The Chatter: Titan, Dixon, JSW Steel, Cipla & More
Q4FY26 | Edition #59
Welcome to the 59th 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 10 industries.
Hotel
The Indian Hotels Company Limited
FMCG
Tata Consumer Products
Shree Renuka Sugars
Engineering & Capital Goods
Dixon Technologies (India) Ltd
Healthcare
Cipla Limited
Metals
JSW Steel
Consumer Durables
Voltas
Financial Services
Muthoot Finance
Retail
Titan Company
PNGS Reva Diamond Jewellery Ltd
Building Materials
Cera Sanitaryware
Berger Paints
Defence
Paras Defence & Space Technologies
Hotel
The Indian Hotels Company Limited | Large Cap | Hotels & Resorts
The Indian Hotels Company Limited is India’s largest hospitality firm, operating iconic brands like Taj, Vivanta, SeleQtions, and Ginger. The company is strategically transitioning toward an asset-light business model to drive scalable growth and sustainable profitability.
[Concall]
The company is heavily shifting toward managing hotels for others rather than owning the buildings themselves. This strategy allows them to grow quickly and maintain high profit margins without needing massive amounts of capital.
“Our capital-light strategy continues to be a defining competitive advantage with 68% of our operating portfolio and 93% of our pipeline under management or asset-light formats. This enables disciplined expansion with superior returns. Even as we invested meaningfully for future growth, we delivered an EBITDA margin of 35%, reflecting operating discipline and structural efficiency.”
— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and CEO
Management plans to spend over 1,000 crores every year to upgrade their current hotels and invest in new technology. They are also buying smaller companies to enter new parts of the travel market and grow their income sources.
“Even going forward, we will continue to invest 1,000 to 1,200 crores annually to strengthen our existing competitive advantages and, at the same time, build new ones. Alongside this, we deployed over 500 crores across four strategic acquisitions, expanding our presence into high-growth adjacencies and strengthening future revenue streams.”
— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and CEO
The low-cost Ginger brand and the homestay business, ama, are showing exceptionally high profit levels and rapid expansion. These brands are proving that the company can succeed in mid-scale and luxury homestay markets, not just luxury hotels.
“The flagship Ginger hotel at Mumbai Airport crossed the milestone of 100 crores in revenue for the first time, while delivering an industry-leading EBITDA margin of 56%. Qmin expanded its footprint to over 100 outlets, while ama crossed the milestone of 375 bungalows in its portfolio with 85 villas signed during the year.”
— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and CEO
The company aims to have 250 Ginger hotels in its network within the next year to dominate the mid-scale market. They also expect to charge higher prices at their flagship hotels now that major renovations are finished.
“As I have mentioned on a few occasions, we expect the Ginger brand itself to have a total portfolio of 250 hotels, either under development or in operation, by the end of FY27. Fourth, renovated inventory across key assets is expected to create further upside through improved pricing power and guest experience.”
— Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and CEO
FMCG
Tata Consumer Products | Large Cap | FMCG
Tata Consumer Products is a prominent global player in the food and beverage industry, managing an extensive portfolio of tea, coffee, salt, and water products. The company combines long-standing heritage brands with a growing presence in high-growth, health-oriented categories across India and international markets.
[Concall]
Management is highlighting the strong momentum in their newer, high-growth food brands which are now becoming significant revenue contributors. This shift reduces the company’s dependence on the slower-growing traditional tea business and improves the overall growth profile.
“Growth businesses crossed the 4,000 crore mark, growing 24% in this year. For the quarter, growth has come back to where it should be with 33%. Sampann grew 69% in Q4 and 46% for the full year.”
— Sunil D’Souza, Managing Director and CEO
Management believes their brand strength allows them to raise prices if raw material costs rise. This pricing power provides a safety net for protecting profit margins even in an inflationary environment.
“Regarding our portfolio, I think we have a fairly balanced mix of slightly stronger commodities and a piece of highly processed food. So far, we have not seen a big impact on the margins per se. We have enough in our equity across all the categories to take price increases to mitigate margin impacts.”
— Sunil D’Souza, Managing Director and CEO
The company is dominating the tea category on modern digital platforms compared to its traditional competitors. Success in these high-growth channels suggests the brand is successfully capturing younger, tech-savvy consumers.
“For quick-comm and e-comm, Nielsen does have a panel and gives us data. We are market leaders in tea on quick-comm and e-comm. I would urge you to go through different annual reports and analyst calls to pick up numbers and do comparisons on tea.”
— Sunil D’Souza, Managing Director and CEO
Stable raw material costs for tea are allowing the company to keep prices competitive without hurting profits. This stability makes earnings more predictable for the near term.
“I’ve stopped trying to forecast commodities too far ahead, but for this year, tea prices have trended well. They are roughly in the same ballpark as this period last year, so it is largely benign. That’s why we gave off pricing to remain competitive.”
— Sunil D’Souza, Managing Director and CEO
Using digital platforms as a testing ground allows the company to fail fast and cheap before committing to a nationwide physical rollout. This agile strategy reduces the risk of expensive product flops in traditional retail stores.
“E-comm and quick-comm allow us to test-market in a city at low risk and cost before rolling out to modern trade and GT. As long as the playbook is clear, I don’t see an issue. There are still many white spaces in food and beverage, especially in nutrition, health, and premium categories.”
— Sunil D’Souza, Managing Director and CEO
The company is hitting the limits of its current manufacturing capabilities due to high demand. Investing in new capacity shows management’s confidence in sustained future volume growth.
“Our Vietnam plant is running at 99% utilization, and we’ve started a project to expand capacity there which should be online in early 2027. The board has also approved capacity expansion for tea extracts, as we are running out of capacity there.”
— Sunil D’Souza, Managing Director and CEO
Shree Renuka Sugars | Mid Cap | Sugar | Lower Output, Falling Stocks & Export Curbs in Focus
Shree Renuka Sugars is one of India’s leading integrated sugar and ethanol companies with operations spanning sugar production, refining, and renewable energy. A sharp drop in output estimates, declining stock levels, and fading hopes of export policy relief are now raising bigger questions around supply and the industry’s pricing outlook.
National sugar production estimates have been significantly lowered due to poor crop yields and inflationary pressures. Investors should monitor how this supply shortfall impacts domestic procurement costs and overall revenue targets.
“In fact the production has actually plummeted down to less than 28 million tons and it could actually be something like 27.75 million tons and with food inflation moving northwards this was very much on the cards. My take is it’s on the right track.”
— Atul Chaturvedi, Executive Chairman.
Indian sugar inventory levels are projected to drop sharply as exports drain the remaining surplus. Lower closing stocks generally lead to firmer domestic prices, which can improve the profitability of the company’s milling business.
“But having said this I think as far as export is concerned a back of the envelope calculation tells us that anything between 8 to 9 lakh tons may actually have gone or may be in the process of going out. So that would mean that the closing stock which was estimated at around 4.5 million tons earlier may actually come down to less than 3.5 million tons.”
— Atul Chaturvedi, Executive Chairman
The government is unlikely to lift sugar export bans soon because broader food inflation remains a sensitive political issue. Investors should expect the company to focus primarily on domestic sales and ethanol for the near term.
“Honestly speaking I don’t think there will be any rethink because sugar is not the only food component which seems to be moving northward in terms of inflationary impact. I don’t think the government’s going to rethink on this at this point of time or in the next foreseeable future.”
— Atul Chaturvedi, Executive Chairman
Engineering & Capital Goods
Dixon Technologies (India) Ltd. | Large Cap | Consumer Electronics (EMS)
Dixon Technologies is a leading Indian electronics manufacturing services company providing design-led solutions for consumer durables, home appliances, and mobile phones. The firm operates as a major contract manufacturer for global and domestic brands, scaling aggressively into backward integration for electronic components.
[Concall]
Dixon reported strong annual growth with revenues nearing 50,000 crores and a 20% increase in net profit. This performance shows the company’s ability to scale its business significantly while maintaining steady bottom-line growth.
“Revenues for the year ended March 31, 2026, were 48,893 crores against 38,880 crores in the same period last year, which is a growth of 26%. EBITDA, excluding exceptional gains for the year, was 1,887 crores against 1,528 crores in the same period, representating growth of 23%. PAT, after minority interest, excluding exceptional gains for the year, was 845 crores against 706 crores in the same period last year, which is a growth of 20%.”
— Atul Lall, Vice Chairman and Managing Director
The company is more than doubling its camera module production capacity to support its main smartphone customers. This move into more complex component manufacturing will likely lead to higher value capture per device produced.
“We will be expanding the capacities of camera modules in our subsidiary, Qutek, which is an MSIPS beneficiary for smartphones, from 70 million annually to around 180-190 million annually over the next 15-18 months, largely catering to our anchor customer smartphone volumes. This is in addition to deepening the level of manufacturing and capturing more value-added depth.”
— Atul Lall, Vice Chairman and Managing Director
Dixon expects its IT hardware segment to triple in revenue this year due to a massive increase in orders. Successfully stabilizing production in Chennai positions the company to dominate the local manufacturing of laptops and desktops.
“The segment delivered a healthy performance for the quarter under review and we expect 3x growth in revenues in the current fiscal against last year, with a huge uptick in order books from all customers. Our dedicated IT hardware products manufacturing unit in Chennai has successfully stabilized mass production of laptops and all-in-ones and has secured orders for desktops from one of our customers.”
— Atul Lall, Vice Chairman and Managing Director
The company is planning to enter the server and data center hardware market to diversify its IT portfolio. This expansion into high-value enterprise equipment is incentivized by favorable government policies and tax breaks.
“We are also in discussion with our JV partner to participate in the fast-growing server opportunity and to move from end-client IT hardware into data center and enterprise infrastructure hardware. This is supported by strong government policy tailwinds on server manufacturing and backward integration, including a clear push on localization and a tax holiday framework.”
— Atul Lall, Vice Chairman and Managing Director
Management has secured new lighting export contracts with major retail chains in the US and Europe. These global wins demonstrate that Dixon’s manufacturing scale is becoming competitive on an international level beyond the Indian market.
“We have received two export orders from one of the largest US chains and a European retail chain for strip lights, which will start getting executed in Q2, and we are also in discussion for other product categories. Further building on our share in the B2B space for bulbs, battens, and downlighters, we are significantly increasing our volumes on other niche products.”
— Atul Lall, Vice Chairman and Managing Director
Dixon is working with consultants to enter high-margin sectors like aerospace and defense through potential acquisitions. Moving into these specialized fields could significantly improve the company’s overall profit margins compared to standard consumer electronics.
“We have partnered with a leading global management consulting firm to design a comprehensive multi-year strategic roadmap to build a scaled, specialty, high-margin EMS business, including M&A opportunities focused on the aerospace, defense, automotive, medical, and industrial verticals. This initiative is focused on identifying the most attractive high-growth and high-value products in these segments.”
— Atul Lall, Vice Chairman and Managing Director
Management estimates that a successful deal with Vivo could add over 20 million mobile units to their annual production. This potential volume represents a massive growth trigger for the mobile division once government approvals are finalized.
“It depends on the timelines. On an annualized basis, it would be 67% of what Vivo sells. Last year, Vivo sold almost 35 million units, so another 20-22 million units can be added on an annualized basis.”
— Atul Lall, Vice Chairman and Managing Director
The company is projecting at least 15-17% organic revenue growth for next year, even without including potential gains from the Vivo partnership. This guidance suggests strong demand across their existing client base despite a flat overall smartphone market.
“Bharat, I usually do not give guidance, but without the Vivo numbers, we are targeting almost 56,000 crores next year, with mobile volume being flat. If Vivo comes in, it is a major trigger. Without Vivo, we feel the company will keep growing at 15-17%.”
— Atul Lall, Vice Chairman and Managing Director
The new display business is expected to generate up to 6,000 crores in revenue with much higher margins than the core assembly business. This segment is key to shifting Dixon from a pure assembler to a high-value component manufacturer.
“In phase one, we are setting up a capacity for 24 million mobile displays and 2.4 million automotive and IT product displays. The first line being installed is for IT and automotive displays, with trials in Q3 and commercial production in Q4. Once we achieve 80-90% utilization, we target revenue of almost 5,500 crores to 6,000 crores with mid-teen double-digit margins.”
— Atul Lall, Vice Chairman and Managing Director
Healthcare
Cipla Limited | Large Cap | Pharmaceuticals
Cipla is a prominent global pharmaceutical company with a leading presence in the Indian, North American, and South African markets. The firm specializes in complex generic medications, particularly in respiratory and chronic therapies, while aggressively expanding into biosimilars and AI-led operational transformation.
[Concall]
Management is highlighting that the Indian business has reached a major scale milestone while the US business has hit a technological turning point. This performance validates the company’s dual focus on home-market dominance and advanced manufacturing in the West.
“In India, we crossed the significant threshold, with the business surpassing 12,500 crores in revenues, underscoring the strength and resilience of our domestic franchise, which is our largest franchise. In North America, the successful generic Ventolin approval from our US facility marked an important strategic inflection point and reinforced our R&D capabilities.”
— Achin Gupta, MD and Global CEO
The approval of generic Ventolin marks Cipla’s first commercial inhaler product made directly in the United States. This de-risks their supply chain by proving they can handle complex manufacturing outside of their primary Indian sites.
“Notably, we received regulatory approval for the first AB-rated generic Ventolin with CGT, representing the first commercial MDI product to be manufactured from our US facility. This milestone reinforces our growing confidence and capability to deliver complex generics, not just from India, but also from our US manufacturing facility.”
— Achin Gupta, MD and Global CEO
Cipla is positioning itself to capture a significant share of the massive biologics market as patents expire over the next ten years. Management views recent regulatory shifts as a tailwind that makes this complex space more accessible for generic players.
“We see biosimilars as a very large and underpenetrated opportunity, and with the recent change in some of the guidelines, we believe this to be an upcoming almost 200 billion dollar opportunity, with around 100 such biologics expected to lose exclusivity over the next decade.”
— Achin Gupta, MD and Global CEO
The company’s primary use of cash will be for high-tech product development rather than physical infrastructure. Investors can expect the current high-investment phase for facilities to taper off as the company reaches sufficient manufacturing scale.
“Our number one deployment is R&D to accelerate the pipeline in respiratory, peptides, and differentiated products. We will step up on biosimilars, aiming for six to eight internal assets supplemented by inorganic opportunities. Capex has increased over the last 3 years, but that cycle should reduce after another year as we have built enough capacity.”
— Achin Gupta, MD and Global CEO
Metals
JSW Steel | Large Cap | Metals
JSW Steel, a leading steel company in India, has a strategic collaboration with JFE Steel of Japan to produce high-value special steel products for various industries. Known for excellence in business and sustainability practices.
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JSW Steel asserts that India’s 11.5% safeguard duty is balanced and lower than global protection levels (25-50%), thus mitigating the risk of withdrawal despite domestic price advantages.
“India is one of the more balanced countries with respect to protection as you see it worldwide today. We are seeing protection between 25% to 50% in various parts of the world. Every country is trying to safeguard their shores from trade flows which can be adverse for that country and that is becoming very critical to the supply chain resilience of the country. In India, with an 11.5% safeguard duty, I think we are far lower than what the rest of the world is.”
— Jayant Acharya, Joint MD and CEO
JSW Steel anticipates a total capex of approximately 226,000 crores (126,000 crores existing plan + 100,000 crores incremental) between now and FY33 to reach its 62 million ton capacity target, including JV equity and other investments.
“Currently, as we have given you the capacity expansion plans, our capex plans are at 126,000 crores as of now. Incrementally, to be at a 62 million ton capacity plus investment for equity for the joint venture and our mining, other investments, and downstream facilities, our sense is that we would require another 100,000 crores between now and FY33.”
— Swayam Saurabh, CFO
JSW Steel’s limited gas-linked production minimizes the risk of volume disruption from gas shortages, though it may impact production costs.
“Our exposure to the gas-linked production is very limited in the overall production. However, it does have an impact on the cost of production. We have ensured and we continue to ensure that there won’t be any production disruption by virtue of non-availability of gas unless it becomes too severe in coming months. Our portion of the gas-linked steel production is very small.”
— Jayant Acharya, Joint MD and CEO
India’s nation-building phase is expected to drive steel demand growth beyond GDP, increasing its global consumption share from 9% to 16% within a decade.
“India is going through a nation-building phase with steel being a key building block for growth. This creates a long runway for steel demand to outpace the real GDP growth in the country. India as the second steel producer and consumer will continue to increase its share of global steel consumption from about 9% currently to 16% in a decade.”
— Jayant Acharya, Joint MD and CEO
JSW Steel is targeting a total capacity of 78 million tons in India by FY32, comprising 62 million tons from existing sites and an additional 16 million tons from its JFE and POSCO joint ventures.
“We are now announcing a target of 62 million tons by FY32, which can be achieved through our existing sites. In addition to this, the joint ventures of JFE and POSCO will have a cumulative capacity of 16 million tons by FY32, taking the total capacity in India along with joint ventures to 78 million tons.”
— Jayant Acharya, Joint MD and CEO
Consumer Durables
Voltas | Mid Cap | Consumer Durables
Voltas Limited, India’s largest air conditioning company and a global engineering solutions provider, offers services in air conditioning, refrigeration, electro-mechanical projects, and engineering products for various industries. It operates as an EPC contractor in domestic and international markets including the Middle East and Singapore, serving sectors such as mining, water management, construction equipment, and textile industry.
[Concall]
The AC industry experienced a 10-12% de-growth in FY26, but Voltas anticipates a 15-20% market growth in the next year due to the weak base.
“The industry had a difficult year last year with a de-growth of roughly 10-12%. Total primary sales for the industry were 14.3 million units. We expect the market to grow 15-20% next year because of the weak base.”
— K V Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer
Following a weak previous year, Voltas observed strong positive traction in April and May, driven by a severe heatwave across India, leading to rapid secondary sales movement.
“Compared to the weak summer and unseasonal rains last year, we have seen very positive traction in April, which has continued into May. There is a serious heatwave in many parts of the country. Positive growth is occurring and secondaries are moving fast.”
— K V Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer
Voltas experienced record high sales in March, with April and May also performing strongly, indicating a positive outlook for the current quarter.
“March was a superb month and our record high in our history. April was also extremely buoyant and very close to that number. May is also looking good. ... We feel this will be a very good quarter.”
— K V Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer
For 40-50% of its domestic and some international projects order books, Voltas has price variation clauses that allow commodity, material, and labor cost increases to be passed through, thus protecting margins.
“Regarding margins, 40-50% of our domestic and some international order books have proper price variation clauses. Variations in commodities, materials, and labor are pass-through. We do not see an impact on margins there.”
— K V Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer
Commercial Air Conditioning (CAC), a B2B segment with significant growth potential (12-15% industry growth), is a key focus for Voltas’s capex and is anticipated to be a major growth engine alongside RAC and CR.
“Commercial air conditioning (CAC) is a B2B business driven by offices, restaurants, and the manufacturing sector... We are under-leveraged here, and it represents a huge headroom for growth. Much of our capex is going into CAC, as it is likely to be our next growth engine alongside RAC and CR.”
— K V Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer
Voltas implemented a 7-8% price hike for new products, followed by another increase for pre-war commodity prices, and anticipates passing through double-digit inflation as current stocks deplete.
“The blended increase of 7-8% mentioned earlier was purely on account of new table products. We took another rate increase for commodity prices that rose pre-war. ... We are talking about double-digit inflation. It will be passed through as costs hit us.”
— K V Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer
Despite intense competition from 60 brands, Voltas differentiates itself through the Tata trust, extensive distribution, and a refreshed marketing campaign.
“We know current competition is severe; almost 60 brands operate in this space. But what we bring to the table is the Tata trust, plus the fact that our distribution reach is phenomenal. You would have also noticed that we have refreshed our entire marketing campaign this time.”
— Mukundan Menon, Managing Director
Elevated inventory levels in Q4 FY26 were a strategic move for summer preparedness, new launches, and supply chain resilience, with normalization expected as demand increases.
“Inventory levels during the quarter remained moderately elevated, primarily driven by proactive readiness for the peak summer season, strategic stocking for new product launches, and precautionary planning in response to supply chain volatility and geopolitical disruptions. However, the inventory build-up was calibrated and aligned with anticipated demand trends, with gradual normalization expected as seasonal demand momentum strengthens.”
— K V Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer
Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East caused operational disruptions for Voltas’s international projects, but the company mitigated risks through crisis management and safety protocols.
“In the international projects business, geopolitical tensions and the Middle East conflict created operational disruptions across travel, logistics, site execution, and commercial settlements. Despite these challenges, Voltas responded with agility and discipline by activating dedicated crisis response teams, implementing employee safety protocols, strengthening travel controls and evacuation readiness, and establishing a rigorous daily monitoring framework...”
— K V Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer
Financial Services
Muthoot Finance | Large Cap | Financial Services
Muthoot Finance specializes in providing quick, affordable, and secure gold-backed financing with flexible repayment options and attractive interest rates. Alongside gold loans, the company offers personal and business loans, expanding its presence across the country.
[Concall]
Muthoot Finance recorded its highest-ever consolidated gold loan AUM, growing 54% year-over-year, indicating strong business expansion.
“We have achieved the highest-ever consolidated gold loan AUM for Muthoot Finance and its subsidiaries at 1,65,000 crores. This is historic growth, representing an increase of 57,000 crores or 54% over the last year. The consolidated AUM stands at 1,65,000 crores.”
— George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director
RBI’s suggested reduction in gold imports will not impact Muthoot Finance, as the company finances household ornaments, not gold purchases, and a large existing public gold stock ensures continued business prospects.
“Because we do not finance gold purchases, bullion, or bars, this does not affect Muthoot. We only finance household ornaments. There are reportedly about 25,000 to 30,000 tons of gold held by the Indian public. We believe there are good prospects for this business going forward, regardless of restrictions on new gold imports.”
— George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director
The decline in overall customer count is due to attrition in ultra-small loan segments, which is offset by growth in medium and high-value customer segments, maintaining total loan volume.
“As explained earlier, we lost about 5 lakh customers in the 0 to 10,000 bucket and another 8 lakh in the 10,000 to 30,000 bucket. However, since the total volume is maintained, it means we grew in the 50,000 to 2 lakh segments. Ultra-small loan customers may leave, but that doesn’t significantly impact us...Medium and high-value customers are continuing to grow with Muthoot.”
— George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director
Muthoot Finance has the flexibility to adjust rates to attract more customers but does not currently see an urgent need, as it maintains diverse loan schemes and a comfortable ROA.
“We have the flexibility to reduce rates; we typically guide for a medium-term ROA of around 3.5%. We already offer various schemes with yields ranging from as low as 12% up to 23%. If we feel the need to step up the lower-yield portfolio to acquire customers, we will, but as of today, we don’t see a pressing need.”
— George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director
Muthoot Finance increased its interest rates by 0.5% to 1% across specific loan types, directly contributing to the rise in yields this quarter.
“Last quarter, we increased our rates by about 0.5% to 1% across certain loan types, which is why the yield has gone up.”
— George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director
Despite new competitors with deeper pockets, Muthoot Finance views its specialized focus and experience in the operationally intensive gold loan business as a key differentiator.
“Competition is present and new players are entering...we are a specialized gold loan company. The new players, despite deep pockets or lower costs of funds, are not focused exclusively on gold loans. This is an operationally intensive and challenging business, which new players often realize only after some time.”
— George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director
Tonnage decline for Muthoot Finance is attributed to existing customers pledging less gold for the same loan amount due to higher gold prices, and the company is shifting its customer base towards higher ticket sizes despite a drop in small-ticket customer count.
“In Muthoot Finance, we are an established player with legacy accounts. The tonnage change is proportional to the churn of existing loans, which happens roughly every 4 months. When a loan is churned at a higher LTV because gold prices rose, the customer needs to pledge less gold for the same loan amount...For a large company like Muthoot Finance, it is harder to grow the customer count rapidly. We have lost about 15 lakh customers in the 0 to 30,000 ticket size range, but we added customers in the 50,000, 1 lakh, and 2 lakh ticket size segments.”
— George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director
Despite regulatory NPA classification, the loans are fully recoverable due to a low loan-to-value (LTV) of 58% on the collateralized gold, indicating strong underlying asset quality.
“The LTV on this NPA bucket, including accrued interest, is only about 58%. This means the loans are 100% recoverable. It is an NPA from a regulatory standpoint, but the underlying collateral value far exceeds the principal and interest.”
— George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director
Muthoot Finance has adapted to the new RBI LTV framework by updating software and rolling out new products, leveraging the increased flexibility for product tailoring while already adhering to regulations for a decade.
“We have maintained LTV at regulated rates for over a decade. The new options for 80% or 85% LTV give us more room to tailor products. We have updated our software and rolled out new products in line with these regulations.”
— George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director
Retail
Titan Company | Large Cap | Retail
Titan Company, India’s leading lifestyle company, offers watches, jewelry, eyewear, wearables, Indian dress wear, fragrances, and fashion accessories. With a focus on superior customer experience, Titan has established leading positions in the jewelry, watches, and eyewear categories, driven by trusted brands.
[Concall]
Titan achieved its best-ever Q4 top-line growth with strong performance across all businesses and brands.
“We have ended the year with a superlative Quarter 4 top-line growth, perhaps our best-ever in the recent past. All our businesses have grown very well, and all our brands have enhanced their visibility and equity in the quarter and the full year that went by.”
— Ajoy Chawla, Managing Director
Titan has sufficient gold inventory and alternative plans to mitigate short-term gold supply concerns for its jewelry brands.
“So, we are at least not concerned in the short term as far as gold supply is concerned. For Titan, Tanishq and Caratlane perspective.”
— Ashok Sonthalia, Chief Financial Officer
The company does not anticipate an increase in gold loan costs in the short term due to extended loan tenures.
“So, we don’t see any increase in cost in gold loans, at least in the short term.”
— Ashok Sonthalia, Chief Financial Officer
Titan has formalized transfer pricing arrangements from FY26, treating international subsidiaries as low-risk distributors, resulting in a transfer pricing adjustment of approximately ₹80 crores in standalone books.
“Although we had a transfer pricing arrangement from the start of international business, we formalized that from ‘25-26, where we are now treating all our subsidiaries as low-risk distributors. And that Titan as a parent company is in a way ensuring that a certain amount of basic profit is there and that transfer pricing adjustment in the standalone books is about ₹80 crores plus minus”
— Ashok Sonthalia, Chief Financial Officer
Jewellery division saw an 8% resurgence in buyer growth in Q4, driven by customers buying due to rising gold rates and advancement of wedding purchases.
“So, very clearly, we have seen resurgence in buyer growth in Quarter 4 and what we have reported is 8% versus a flattish for the period prior to that. Now, two clear types of buyers, those who are waiting on the sidelines to buy and pretty much we have seen gold rates go up from festive onwards... And there are many customers who were waiting on the sidelines who came in to buy in Quarter 4.”
— Arun Narayan, CEO, Jewellery Division
The company believes its sustained investment in the gold exchange program will continue to drive buyer growth, particularly for wedding purchases and collection updates.
“We think so. We believe so. That’s why we are sustaining the investment behind exchange. It’s very relevant for wedding buyers. It’s also relevant for others who are looking at updating their collection of jewellery.”
— Arun Narayan, CEO, Jewellery Division
Jewellery margins face pressure from rising gold prices, despite efforts in product mix engineering and lightweight jewelry, making it challenging to assure margin sustainability if gold prices continue to increase.
“But if gold continues to go up, we may have to keep making effort... But beyond a point, there will be impact on margin, and that is visible.”
— Ashok Sonthalia, Chief Financial Officer
Consumers are increasingly accepting current high gold prices, with recent small cool-offs bringing buyers back due to an expectation of long-term upward trajectory.
“Yes. Actually, all of the above. Because I think people have started accepting gold at this level... Because there seems to be an acceptance that in the medium to long term, it’s again going to go back to its trajectory of upward movement.”
— Arun Narayan, CEO, Jewellery Division
The 15-20% growth target for the jewellery division is supported by fundamental tailwinds like industry formalization, the rise of organized players with stronger balance sheets, brand trust, and India’s overall economic growth story.
“See, the fundamentals of jewellery category and the industry formalizing and therefore organized players growing more rapidly... I think that formalization of the industry continues to be a very strong underlying factor for growth, interest in the category because of its preciousness, and thirdly, the India growth story. Therefore, the 15 % to 20 % is something that we ought to do”
— Ajoy Chawla, Managing Director
The high investment-led orientation, particularly towards gold coins, along with plain gold and diamond sales, significantly influences and impacts the company’s overall margins.
“Coins play the role these days because investment-led orientation is high and that and plain gold and diamond these are the three broad categories which interplays and impact the margin.”
— Ashok Sonthalia, Chief Financial Officer
The company views competition as “business as usual” and is confident in its playbook to deliver sustained results, indicating no significant concern about increasing competitive intensity.
“I think competition now has become business as usual. Nothing and I think we have shown that we have got a playbook to kind of, to deliver sustainable, sustained results. So, it is not something that we are so concerned about.”
— Arun Narayan, CEO, Jewellery Division
TEAL business is poised for strong growth driven by India’s manufacturing boom, government incentives, investments in sectors like aerospace and defense, and the global “China Plus One” strategy.
“I think the TEAL business has some good growth tailwinds or opportunities sitting in front. A lot of India manufacturing coming in, a lot of investments, aerospace sector, defense, infrastructure, electronic chips. So, manufacturing itself, because of partly government-led incentives, as well as the fact that internationally, many clients are choosing to have a China Plus One strategy.”
— Ajoy Chawla, Managing Director
PNGS Reva Diamond Jewellery Ltd. | Small Cap | Diamonds & Jewellery
PNGS Reva Diamond Jewellery Ltd. is a specialized retailer of branded natural diamond jewelry operating through an asset-light retail model. The company leverages a mix of exclusive brand outlets and shop-in-shop formats to serve customers across various price points in the premium segment.
[Concall]
The company has designed its inventory to attract new buyers with low-cost items while maintaining high-value collections for special events. This tiered pricing strategy is intended to keep customers coming back more often and spending more over time.
“Our product basket spans from entry-level offerings of 15,000 to 35,000 aimed at customer acquisition, to everyday wear between 35,000 to 1.5 lakh which drives repeat purchases. This structured portfolio enables us to cater to diverse customers and their needs for various occasions while also creating a strong lifestyle play within a single brand, driving higher wallet share and repeat engagement.”
— Amit Moda, Whole-time Director and CEO
Management is using aggressive buyback and exchange terms to convince customers that diamonds are a safe investment rather than just a luxury expense. High exchange values encourage existing customers to trade up to more expensive items in the future.
“A key differentiator for us is our robust buyback and exchange policy, where we offer up to 90% of the diamond price in case of buyback and 100% of the diamond value in case of an exchange sale. This enhances customer trust, provides liquidity and flexibility, and positions diamond jewellery not only as a discretionary purchase but also as a store of value, thereby encouraging repeat purchases.”
— Amit Moda, Whole-time Director and CEO
The company uses a low-cost expansion strategy by renting spaces and partnering with its parent group rather than buying real estate. This approach allows the business to grow faster and generate better returns on the money it invests.
“Our two-format approach comprising shop-in-shop with our parent company, P. N. Gadgil & Sons and their ecosystem, and exclusive brand outlets (EBOs), enables us to effectively balance capital efficiency with brand building while maintaining strong operational control. This is an asset-light, low capex vanilla model across both formats. These models support a higher return on capital employed.”
— Amit Moda, Whole-time Director and CEO
The company saw massive 40% growth in sales from its existing locations during the fiscal year. This suggests strong demand and brand acceptance within their current store network.
“In the last year we have seen SSG of around 40% in these existing SIS units. Looking at the SIS count, in FY25 there were 30 SIS, and in FY26 there are 34 SIS. For those 30 SIS that were there at the start of the year, the top line was around 313 crore in FY26.”
— Amit Moda, Whole-time Director and CEO
The company believes lab-grown diamonds are not a serious threat because they lack the resale value that Indian consumers prize. By focusing exclusively on natural diamonds, they aim to preserve the brand’s image as a provider of long-term wealth.
“Recently, a very good national level brand introduced lab-grown diamond outlets where they explain to customers that there is no resale value to lab-grown diamonds, only to the gold content. It is very clear in the market that there is no resale or buyback value for lab-grown diamonds. Because our buyback policy relies on the rarity and increasing value of natural diamonds over time, I do not see it as a threat.”
— Amit Moda, Whole-time Director and CEO
The company is currently keeping its prices low to gain market share and build its reputation. As the brand becomes more famous, they plan to raise prices to match the much higher margins typical of luxury jewelry competitors.
“Gross margins may improve in the future because right now we are not charging for brand value in diamond pricing. It is priced like a family jeweler would, with 30-35% gross margin loading. Over time, we will start loading brand value once our brand settles in the market, as this industry has gross margins between 30% to 35% or even as high as 40-42%.”
— Amit Moda, Whole-time Director and CEO
The company is shifting toward opening its own independent stores because they are significantly cheaper to build than the large showrooms used by their parent company. This strategy allows the firm to expand its footprint using less capital while maintaining better control over growth.
“We moved to EBOs specifically to avoid being limited by their passive expansion, as they require 90 to 120 crore to set up one store, which is very high capex. When we set up an EBO, it requires around 20 to 25 crore per store. That expansion delivers better numbers at lower capex.”
— Amit Moda, Whole-time Director and CEO
A significant budget has been set aside for marketing to ensure new stores gain traction quickly. Management is committed to consistent brand spending to support their expansion into Northern India.
“We plan to spend around 2 crore for every EBO, whether in or out of Maharashtra, spent over 12 to 18 months. It will not be a bulk spend but targeted region-wise. We will be spending around 3% to 4% of the top line each year on branding.”
— Amit Moda, Whole-time Director and CEO
Building Materials
Cera Sanitaryware | Small Cap | Building Materials
Cera Sanitaryware Limited, founded in 1980, is a leading provider of premium bathroom solutions known for innovative products like water-saving twin-flush WCs. The company manufactures and sells building products in Gujarat, along with utilizing wind and solar power. Offering a wide range of products including showers, steam cubicles, whirlpools, sanitaryware, and faucets, CERA appeals to customers seeking stylish and modern lifestyle products.
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Management highlighted that the retail segment, which had remained sluggish since FY24, is now showing sustained improvement. This recovery is expected to continue through FY27.
“Since Q3 of the current financial year, we have started seeing an improvement in the retail demand, and we saw this sustaining through Q4 also. If we see the month of April also, we have seen a good surge in retail… We are hopeful that going forward, the kind of demand recovery that we have seen in the retail segment should continue in the full year of FY27.”
— Deepak Chaudhary, VP Finance & Investor Relations
Despite input inflation and sector challenges, management is guiding for a strong recovery-driven growth year across categories.
“With the demand trend continuing to grow upward, we expect the overall growth of around 18% to 20% next year… In sanitaryware, we expect 12% growth… and in faucetware, we expect growth of 18%.”
— Vikas Kothari, CFO
The company has aggressively raised prices to offset unprecedented brass cost inflation.
“Over a period of two months, we have taken a price increase of 12% in the case of sanitaryware and 16% in the case of faucetware… Brass prices have increased nearly 29%–30% year-on-year.”
— Deepak Chaudhary, VP Finance & Investor Relations
Elevated brass prices and trade discounts continue to weigh on profitability despite price hikes.
“EBITDA margins stood at 15.2% in Q4 FY26 as compared to 18.3% in Q4 FY25. This decline was primarily driven by continued pressure on gross margins led by elevated brass input costs and higher trade discounts.”
— Vikas Kothari, CFO
Gas supply disruptions in Morbi are affecting unorganized manufacturers, potentially benefiting Cera.
“Players who are not having their own manufacturing facility and are sourcing mostly from Morbi will find it a little tough… So, we anticipate that the current situation would be playing well for us going forward in Q1 and Q2.”
— Deepak Chaudhary, VP Finance & Investor Relations
The company remains relatively protected from industry-wide gas disruptions due to favorable sourcing arrangements.
“Cera has remained relatively insulated from these disruptions. This is supported by our continued gas sourcing arrangement, including supplies from GAIL at relatively subsidized rates.”
— Deepak Chaudhary, VP Finance & Investor Relations
Strong faucetware demand has pushed utilization beyond rated capacity, necessitating incremental expansion.
“Capacity utilization during the quarter stood at 106% for faucetware… We are undertaking capacity expansion to increase the production capacity to 5 lakh pieces per month.”
— Management
Adequate inventory levels enabled uninterrupted servicing despite supply-side challenges.
“Adequate inventory levels played a critical role in ensuring uninterrupted market supplies and meeting customer demand during this period.”
— Vikas Kothari, CFO
Cera is reducing outsourcing dependency amid supply disruptions.
“We have also undertaken a drive for internalizing the kind of products which were currently outsourcing from Morbi.”
— Deepak Chaudhary, VP Finance & Investor Relations
Premiumization continues to strengthen within the portfolio mix.
“From a product mix perspective, 41% of sales were from premium segment, 38% from mid-segment, and 21% from entry-level products.”
— Vikas Kothari, CFO
After years of increasing contribution, project mix is expected to stabilize as retail recovers.
“Going forward, we expect that the proportion of retail and project should now remain stable at 60% for retail and 40% for the project business.”
— Deepak Chaudhary, VP Finance & Investor Relations
Unlike sanitaryware and faucetware, the tiles business remains vulnerable due to outsourcing dependence.
“Tiles will be impacted… it is essentially totally driven by outsourcing. If the plants do not open up and we are not able to get procuring material from outside, the tiles portion during Q1 will be impacted.”
— Deepak Chaudhary, VP Finance & Investor Relations
Berger Paints | Large Cap | Paints | Margin Strength Holds Despite Cost Pressures
Berger Paints is one of India’s leading paint manufacturers with a strong presence across decorative and industrial coatings. Despite rising crude-linked input costs and an uncertain demand environment, the company is seeing improving consumption trends, stronger product mix, and believes margins may remain more resilient than expected.
The company believes its current pricing is sufficient to manage existing input costs related to crude oil. This provides clarity on pricing stability, which is essential for maintaining volume growth without hurting profitability.
“We have built in the current crude prices already. As of now there will not be any need for further price increases. However, if crude prices go up further, we will have to look for further price increases, but as of now we are covered.”
— Abhijit Roy, MD & CEO
Management expects to maintain current EBITDA margins if raw material prices remain stable in the near future. This guidance suggests that the current level of profitability is sustainable under prevailing market conditions.
“At the EBITDA percentage level more or less it should be similar to what it was in quarter four. We are expecting that if raw material prices hold at these levels, we should be able to hold up at those levels in terms of EBITDA margin.”
— Abhijit Roy, MD & CEO
The company anticipates that total revenue will grow in the double digits, supported by recent price hikes and solid volume demand. This outlook signals a healthy balance between expansion in sales quantity and realized price per unit.
“Because of price increases we will have a double-digit value growth and possibly a mid to high single-digit volume growth. As of now we should have somewhere around the high single-digit mark in terms of volume growth and double-digit value growth.”
— Abhijit Roy, MD & CEO
The company is shifting its sales toward newer, high-margin products to improve its overall profitability profile. A focus on premium or specialized products is a key driver for long-term margin improvement and competitive differentiation.
“There are some interesting products which we have introduced which are margin accretive. Some of them are doing quite well and therefore the mix profile is improving.”
— Abhijit Roy, MD & CEO
Defence
Paras Defence & Space Technologies | Small Cap | Aerospace & Defense | Strong Order Visibility Ahead
Paras Defence & Space Technologies is a niche Indian engineering company specializing in high-end defense and space applications across optics, defense electronics, and emerging anti-drone systems. While Q4 delivered a sharp jump in growth, management believes the bigger story lies ahead, with a rapidly expanding order pipeline, rising anti-drone opportunities, and expectations of a meaningful scale-up over the next few years.
Management anticipates winning enough new business to potentially double their current order book within half a year. Such a rapid expansion in the backlog suggests a significant scaling of the business operations.
“The upcoming order inflow that we are expecting in the next 3 to six months is huge. We will almost double our order book.”
— Amit Mahajan, Director
The company’s investment in anti-drone technology has started to pay off with meaningful revenue contributions. This diversification into modern electronic warfare indicates a move toward higher-technology products.
“The refreshing part of the business is the anti-drone subsidiary is coming into the game now. They’ve started clocking handsome revenues from the last financial year.”
— Amit Mahajan, Director
Management is confident that the high growth seen in the recent quarter will continue into the next fiscal year. This optimism is backed by a combination of current contracts and a strong pipeline of pending bids.
“The upcoming year the growth momentum will be sustained. The reasons for that is the opportunities that we have on hand, the order book that we already have and the order book that we are expecting in the next 3 to 6 months.”
— Amit Mahajan, Director
The company has crossed a major milestone with an order book exceeding 1,000 crores. A large influx of new orders is expected shortly, providing clear visibility for revenue growth.
“The order book currently stands at very close to 1,000 crores thousand plus crores and the upcoming order inflow that we are expecting in the next 3 to six months is huge.”
— Amit Mahajan, Director
That’s it for now! Your feedback will really help shape how The Chatter evolves. Drop it down in the comments below!
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.
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