have ideas on how we can improve or innovate the format further, we’d love to hear them.

In this edition, we have covered 11 companies across 10 diversified industries.

AI Computing

• Nvidia

Electronics & Semiconductors

• Samsung Electronics

Technology Conglomerate

• Alphabet Inc.

• Baidu Inc.

E-Commerce

• Amazon.com, Inc.

Design & Product Development Platform

• Figma Inc.

Consumer Packaged Goods

• Unilever PLC

Chemical & Material Conglomerate

• Mitsubishi Chemical

Cloud Services & Cybersecurity

• Cloudflare, Inc.

Retail

• Walmart

Software

• Zoom Communications

Nvidia | AI Computing

Nvidia is a technology company that designs high-performance processors, most notably Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Originally built to render video game graphics, these chips are now the global standard for powering artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.

[Transcript]

Jensen made it clear that NVIDIA’s growth should exceed hyperscaler CapEx growth because the company is now exposed to multiple AI infrastructure categories beyond traditional cloud players. This is a major signal on long-term TAM expansion.

“We should be growing faster than hyperscale CapEx… The first category is hyperscalers… The second category is all of the AI native clouds… enterprise, industrial companies, sovereign AI clouds… hundreds of thousands of companies with smaller installations. That category is going to continue to grow at incredible pace.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Management reiterated its view that AI infrastructure spending is still in the early innings and could expand dramatically over the decade.

“The CapEx is at $1 trillion and it’s growing towards $3 trillion-$4 trillion… If they don’t have the compute, they won’t have the revenues. Compute is revenues. Compute is profit.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Jensen characterized current AI demand as fundamentally different from prior cycles because AI workloads are now directly monetizable.

“This was an extraordinary quarter. Demand has gone parabolic. The reason is simple: agentic AI has arrived. AI can now do productive and valuable work. Tokens are now profitable.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

NVIDIA sees CPUs for agentic AI orchestration as a major new market opportunity beyond GPUs.

“Vera opens a brand-new $200 billion TAM for NVIDIA, a market we have never addressed before.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Jensen outlined how CPUs will play a much larger role in orchestrating AI agents and tool usage.

“The harness runs on CPU, and the tool use runs on CPUs… The world is going to have billions of agents… Every one of those agents are going to spin off sub-agents… All of the orchestration essentially runs on CPUs.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Jensen suggested adoption for Rubin will be broader and faster than Blackwell.

“Every single frontier model company will jump on Vera Rubin from the get-go… Vera Rubin is off to a tremendous start, and it’ll surely be more successful than even Grace Blackwell.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

NVIDIA highlighted Anthropic as a major incremental customer and capacity consumer.

“The amount of capacity that we’re going to bring online for Anthropic this year and next year is going to be quite significant. Very significant.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Jensen indicated that enterprise, sovereign AI, and industrial AI infrastructure may become larger than hyperscaler demand over time.

“Long term… industrial and enterprise… represents some $50 trillion-$80 trillion of the world’s economy… I expect the second category to be larger over time.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

NVIDIA believes robotics and physical AI will become a major incremental growth vector beyond data centers.

“The next wave is physical AI, with billions of autonomous and robotic systems operating in the physical world.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Jensen described a structural change in computing economics that favors NVIDIA’s architecture.

“The economics of cloud computing of the past was $ per core… The economics of AI of the future is tokens per $ or $ per token.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

NVIDIA is expanding CUDA beyond AI models into enterprise software ecosystems.

“We’re accelerating all of the world’s tools so that it runs on CUDA… Cadence, Synopsys, Siemens, Adobe… because agents use these tools and they want things to happen quickly.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Physical-world AI deployments require localized compute infrastructure.

“Many industrial companies, there’s no choice but to put the computer where the context is, where the action is… You can’t put that in the cloud.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Jensen framed AI as the first technology wave capable of digitizing industries untouched by traditional IT.

“The rest of the $100 trillion industry that has not been impacted by IT in the last 30 years, it’s about to be impacted by AI.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Jensen argued that AI has transformed compute from a cost center into a direct revenue-generating asset, which structurally changes infrastructure spending behavior.

“SaaS didn’t use to use as much compute, but AI requires a tremendous amount of compute… Compute is revenues. Compute is profit.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

NVIDIA believes AI-native infrastructure providers cannot realistically build their own vertically integrated stacks, strengthening NVIDIA’s moat.

“AI native clouds don’t build chips, don’t design their own chips, they can’t really assemble unrelated parts together into an AI factory… NVIDIA’s architecture is so perfect for them.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Management repeatedly emphasized that NVIDIA is unique because it controls the entire AI stack.

“NVIDIA is quite unique in the sense that we are the only company that builds all of the technology components… in an extreme co-design way, in a complete end-to-end way, in a full stack way.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

NVIDIA expects AI demand to move from a handful of hyperscalers to hundreds of thousands of enterprises globally.

“The rest of the industry represents a couple of 250,000 companies around the world… in the future, it’ll be hundreds of thousands of companies.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Countries increasingly want localized AI infrastructure for regulatory and security reasons.

“Everybody wants to build it in a different way… It could be because of confidential computing. It could be because of national security reasons.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

AI-RAN is emerging as a future infrastructure opportunity extending beyond traditional data centers.

“Every single base station, every single radio network would become an AI-powered radio network.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Jensen described agentic AI as potentially creating a computing explosion larger than the internet era.

“The world is going to have billions of agents… every one of those agents are going to spin off sub-agents.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

While CPUs orchestrate agents, NVIDIA emphasized that the core ‘thinking’ layer still relies on GPUs.

“All of the thinking happens on GPUs.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Jensen suggested industrial and enterprise AI could ultimately dwarf hyperscaler AI economics.

“Industrial and enterprise… represents some $50 trillion-$80 trillion of the world’s economy.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

NVIDIA expects robotics and physical-world automation to accelerate rapidly this decade.

“I’m hoping that within the next 5 years, physical AI and robotics segment is going to grow incredibly fast.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Security and compute isolation are becoming increasingly important for enterprise AI deployments.

“Vera Rubin is the world’s first platform with end-to-end confidential computing.”
— Jensen Huang, President & CEO

Samsung Electronics | Electronics & Semiconductors

Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational tech giant and the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group, recognized globally for its consumer electronics and semiconductors.

[Transcript]

Management attributed the record performance primarily to AI-driven semiconductor demand and stronger mix in high-value products. The scale of profitability improvement was extraordinary, with margins doubling sequentially.

“Total revenue reached a new record high of KRW 134 trillion, up by 43% from the record set one quarter ago. Operating profit also reached a new all-time high of KRW 57 trillion, up 185% QoQ, and the operating margin expanded from 21% in the previous quarter to 43%.”
— Soon-Cheol Park, EVP, Head of Corporate Management Operations, and CFO

Management believes AI infrastructure expansion remains the key structural driver for memory demand and pricing.

“We expect memory price to stay on the current upward trend driven by ongoing expansion in AI infrastructure.”
— Soon-Cheol Park, EVP, Head of Corporate Management Operations, and CFO

The company confirmed that hyperscalers and AI customers are now locking in longer-duration contracts because of tightening supply conditions.

“Major customers are quite confident in future AI and AI-related demand… we have been pursuing multi-year supply agreements… and have already signed finalized contracts with some customers.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

This was one of the strongest signals from the call regarding the intensity of the AI memory cycle and supply tightness.

“Customers who are concerned about supply shortages are actually bringing forward their demand for 2027 already… the supply-demand gap is looking to widen further in 2027 versus this year.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

The company acknowledged that available supply is materially below customer demand despite aggressive capacity planning.

“We also have very tight inventory and available supply is far short of customer demand. In fact, our demand fulfillment rate is now at a record low.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

Samsung confirmed extremely strong customer demand for next-generation AI memory products.

“The differentiated performance of our HBM4 has led to concentration of demand, and our production-ready capacity is fully booked and sold out.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

Samsung is rapidly transitioning toward next-generation HBM products, reflecting accelerating AI infrastructure upgrades.

“HBM4 sales are expected to exceed 50% of total HBM sales from the third quarter onwards and also account for roughly half on a full year basis.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

Management believes the spread of agentic AI is accelerating memory demand structurally across servers and storage.

“With the spread of agentic AI, token processing is increasing in volume… and the AI ecosystem is growing even faster than ever.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

Management acknowledged an unusual market inversion caused by the rapid spike in commodity DRAM pricing.

“It is true that conventional DRAMs have higher margins versus HBM… this has resulted in inversion of margins between HBM and conventional DRAM.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

The company signaled a long-term strategic approach rather than chasing temporary pricing arbitrage.

“If we were to focus our product portfolio on conventional DRAM, looking to achieve short-term performance only, this could potentially pose constraints on the build-out of the underlying AI infrastructure itself.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

Supply constraints are being driven by long fab lead times and AI demand growth outpacing industry capacity additions.

“When you consider the lead time involved for new fab expansions, supply growth is expected to remain constrained within the industry for the time being.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

The company outlined one of the largest investment programs globally across semiconductors and future technologies.

“The company plans to invest over KRW 110 trillion in facilities and R&D to strengthen our strategic production basis for future.”
— Soon-Cheol Park, EVP, Head of Corporate Management Operations, and CFO

The company framed humanoid robotics as a major future strategic growth area.

“Through the development of humanoid robots… we aim to innovate manufacturing productivity and daily experiences.”
— Soon-Cheol Park, EVP, Head of Corporate Management Operations, and CFO

Samsung Foundry highlighted accelerating customer engagement in advanced AI-related processes.

“We continued to expand our customer base and deepen engagement across high-performance computing applications, sustaining a solid order momentum throughout the quarter.”
— Sukchae Kang, EVP and Head of Sales and Marketing Office for Foundry

Management suggested upcoming leading-edge foundry wins could become visible soon.

“We are in active talks with multiple large-scale AI and HPC customers on 2 nm process projects. Expect to secure more visible results in the near future.”
— Sukchae Kang, EVP and Head of Sales and Marketing Office for Foundry

The company is positioning itself for the next phase of AI infrastructure networking demand.

“We are developing not only silicon photonics components, but also technology for the CPO or co-packaged optics business based on advanced processes and three-D packaging.”
— Sukchae Kang, EVP and Head of Sales and Marketing Office for Foundry

Management believes storage demand is becoming increasingly critical in AI inference architectures.

“NVIDIA proposed an architecture… that extends AI inference data storage beyond HBM to NAND-based storage rather than relying solely on HBM. This will likely lead to rising demand for high performance storage.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

Management repeatedly emphasized that the pace of AI ecosystem expansion is exceeding earlier assumptions.

“The spread of agentic AI is likely to accelerate at a much faster pace than initially expected.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

Samsung sees AI demand spilling over from HBM into conventional server infrastructure.

“We expect that the demand for DRAM and SSD for conventional servers will increase more sharply than previously anticipated.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

The magnitude of pricing acceleration reflects one of the strongest memory upcycles in recent years.

“Our blended ASP rose by low 90% range QoQ for DRAM, high 80% QoQ for NAND.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

AI-driven server demand is materially transforming the profitability profile of the memory business.

“Our memory business set another all-time high in quarterly performance following the previous quarter.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

The company is aggressively advancing the roadmap beyond HBM4.

“We have been accelerating development of next-gen HBM4E products with pin speed of 16 Gbps and bandwidth of 4.0 TB per second.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

AI workloads are broadening demand beyond DRAM and HBM toward high-performance storage.

“This will likely lead to rising demand for high performance storage, such as TLC-based PCIe Gen 6 SSDs.”
— Jaejune Kim, EVP of Memory Business

The company continues to push aggressively into next-generation process leadership.

“The development of the 1.4 nm process is progressing as planned.”
— Sukchae Kang, EVP and Head of Sales and Marketing Office for Foundry

Management provided a concrete commercialization timeline for advanced foundry nodes.

“In the second half, we will start mass production of the second-generation 2 nm process.”
— Sukchae Kang, EVP and Head of Sales and Marketing Office for Foundry

The company is intentionally reducing dependence on mobile markets.

“We are actively pursuing structural transformation by diversifying our application portfolio beyond mobile into AI HPC, automotive, and aerospace sectors.”
— Sukchae Kang, EVP and Head of Sales and Marketing Office for Foundry

AI networking bandwidth requirements are creating new infrastructure opportunities.

“We are seeing growing demand for high bandwidth and low power data transmission, which has led to a rapid rise in demand for silicon photonics.”
— Sukchae Kang, EVP and Head of Sales and Marketing Office for Foundry

Even amid weaker unit shipments, AI-enabled premium devices are supporting value growth.

“The smartphone market is expected to decline in shipments due to rising costs, while revenues are projected to grow driven by expansion of super premium products.”
— Seong Cho, EVP and Head of Strategic Marketing Office for Mobile Experience

Rising memory and component costs are pressuring downstream device margins.

“Cost pressure on key components in Q2 are expected to intensify… a decline in profitability appears inevitable.”
— Seong Cho, EVP and Head of Strategic Marketing Office for Mobile Experience

AI data center expansion is creating a fast-growing adjacent opportunity in thermal management.

“The data center cooling market is projected to grow from $4.7 billion in 2024 to $16.6 billion by 2030.”
— Sang-Jik Lee, EVP and Head of Sales Marketing Team of DA

Alphabet Inc. | Technology Conglomerate

Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company and the parent organization of Google LLC. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, it was formed in 2015 to restructure Google into a decentralized portfolio of businesses.

[Transcript]

This was one of the biggest disclosures of the quarter and signals massive forward demand for AI infrastructure and enterprise AI workloads. Management highlighted that backlog growth was driven by both enterprise AI contracts and TPU hardware agreements.

“Google Cloud’s backlog nearly doubled sequentially, reaching $462 billion at the end of the first quarter. The increase was driven by strong demand for our enterprise AI offerings and the inclusion of TPU hardware sales… The majority of the backlog is related to typical GCP contracts.”

— Anat Ashkenazi, SVP and CFO, Alphabet and Google

Alphabet sharply increased capital expenditure guidance amid unprecedented AI compute demand internally and externally. The company also explicitly guided for another significant increase in 2027 CapEx.

“We are updating our full year 2026 CapEx guidance range to $180 to $190 billion… We are seeing unprecedented internal and external demand for AI compute resources… As a result, we expect our 2027 CapEx to significantly increase compared to 2026.”

— Anat Ashkenazi, SVP and CFO, Alphabet and Google

Sundar explicitly acknowledged ongoing capacity shortages, implying AI demand is materially ahead of supply.

“Obviously, we are compute constrained in the near term. And as an example, our Cloud revenue would have been higher if we were able to meet the demand.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Management confirmed enterprise AI products are now the primary growth driver for Google Cloud, not traditional infrastructure.

“Our Enterprise AI solutions have become our primary growth driver for Cloud for the first time. In Q1, revenue from products built on our gen AI models grew nearly 800% year over year.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Alphabet is now commercializing TPUs beyond Google Cloud, including direct deployments into customer-owned data centers.

“We will begin to deliver TPUs to a select group of customers in their own data centers in a hardware configuration to expand our addressable market opportunity.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Enterprise adoption of Gemini accelerated materially during the quarter, supported by partners and large corporate deployments.

“Gemini Enterprise is seeing tremendous momentum, with 40% growth quarter over quarter in paid monthly active users.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Management emphasized that AI Overviews and AI Mode are expanding overall Search engagement rather than cannibalizing it.

“AI continues to drive Search usage, and queries are at an all time high.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

The company highlighted major inference efficiency gains despite rolling out more advanced AI features into Search.

“Since upgrading AI Overviews and AI Mode to Gemini 3, we have reduced the cost of core AI responses by more than 30%, thanks to continued hardware and engineering breakthroughs.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Sundar described agentic consumer workflows as a major future monetization and engagement layer within Search.

“I think bringing agentic workflows to consumers in a way that it’s easy for them to do, including in the context of Search, I see as a huge opportunity ahead.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Sundar strongly differentiated Google from peers by emphasizing ownership across chips, models, infrastructure, tools, and applications.

“We are unique in the market because of our vertically optimized AI stack… the fact that we own frontier models, own the silicon, really helps us stay ahead of the curve.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Sundar hinted that premium AI-powered Search experiences may increasingly shift toward subscription monetization.

“As we serve more and more valuable use cases, there are going to be use cases where people will want to use the most powerful model, and there may be different ways to accomplish that.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Google believes Gemini is expanding the universe of monetizable Search queries.

“The understanding that we have with Gemini on intent has significantly expanded our ability to deliver Ads on longer, more complex searches that were previously really difficult to monetize.”
— Philipp Schindler, SVP and CBO, Google

AI-native ad products are scaling rapidly across Google’s advertiser base.

“More than 30% of our customers’ Search spend now uses AI enabled campaigns AI Max or Performance Max.”
— Philipp Schindler, SVP and CBO, Google

Management pushed back against fears that AI will shrink Search economics, arguing instead that AI expands use cases and engagement.

“I think the way to think about it is really to think about the expansionary moment we see here for Search.”
— Philipp Schindler, SVP and CBO, Google

Management directly stated that AI features are increasing engagement and repeat usage behavior within Search.

“People love our AI experiences like AI Mode and AI Overviews, and they’re coming back to Search more.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

The scale milestone highlights how rapidly AI infrastructure demand is transforming Google Cloud’s business profile.

“Cloud accelerated again this quarter due to strong demand for our AI products and infrastructure. Revenue grew 63%, exceeding $20 billion for the first time.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

AI developer adoption continues to scale rapidly across Google’s ecosystem.

“Our first party models now process more than 16 billion tokens per minute via direct API use by our customers, up from 10 billion last quarter.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Google claims it improved Search performance materially even while integrating compute-intensive AI functionality.

“Even as we have brought new AI features into our results page, we have reduced Search latency by more than 35% over the past five years.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

This marks a major shift away from traditional cloud infrastructure growth drivers.

“Our Enterprise AI solutions have become our primary growth driver for Cloud for the first time.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Existing enterprise customers are scaling AI workloads materially faster than originally forecast.

“Customers outpaced their initial commitments by 45%, accelerating over last quarter.”
— Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google

Gemini-powered targeting is materially improving monetization efficiency in Maps.

“In Maps, we are using Gemini to ensure ‘Promoted Pins’ are deeply relevant… This work is improving ads relevance by nearly 10% leading to significant increase in user engagement.”
— Philipp Schindler, SVP and CBO, Google

Google highlighted concrete advertiser performance gains from AI-powered campaigns.

“Hilton EMEA… captured one third more clicks for a fifth of the spend, while simultaneously increasing the average booking value by 55%.”
— Philipp Schindler, SVP and CBO, Google

More conversational and intent-rich queries are expanding monetizable search inventory.

“Etsy saw a 10% search volume uplift, with 15% of those queries being net new to their business.”
— Philipp Schindler, SVP and CBO, Google

Management said the company is redesigning advertising specifically for AI-native search experiences.

“We aren’t just bringing existing ad formats into AI experiences, we are reinventing ads for this new era.”
— Philipp Schindler, SVP and CBO, Google

AI-powered commerce flows are increasingly integrated directly inside Search and Gemini.

“Shoppers can now review product recommendations, compare options and complete streamlined checkout for eligible purchases, directly within AI Mode and Gemini.”
— Philipp Schindler, SVP and CBO, Google

AI compute demand is heavily shifting spending mix toward server infrastructure.

“Approximately 60% of our investment in technical infrastructure this quarter was in servers.”
— Anat Ashkenazi, SVP and CFO, Alphabet and Google

Baidu Inc. | Technology Conglomerate

Baidu, Inc. is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet services and artificial intelligence. It holds a dominant position in China’s search engine market, and provides a wide variety of other internet services such as Baidu App, Baidu Baike, iQIYI, Baidu Tieba, and ES File Explorer.

[Transcript]

Management highlighted that demand is moving beyond model training into large-scale inference and production deployment. This is important because inference demand is structurally larger and stickier than training demand.

“We have seen a remarkable strong enterprise demand for AI infrastructure, both training and inference, with inference showing particularly strong momentum… It tells us that customers have moved beyond training models and are now running AI across more parts of their business and accelerating pace.”
— Dou Shen, EVP in charge of Baidu AI Cloud Group (ACG)

This marks a major business mix transition away from traditional online marketing dependence. Management framed it as a structural inflection point.

“In Q1… our Baidu core AI-powered business… already exceeded 50% of our total revenue for the first time. This is an important milestone reflecting both AI growing contribution and a more diversified revenue base.”
— Haijian He, Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Management clearly stated that AI infrastructure is not just a growth driver but also a margin expansion driver because of higher technical barriers and tight supply.

“GPU Cloud usually carries better margin profiles than a traditional CPU cloud… GPU Cloud is technically more complex, with much higher barriers to entry… demand remains very strong while high-quality supply is relatively tight.”
— Dou Shen, EVP in charge of Baidu AI Cloud Group (ACG)

Baidu believes the revenue mix shift toward AI infrastructure and MaaS will durably improve cloud profitability.

“As GPU Cloud takes a larger and larger share of our total cloud infrastructure revenue, we believe the blended margins for our cloud improve structurally, and that’s a durable ongoing trend.”
— Dou Shen, EVP in charge of Baidu AI Cloud Group (ACG)

Robin Li reiterated Baidu’s long-standing thesis that AI monetization will accrue primarily at the application layer rather than foundation models themselves.

“We have always believed that models ultimately create value through applications. We have consistently taken an application-driven approach.”
— Robin Li, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Management sees AI-assisted coding becoming a foundational AI capability with broad commercial potential.

“We are enhancing coding capabilities to better support vibe coding, enabling users to build applications through natural language. As coding becomes an increasingly foundational capability in the AI era, this will be a growing area of focus.”
— Robin Li, Co-founder & CEO

Robin Li suggested the AI industry will eventually shift from token pricing toward outcome- and productivity-based monetization models.

“Today, token-based pricing is more common… Over time, AI applications and agents will become more capable of completing real tasks like a human being… In the future, people will pay for agents or applications, and the market for this should be much larger than tokens.”
— Robin Li, Co-founder & CEO

Baidu sees digital humans emerging as a major AI-native application opportunity, especially in commerce.

“In e-commerce live streaming, they are proving increasingly effective at driving engagement and conversion with performance in many cases comparable to or even better than human hosts.”
— Robin Li, Co-founder & CEO

Baidu believes international robotaxi markets may ultimately be significantly more profitable than domestic China operations because of higher pricing environments.

“Apollo Go has already achieved UE breakeven in its largest operational city in China, despite very low fare levels… As we expand globally, the pricing environment becomes much more attractive. We believe our overseas operations have the potential to deliver much stronger profitability.”
— Robin Li, Co-founder & CEO

Baidu emphasized its scale advantage in robotaxis and framed operational experience as a core moat.

“Apollo Go remains a global leader. We’ve completed over 22 million cumulative rides as of April.”
— Robin Li, Co-founder & CEO

Management believes the total addressable market outside China and the U.S. may ultimately exceed the China domestic opportunity.

“The overall international market, outside of U.S. and China, is also bigger than China domestic market.”
— Robin Li, Co-founder & CEO

Baidu believes Chinese AI chips may struggle in frontier training but can compete effectively in inference.