Sagar Cements Limited (NSE: SAGCEM) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 14, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Gavin Desa — Investor Relations
Sreekanth Reddy — Joint Managing Director
K. Prasad — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Rajat Setia — Analyst
Raghav Malik — Analyst
Rajesh Ravi — Analyst
Satyam Kesarwani — Analyst
Kamlesh Badmar — Analyst
Indrapreet Bansal — Analyst
Rahul Agarwal — Analyst
Parth Bhavsar — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome you all to 4QFY26 results conference call of Saga Cements Limited from the management team we have with us today Mr. Srikant Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Mr. K. Prasad, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Rajesh Singh, Chief Marketing Officer and Mr. Raja Reddy, the Company Secretary. I would now like to hand over the call to Gavin Disa from CDR India for his opening comments post which we will hand over the call to management over to you Gavin.
Gavin Desa — Investor Relations
Thank you Vibha. Just to add, we will begin this call with opening remarks from the management following which we will have the floor open for an interactive Q and A session. I would also like to point out that while some statements made in today’s discussion may be forward looking in nature, a note to this effect was stated in the phone call invite sent to you earlier. I would now like to hand over to Mr. Shika already for his opening remarks.
Sreekanth Reddy — Joint Managing Director
Foreign. Thank you Gavin Good morning everyone and welcome to Saga Cement’s earnings call for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2026. Yeah. Let me begin the discussion with a brief overview of the market post which I will move on to Sagar Specific Developments as indicated earlier, overall demand during the quarter remained resilient particularly in the first two months supported by a sustained construction activity. However, momentum moderated towards the later part of the quarter due to labor shortages during the festive season and the impact of the unseasonal rates.
The pricing environment also remained stable largely driven by improvement in realizations in the non trade segment. Moving on to Sagat specific developments during the year we completed the minimum public shareholding requirement in Sagar Cements in Andhra Cements through ofs, providing added financial flexibility at the parent level. We also closed the year on a strong note with volumes for both quarter and the full year growing by 8% and 11% respectively. Our total volumes for the year stood at 6.1 million ton broadly in line with our expectation reflecting steady execution.
Despite a dynamic operating environment, demand remained resilient across our key markets particularly driven by sustained traction infrastructure and rural segments which supported the top line growth of 20% during the quarter. Revenue were also added by favorable pricing trends in the non trade segment leading to an improvement in overall realizations. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the demand outlook across our core regions. Continued construction activity supported by government led infrastructure spending and stable rural demand provides a strong visibility.
Based on this, we expect our volumes to be in the range of around 7 million ton for FY27. On the operational front, our EBITDA per ton for the quarters to date rupees 445 as against rupees 218 per ton reported during Q4FY25. Going forward we expect profitability to improve supported by structural cost efficiency initiatives. These includes benefit from whrs, an increasing share of renewable energy through solar power, logistics optimization and efficiency improvements from ongoing plant upgrades.
Power and fuel cost to date rupees 14.22per tonne as against rupees 1406 per tonne reported during Q4FY25. Freight cost for the quarter stood at rupees 848 per tonne as against rupees 822 per tonne during Q4FY25. From an operational point of view, Matapalli plant operated at 59% utilization while Gudipadu, Baiavaram, Jirabad, Jajpur and Dajpalli plants operated at 84%, 69%, 95%, 44% and 38% respectively during the quarter. During the year the group opted to be taxed under section 115BAA of the Income Tax Act 1961.
Accordingly, deferred tax assets and liabilities have been remeasured. The Group has recognized the deferred tax asset on the carry forward business losses and unobserved depreciation in Andra Cements Ltd. Based on projected future taxable income which provides convincing evidence. That sufficient taxable profits will be available to utilize the losses. Profit after tax for the quarter stood at rupees 100 crore. As far as the key balance sheet items are concerned the gross debt as on 31st March 2026 today rupees 1672 crores out of which 1379 crores as a long term debt and the remaining constitutes the working capital.
The net worth of the company on a consolidated basis as on 31st March 2026 stood at Rupees 1861 crore. Debt Equity ratio stands at 0.74 is to 1. Cash and bank balances were Rupees 107 crores as on 31st March 2026. On the CapEx front the company has successfully commissioned 2.8 megawatt of the waste heat recovery system pertaining to the AQC boiler out of the 4.35 megawatt on 12 May 2026. The balance capacity of 1.55 megawatt relating to the preheater boiler is expected to be commissioned by end of June 2026.
Further, our expansion projects at Dacha Pilli and Jerabad are progressing and we remain focused on executing these projects within defined timelines and budget. These expansions along with our existing surplus capacity position us well to capture the incremental demand. The Board of Directors of the Company in their meeting on 30th March 2026 have recorded in principle approval of amalgamation of the Andhra Cements Limited Subsidiary Company with Sagar Cements subject to necessary approvals from the authorities concerned under Section 230 and 232 of the Companies Act 2013.
Further, the Board of Directors in the meeting held on 13th March May 2026 approved the establishment of a new division, the Superfine Building Materials to capitalize on the growing demand for advanced durable and eco friendly construction solutions. The division will focus on high performance superfine materials derived primarily from our GGBS and fly ash getting to precision construction and sustainable building applications. These products will support applications such as ultra high performance concrete, structural repairs, interior finishing and cladding solutions.
The initiative aligns with the company’s long term growth strategy and aims to strengthen its presence in advanced building material segment. Overall we are confident of sustaining healthy growth over the medium to long term success supported by capacity additions, operational efficiencies and business diversification. That concludes my opening remarks. We would now be glad to take any questions that you may have. Thank you
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you sir. So we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who have the question can ask through raise of hand or through chat box. We will wait for a minute minute for questions to assembled. Meanwhile sir first question is from my side sir can you please elaborate more on the expected cost higher impact that we can see in the coming quarter because of the West Asia crisis.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah Vibha as you would have seen the petcock and the coal prices are on a uptrend which we did indicate in in our presentation but fortunately in our case the inventories of the fuel is relatively available till middle of Q2. We we do not expect a significant cost increase in a short term but on a high medium to longer term. Yeah we have to see the outcomes of the war but as it stands the Petco prices are on a increasing trend from what we used to be close to around 120 is already worrying around 136 to $140 on a CIF basis so that should invariably add up another 200 rupees up to clinker level.
At cement level it should definitely add close to 100 to 150 on the current kind of a blend for us. But we. We expect things to shape up better and fairly quickly. But we. We have inventories all the way up to middle of Q2.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you sir. Next question we have from Mr. Rajat Setia. Sir, please go ahead with the question.
Rajat Setia
So sir, you were saying that we won’t be impacted till middle of next quarter like Q2. And. And the prices that have gone up so far the impact is 100250 per ton basis that what you are saying
Sreekanth Reddy
On a cement basis. Yes. Mr. The current price trends that we see in the market where the petcoke landed, cost and everything we did indicate in our presentation when it fully starts impacting us I think that should be the net impact on us too. But we see that impacting us from middle of Q2 onwards if prices don’t come down.
Rajat Setia
Okay. And have we started stocking up inventory at current levels or we are waiting?
Sreekanth Reddy
Not Yet. Not yet. I think we. We are still in negotiation. We are. We are switching to some amount of domestic coal. So we are still evaluating options to source mostly domestic. Our ability to switch to any of the fuels is helping us to focus more on domestic coal. How much of imported coal substitution would would be known probably by. By end of this quarter itself. Mr. Ajit. So we’ll be in a much better situation to. To communicate exactly what the real impact is going to be for us by end of this quarter.
Rajat Setia
Okay. And sir, other expenses have gone up by 28% on Q on Q basis. So is there anything that you can share to understand this?
K. Prasad
Yeah sir, I will update on that. There are one off expenses for the quarter. There is a mind bearing land says it’s a close to seven and a half crore. We considered during the current year. And also there is a one district Mineral foundation which is one of the subsidiary relates to one of the subsidiary company I.e. Sagar Cement CM Private Limited is a close to 3.24 crore. We considered during the quarter both put together close to 10 and a half crore. One of the expenses we considered the current quarter
Rajat Setia
And that is the only one off. But the overall other expenses if you look at they are 700 plus. So even if we remove 100, you know 10 crores so then the impact, I mean the growth which has been 28 will come down to 26. So. So everything else would you say is normal or.
K. Prasad
Yeah, yeah. Restaurant is normal in line with the operations. So these two elements are the one off expenses.
Rajat Setia
Okay. So has anything shorter in this quarter in terms of the prices and why. That’s why this is up so much because even on a year on year basis it is a 14. I mean just trying to understand whether this 700 crore of cost base is the normal cost based on a quarterly basis.
K. Prasad
There are a couple of promotional activities we spend during the quarter. So. So that. That’s what it’s a part of the other expenses. So yeah. I will give you in detail sir, suppose this meeting.
Rajat Setia
Sure, sure. I mean the idea is to understand whether the cost base at 700 crore is going to sustain or. Or how or how should we look at it? And so second, if you can talk about how is the current quarter progressing in terms of the volume and the pricing.
Sreekanth Reddy
Mr. Rajit, the. The current quarter progress on a volume front. Yeah, year on year number is up of 7%. It’s. It’s reasonably progressing in line with what we have indicated for a 7 million for the complete year. In terms of our volume outlook though there is some amount of slowdown because of the elections where the labor outgo and they coming back. We expect things to start stabilizing before end of this month. But for that we, we. We see a very strong demand outlook for the current year for most of our operations.
Mr. Ajar,
Rajat Setia
Answer pricing. Compared to from
Sreekanth Reddy
Middle of April to. To now the prices have been stable. From exit of exit of March to the middle of or rather end of April the prices picked up by almost uh. 25 rupees per bag. And more or less from then on it has remained flat in our case. Mr. A.
Rajat Setia
Okay, thanks. The last one last couple of years, I mean you must be seeing that the volume guidance that we talk about at the beginning of the year we generally are not able to meet it because of various reasons. So now that we are targeting 7 million tons which is 15, 16% kind of volume growth, maybe 15. So you
Sreekanth Reddy
Should note like last year we did indicate close to 6 million. We crossed 6.1 million. So we do expect even in the current year the 7 million target that we are trying to achieve is purely because of the ramp up. Because you should be aware that our Jirabad plant is upgrading itself. And we are hopeful that before the end of this quarter the plant upgrade would happen by additional half a million. And at the same time ramp up of Andhra Cement also is happening both in terms of capacity. But notwithstanding the capacity expansion we do expect a ramp up at Andhra level.
That is the reason why we are expecting a 0.9 million ton kind of additional volume. Though the markets that we operate are likely to grow anywhere between 12 to 15% we did not pencil in the entire 15% growth for ourselves in the region alone there is an half a million ton and for more than 3/4 the incremental half a million should be available in Jirabad where we have always been operating up of 90%. Mr. Ajit. So yeah we are hoping that to be very close to the indicative target. Mr. Last couple of years as you know the prices did not support us for volume growth.
We, we usually don’t want to lose cash for the sake of volume so we, we probably would have underperformed on the volumes purely on account of not wanting to lose money. We, we don’t chase market share. We actually conserve the cash. That, that is, that is our philosophy and that remains. But given the current demand outlook and the current pricing kind of a thing we are more than hopeful to achieve 7 million tons. Mr. For the current year.
Rajat Setia
Thank you so much and wish you all the best.
Sreekanth Reddy
Thank you sir.
Raghav Malik
Thank you. We will take next question from Mr. Raghav Malik. Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity and congrats on a good set of numbers. Just a few questions on the super fine building materials division that we’re setting up. So I understand you know that might be a little similar to you know the one existing player that has started off with GGBs. Is there some sort of cost synergies we also have in this space or like what is there some advantage to getting into this venture?
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah. Mr. Raghav, good morning. See it’s an extension for our existing business because we are in GGBS space. We have been one of the old players in the GGBA space but we are limited to only two of our manufacturing facilities. One at Bayoran that is close to Vizak in Andhra and Jajpur in Odisha. We have access to both fly ash as well as the GGBs. As I mentioned there are advantages because we do produce GCBs and we need to invest very minimal amount to, to separate super fines. You know currently The GGBS is sub 4000 plane on a fineness.
With a minimal investment we could, we could separate the fines that come out of the production. Our target is to look at anywhere between 10 to 20,000 kind of a plane separation for both fly ash as well as GGBS along with micro silica. Yeah. These products primarily cater to advanced construction material and also into the high performance concrete. Sir, we are already in that segment especially we do have a very strong relationship with players who definitely need this product going forward especially into the precast segment.
So we are leveraging on our relationship. But at the same time our target is to get into advanced building materials which are very similar to the product range that we already have. We are also looking at some of the innovations and the technical solutions that we want to offer part of that. This is the first step towards giving advanced solutions where we could definitely do lot of value add to ourselves as well as to our customers. Mr. Raghav. And we would be more than happy keeping the stakeholders updated on the progress that we are making.
This is only a first step towards getting into a much higher, higher end and technically advanced kind of solutions and the materials that we as a company we would want to enter. Mr. Ragha.
Raghav Malik
Sure sir. And any kind of longer term maybe volume targets from this. And also is there some indication of versus current products and in the advanced space or just cement what would the kind of premium maybe be in terms of pricing premium or discount for some of these products?
Sreekanth Reddy
I would not like to comment on the price premium because they are into very very different segment because GGBS as I mentioned for a low blend that is sub 44000 Blaine typically sells on an exports basis anywhere between 2 and a half thousand to 3000 rupees per ton whereas the super fine sell up of 30,000 rupees per ton. Mr. Agav that’s the delta. But volumes typically would be very very low for these and these are more techno marketing related. So this is not something which is sold like commoditized kind of a product like cement.
It needs team, it needs the technical capability. It also needs lot of R D which we are already into it. So we would want to come into that segment with lot of experience handling these materials even in the past. So that’s what I would like to highlight at this point of time. But we would be more than happy to come back to all of you at appropriate time and it’s not too far so we will be keeping you updated from time to time about the progress that we are making in this particular product. It’s not only this product but also into the solutions.
Yeah we, we did. We, we have been engaged with some of the very advanced construction solutions where there are not many players or no players in in some of the activities that we have done which is purely technical in nature where we definitely like to add value to ourselves as well as to to the clients that we have been servicing.
Raghav Malik
Sure sir. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from Mr. Rajesh Ravi. Mr. Rajesh, you can go ahead with the question.
Rajesh Ravi
Good morning. Am I audible.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, very much. Good morning.
Rajesh Ravi
Okay, great, sir. So first question pertains to. With Jirabad grinding expansion expected to come in Q1 would be we engaging in clinker sales in FY27 also?
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, I think in the current year we. We do expect some amount of clinker sale. Quantifying that at this point of time is going definitely going to be a challenge because you know, the ramp up takes time. So during this time there is a possibility that we still might do some clinker sale. But it is subject to the price of the clinker. So we never lost margin at the expense of the clinker. But. But we do expect some amount of clinker sale as the grinding unit is likely to ramp up in a phased fashion.
Right. So during that time we definitely would have some clicker sale, Mr. Rajesh.
Rajesh Ravi
Okay. And sir, clinker margin would be at the beta margin level would be similar to number which you have reported in for
Sreekanth Reddy
That location. For that location. Yes sir. For that location. As a margin. As a percentage. We did not compromise in a. In a big way. Because that location has its advantages. Mr. RA.
Rajesh Ravi
Correct. Understood. Understood. Second, on the cost exceptional items, on the exceptional items in Q4, what exceptional cost line items are there in the operating cost or one of in nature?
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, Mr. Rajesh, CFO did update. But just for the clarity sake. Yeah. There is an road infrastructure as well as some DMF related expenditure at our Jirabad unit which actually needed clarity from regulatory this thing. So we did make the provisions. I. I think from here on we accumulated for last many at least three years since we started the unit. From here on it is going to be part of the operational income. And it’s not very, very significant amount either way. Mr. Rajesh, it looks higher. But from from a spread perspective from an operational impact which we are going to make provision on a month to month, on a quarter to quarter.
Yeah. It may not significantly alter in a big way, Mr. Rajesh.
Rajesh Ravi
Okay, so in Q4, the number which you would have accrued, would that be the normalized number? So that would be for multiple quarters, right?
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, it is for multiple years, Mr. Rajesh.
Rajesh Ravi
Multiple years. So if I want to remove the impact for, you know, preceding period, that would be how much?
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, I think Mr. Rajesh, we would revert to you with specific that information. Sure, sure. Yeah. But it spread over three, three and a half years. So we would. We would. Again, it’s a very volume specific kind of a number on ton of limestone. So we would be happy sharing that data offline, Mr. Radish. But. But it’s. It’s three and a half years spread. So from a cost perspective once we normalize it it’s not a very very significant one. It should be less than 2 crores per year. Kind of an impact if I may have to say.
But with the increased volume of sale I think that number probably on a per ton basis is going to be even tapered out to a much lower number. Mr. Rash.
Rajesh Ravi
Okay. Okay. Okay. And on the. In the other income there is a higher number. 11cr. What is that pertains to? And is there any land monetization which has happened.
Sreekanth Reddy
You’re talking of. I think it’s mostly to do with the incentives that we. We received Mr. Rajesh. During the current year quarter.
Rajesh Ravi
Oh, that would be what I understand that would be part of your revenues, right? The Jirawad incentives.
K. Prasad
Yeah. The other income is the income on yfs. So say we diluted stake in Andhra Cement. So other income is inclusive of that.
Rajesh Ravi
Understood. Okay, understood. And lastly is there any guidance on the super fine business for on revenue and ebitda? I understand it would be too early. But any ballpark number you’re working with for FY2728.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah. Mr. Rajesh, I think we would. We would revert with very specific presentation pertaining to that in due course of time. Kindly bear with us. But what. What we do expect is up of 30% kind of a margin as a minimum in that business line. But the top line and the bottom line numbers we would be happy to come back to. All of you. Kindly bear with us till the next quarter end please.
Rajesh Ravi
Understood. And lastly on the operating cost with the clinker unit at Andhra also stabilized. So you know excluding the fuel price increase and the packaging cost increase. Have our numbers stabilized? Are there rooms for further reduction in the operating cost? Hello. Hello.
Operator
We can’t hear you.
Rajesh Ravi
We can’t hear you. Yeah. Yeah. Rajesh, I think there is some disconnect. Okay.
K. Prasad
Rejoin again.
Rajesh Ravi
Sure. Okay. So maybe if you could answer. You know what sort of post normalization which is still expected in. You know on the company level now because the. This is second quarter.
K. Prasad
Yeah. Post commissioning of preheated. So it is in line with the sector right now. So earlier it is close to 200 to 250 rupees per ton higher when we compared with other units of us. And in even in line with this sector. So now post commissioning. Yeah. Everything the fuel related and all it comes back to normal. Say today we are incurring around 700 to 700 kilo calories per ton of clinker. So that’s what earlier it is around 775 to 780. So once clinker level it is normal. Going forward we are going to commission the new VRM for the cement grinding that is going to be commissioned by September this year.
So post that the overall water cost saving we estimated we are going to achieve with that.
Rajesh Ravi
Okay. And given the current scenario, any guidance on the margins, can we expect you know further improvement in margins from you know this quarter margin performance for 34/40 level or.
K. Prasad
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. It is going to be in line with the sector right now. Yeah. It is going to be in line with other units of Sagar. Yeah. We have to see going forward based on the cost pressures and again it is correlate even to the. Even onto the cement price. So probably this year we were expecting it is going to be better than the last financial year.
Rajesh Ravi
Q. We will take the next question from Mr. Satyam Kesarwani. Satyam, you can go ahead with the question.
Operator
Hi. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I’m audible.
Satyam Kesarwani
Yes you are audible.
Operator
Okay, great. So my first question would be about overall market. Sir. Overall in. In south particularly. If you could just tell us about the pricing trend, you know across. Across south region and overall for all markets as well. It’ll be great. Please.
Satyam Kesarwani
Yeah. We. We took the price increase during second week of April across all the. Across all the regions. Yeah. We are able to achieve close to 25 to 30 rupees per bag. Most of the regions that
K. Prasad
See the. The price that we have seen right now in Hyderabad from a retail price perspective we are close to 295 rupees which. Which was at 290. And the wholesale price was soaring at 225 which actually got increased to 268 by. By exit of April to even the current price. As I mentioned earlier we. We did get 25 rupee kind of per bag price hike. If you look at Vizag. Yeah. The current retail price is at 295 with the wholesale price reading around 265. Again it’s product specific. For each market there is a specific product.
For Hyderabad it is ppc. Yeah. Now you look at Sholapur, the current price is at 288. The price is at 280. 295 is at 300. Indore is at 278 Bangalore is at 310. Chennai would be close to. Again this is our. For our product we are typically in a B segment. B category segment. It’s worrying anywhere between 290 to 295. Mr. Satya.
Sreekanth Reddy
Understood, understood. Thanks for that sir. Sir, is the price sort of. Is it sustaining like is the demand? As
Satyam Kesarwani
I mentioned sir, the price picked up primarily in a non trade segment in the middle of April. Though we tried to increase few. At few places price more or less remained where it was uh, without any kind of price increase uh till. Till 15th of this month or rather till 12th of this month in some places. Of course we did see whatever we tried to increase especially in the eastern India and to certain extent to. In indoor markets. Yeah. The five rupees increase that we attempted we could not sustain.
So prices more or less have been very, very flat with slightly negative bias in the central as well as in the eastern markets for us. Whereas in south we, we could sustain the same price what we have increased middle of April. Even so far it is holding up though I have to admit that the additional price increase we could not get. But more or less the prices remain where they are.
Sreekanth Reddy
Understood? Understood. So my next question would be about the incentives. How much incentive did we book in this quarter and for the whole year? And also what are we expecting for the. For 20, FY27 if that could be given
Satyam Kesarwani
Our incentives primarily receivables in Telangana remain where they are. So there has not been much. But we expect some amount of incentives to be picked up. Where we have accumulation of around 100 crores for last 10 years we have seen a small trickle down in Andhra. We are not penciling in either of them. The only incentives which we have been receiving consistently is from our Madhya Pradesh asset. Yeah, we expect anywhere between 25 to 30 crores for the coming year for the Madhya Pradesha sector.
Sreekanth Reddy
Understood. So my last question would be of the
Satyam Kesarwani
Understood. So my last question would be
Sreekanth Reddy
Okay. Okay, got it. Got it. So my last question would be about your sales mix across the state. Like what percentage did you send across? Yeah, I
Satyam Kesarwani
Think we, we made it part of the presentation. If you look at our investor presentation, it’s on slide 6. I think it is very elaborate. Rather than giving you a number, you need any further refining into that we will be more than happy to furnish. But, but we, we did indicate those in our investor presentation. Investor. Sir,
Sreekanth Reddy
I’ll have a look. I’ll have a look. Thanks.
Satyam Kesarwani
Thank you. We Will take the next question from Mr. Kamlesh Badmar Kamlesh, you can go ahead with the question.
Kamlesh Badmar
Yeah thanks for the opportunity sir. So one question with regard to your MP plant. So just wanted to know like how much incentives are available like say for will it continue till F5 30 or how much we can expect there.
Sreekanth Reddy
Mr. Kamlesh the incentives there are to tune off around 171 crores so far we are also eligible for the expansion project additionally. But this 170 crores is spread over seven years. This is primarily on the capital subsidies. So is the case with the electricity incentive. So these are valid for seven years. Out of that we, we are close to completing three and a three close to three years now. So they are available for next four years. Mr. Kamlesh, I. I’m talking only of the. The first asset that we have built for.
For the expansion project. Yeah they would be available for next seven years to. To be paid in seven equal installments for the overall kind of incentive. Yeah we would, we would revert to you once the. The capex is firmed up there There is a government sanction which we need to get so for for the expanded project once we get to know of the numbers we would be happy furnishing. The numbers that I’ve indicated is for the first investments that we have done.
Kamlesh Badmar
So in total for the first phase we are expecting 170 crore and out of that we have already got roughly around 100, around 70 odd growth like say last year close to
Sreekanth Reddy
That number sir, close to 65 odd crores. We we did receive. Yeah we have another 110 crores to be spread over four years time. Added to that we would also have an electricity incentive which again is a performance driven. So we are not able to quantify that at this point of time but that should be anywhere between 7 and a half to 10 crores additionally over what I mentioned.
Kamlesh Badmar
And lastly sir if you see standalone performance margins look to be very subdued so like say below 150 mark. So where do we see these margins? I. I do understand that prices are not under our control and we can work only on our cost part. But like year after year we are seeing this performance and on top of that we have seen a benefit of consolidation in the industry as well. But overall the performance looks to be very subdued. And what are our aspirations like say over next one to two years where do we see our these margins going?
Sreekanth Reddy
Mr. Kamlesh, I’m sure you would appreciate. I. I think the Andhra has been a significant Drag on us in terms of Andhra cement. Fortunately the capex and everything is working out extremely well. So you’d have seen even in the last quarter. Yeah, we are very close to the breakeven. I think with, with the turnaround in Andhra. I, I think from a cost perspective and everything we are, we are back to where we were once. But but for the pricing on the cost front and all we are, we are back to. To a very good kind of a position with Andhra.
New creator coming up. The efficiency of the new creator is extremely good and at the same time our investments which we have done over last three years we, we are extremely confident on our margins going forward irrespective of the prices. I think we should, we should start delivering the numbers from here on. Mr. Kamrash.
Kamlesh Badmar
Great sir. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks a lot and best of luck. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from chat box. Mr. Shikhar, Nepal wants to understand about the statewide price hike and demand outlook for the state.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah. As I’ve indicated for most of the southern states we did get 25 rupees per bag on an average kind of a hike starting from middle of April as indicated earlier. We are able to sustain most of it. The growth numbers from. From what we did narrate even during the previous call. Yeah. We do expect a strong demand growth in both Telugu states of AP and Telangana. Yeah we, we do expect anywhere between 5 to 10% growth in Tamil Nadu. Karnataka. We expect a 5% growth in for the coming year. Going back to Odisha.
Yeah there has been a lag but fortunately the government spend has started picking up. But internally we did pencil a 5% growth for the demand for Odisha. For Madhya Pradesh we are expecting anywhere between 5 to 7 and a half percent growth for Madhya Pradesh markets.
Operator
Thank you. And another question is from Mr. Mahin Bhardwaj. So he wants to understand the expected cost increase like 100, 150 per ton is attributable to Petco cost. So what about the other high cost like for example bags etc.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, I think bags. There has been a paper down from from what we have seen it. We, we. We were paying extra five rupees to an average cost that we used to pay before. We, we have seen almost a 2 rupee kind of a drop per bag. It has come down. But, but you know the, the real impacts of war. I, I think we just started seeing them. So given this scenario. Yeah. What we have penciled in is Almost additional. Another 100 rupees on account of all the miscellaneous things that includes the bags and at the same time availability and also the pricing of explosives.
Also there has been a 23 rupees 75 paisa per liter height in terms of commercial diesel which has its impact on the mining. So we. We have penciled in almost additional 100 rupees. So we. We are factoring around 225 to 250 rupees. But per ton kind of a price increase on account of both fuel and as well as miscellaneous expenditure. I’m talking this in general. Yeah it could. It could. It could vary on the inventory and all. Yeah that’s what is what we have penciled over a period of time. Again this.
This is kind of a moving number as it stands. That’s what we have seen if everything had to we passed on. At this point of time it is impacting almost 250 rupees per ton on account of fuel and various other cost items that have gone up during this time.
Operator
You. We will take the next question from Mr. Indrapreet Bansal. Indrapreet, you can go ahead with your question
Indrapreet Bansal
Sir. Just wanted to know actually I have joined late sir. Any update on the land disposable, the timelines on the land bank and what when can we check the proceedings?
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah. See you. I’m assuming that you are talking of the viac land of Andra Cements.
Indrapreet Bansal
Yes. Yes sir.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah we. We. We. We got all the approvals. So the government indicated that they are preparing a final go not for us alone but in general for monetizing all the industrial lands which the grant has come from the government historically. So like in Telangana where the government promulgated government order where you know there is a small fee which we need to pay to the government and it automatically gets converted. So. So even Andhra government is contemplating similar kind of an act. Jivo. We.
We are just evaiting for it. But some of the critical approvals have already we have received primarily from GVMC that is the greater municipal VIAC municipality and the Urban Development Authority. We, we did get the approvals but. But yeah the go from the government is awaited. We, we. We were to receive the go but specific to us but government wanted to come up with a generalized kind of a go to. To get most of these conversions simplified. They wanted to come up with the go. So we. We are expecting anytime it might come.
So at this point of time it is still fluid but we are more than hopeful that over next six months we should. We should have got the go in place for us. To monetize. Mr. Ind.
Indrapreet Bansal
Sir. Thank you.
Operator
We will take the next question from Mr. Rajat Satya. Yeah.
Rajat Setia
Yeah. Thanks again sir. Last year at the starting of the year we had guided for net debt position of around 1300 crore while we ended the year at almost 1550 plus. So what really happened that you know we had to take more debt and what gives us confidence that the guidance that the number that we have put up for the next year debt we will be able to achieve it?
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah. What you have to remember Mr. AAT is this debt includes an unsecured debt from the promoter group for fulfilling the Andra project. So we, we were not wanting to draw the entire amount. If you track us. We, we were to do the rights issue for Andra. Yeah. Which we could not do the rights issue but we went for an ofs. So that actually has elevated. We, we always have indicated that the debt levels would not be higher than what it is so that we, we would not cross the current levels. And at the same time yeah we, we did accelerate some of the solar investments and everything which where the payback period was fairly short.
So that is actually adding up to our EBITDA or rather cost level. So we, we thought that is more prudent than trying to keep debt at the static level. But having said that. Yeah from here on we expect debt to be paid out fairly quickly with the operating income. Mr. Ajay.
Rajat Setia
So thanks sir. And in terms of our EBITDA per turn there was a time when we used to do six seven hundred rupees per turn basis. Do you think we are in a position to go back to those levels in the next 12 years?
Sreekanth Reddy
I think in the current year itself we should be very close to 600 because the significant improvement for us has come from the cost itself. Mr. Ajit. So the last year ended at almost 450 to 480. And we are more than hopeful that with the Andhra plant becoming as efficient with both the grinding plants becoming operationalized for us adding this 150 is not an external issue. It is more an internal issue. And we believe that the current pricing may not deteriorate. That that’s the caveat that I need to put.
Even if it doesn’t go up with the current prices remaining flat I think we should be close to that number. It’s primarily on account of the savings that we are getting from the investments that we have made so far.
Rajat Setia
Okay. And these internal investments that will contribute the timeline wise by when they will start kicking in. Sir, I think Andhra
Sreekanth Reddy
Is already operationalized especially on the clinker line. The waste heat recovery as well as the grinding capacity at Jirabat should should be completed before end of this quarter itself. Though 3 4th of the WHRS is already operational as we speak. But before end of the quarter we are more than hopeful that these savings should start kicking in at the levels that I’ve indicated. Andra’s grinding capacity which again should also save on the energy side should be completed before end of September itself.
So that also should start contributing for half of the year. Half year for the current financial year.
Rajat Setia
Got it. Thank you. Thank you.
Sreekanth Reddy
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you.
Rahul Agarwal
Thank you for the opportunity. This is a continuation to the last participant’s question. How much capex is pending for us to be incurred on both the Jirabad expansion as well as on the Andhra cement site and how much will be incurred in FY27 and by when do you expect both of these units to start start commissioning?
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, I would appreciate if you could look at slide number 16 on the presentations that we have uploaded Mr. Rahul Agrawan. Yeah, just for the convenience the the Andhra expansion the pending CAPEX is close to 140 crores which we are likely to complete in the current financial year. Good part is at 17 crores and Jirabad expansion we have 33 crores spending. As mentioned the Jirapad expansion should be completed before end of this quarter itself. So is the case with the wasted recovery at Guri Padu.
Andra’s expansion should be completed before September, sir. This September.
Rahul Agarwal
Got it, got it, got it. And on the Vizag line you mentioned that a lot of clearances are in place and you’re still awaiting the final notifications from the government. But as of today what is your assessment of the market value of that land?
Sreekanth Reddy
Again I’m going with the reckoner rate sir. Though there has been some increase but I’m going with the old reckoner rate it is at 4 crores an acre net of expenditure we we are likely to receive around 3 and a half crores per acre and we have around 100 acres. So we were expecting 350 crores spread over 2 years time when the go gets received in the first year we expected to receive around 150 crores and the 200 crores over the next 12 months time. Post that Mr. Rahulak.
Rahul Agarwal
Got it. And one last one sir. On top of the expansion CAPEX that you highlighted earlier what are. Is there any recurring maintenance CapEx that we need to do and what is the quantum of that that you expect on an ongoing basis.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah. Again we. We did present part of our presentation sir. Just for the convenience at each location the the general maintenance capex across all the units should be around 50 crores.
Rahul Agarwal
Got it. Got it. Thank you so much sir.
Sreekanth Reddy
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from Mr. Path sir.
Parth Bhavsar
Hi sir. So thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on good set of numbers. Sir, I just had one question question which is related to balance sheet and more on working capital. Your working capital days has increased significantly you know from March to March 25 to 26. And this is largely driven by you know decline in payable days. Can you throw some light on like what happened during the year and also how do you see this going forward?
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, I think when market situation is very very difficult sir the credit days and everything gets extended at the same time as indicated the fuel prices were at elevated level. So when you stock up you end up using higher working capital. I think by end of the year we more or less have reached true stability. And I think going forward we would like to minimize the utilization of the working capital. But this happened because the business itself has expanded. Sir. If you look at the working capital limits were very similar even for a 5 million sale.
But the sale got extended so. So was for some of the clients the. The credit days also got extended. So that definitely put some amount of pressure on the overall kind of working capital utilization. But we expect moderation going forward. But. But please keep in mind that we we are going to add another million ton sale into the overall kind of numbers what we have done previously. So there is some amount of reassessment with especially the fuel with the increased price for same volumes. If we have to do still we need to put in more money.
So I think that that’s the scenario that we are in. But. But with slightly better realizations and better margins we. We do expect moderation in the overall kind of utilization of the working capital. Mr. Park.
Parth Bhavsar
Largely payables is linked to basically a raw middle stocking up fuel stock.
Sreekanth Reddy
One is the credit days for the finished products and at the same time for. For the. For the raw material for the input. In
K. Prasad
Addition to that in Q4 in the month of March we secured close to 76,000 tons of US NAP coal which is close to 80 crore worth of value. So that we took based on the by sharing the foreign letter of credit. So that is going to have 180 days credit period. So that is one of the reason to reflect the higher numbers.
Parth Bhavsar
Okay. Perfect. Got it. Sir, thank you so much for answering my question. Thank You.
Operator
We will take next question from Mr. Rajesh. Ravi. Rajesh, you can go ahead with your question.
Rajesh Ravi
Yeah, yeah. Thank you. So my question pertains to your discussion on saying that numbers would largely remain flattish. So just wanted to understand first in the working capital what is the incentive outstanding at the end of March 26?
Sreekanth Reddy
Prasad, can you, can you help me with that? Rajesh,
K. Prasad
It’s around 23, we have to receive incentives.
Rajesh Ravi
So most of the, you know, around 67, 68 crore which is accrued in P L a large chunk of that got received this year.
K. Prasad
Yes, even this 23 crore we were expecting in second quarter.
Rajesh Ravi
Okay.
K. Prasad
Yeah, yeah. Since now the numbers are in place so now we have to reach government to submit an application to get the money so that we are going to initiate probably in the next week. So we were expecting somewhere in mid of July we can get the incentives.
Rajesh Ravi
Understood. And sir when you’re talking this year we are talking of total capex of those 2, 300 to 320 crore including maintenance capex and interest outgo if I’m not wrong would be close to 200. So somewhere north of 500 crore of cash flow would be required. And if we assume all of that comes from ebitda we are talking about at 7 million tons, you know.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah. Mr. Rajesh, I think, yeah, sorry for barging in. I think you should understand that capex need not come from EBITA alone. Sir. Yeah, we, we have structured even some of the energy efficient projects through lease finance. But, but yeah, except for the spending 3 and the maintenance capex, the other projects are subject to the market conditions. And at the same time based on the payback we would like to take a call with lease finance options that exist for us. Mr. Ramesh.
Rajesh Ravi
Okay. Okay. So from a cash flow perspective for FY27 you’re looking at. I understand we have few lease out projects.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, it is close to 140 to 100. 190 crores is the total capex that is pending for three ongoing projects. Mr. Rajesh. But there is unknown credit and our draw plan is whatever we would have repaid. That is what is required for us to implement the project. So, so that is precisely is the plan and that’s what we did indicate in even in our presentation. Mr. Rash,
Rajesh Ravi
I was looking to your presentation where you mentioned to 290 odd crore is what you’re looking at
Sreekanth Reddy
Out of that 275 crore.
Rajesh Ravi
Yeah.
Sreekanth Reddy
There are three projects which are subject to the two of them are solar both at Matt as well as at Jirabad and at the same time Budu. In terms of optimization sir, those are. Those are options which we would like to excise as we would progress. But. But our interest is to pay down the debt. So we are looking at other alternatives to implement the project Primarily on something like an equipment finance kind of an option or lease finance option is what we are pursuing. So once you remove That we should be sub 240 odd crores. That includes the maintenance capex. Okay.
Rajesh Ravi
So that would give you some any land sale. You are factoring in in your assumptions when you expect numbers. Yeah,
Sreekanth Reddy
We did pencil in close to 150 crores for the current financial year. Net
Rajesh Ravi
Of taxes.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, that is network expenditure. Yeah, net of all the other expenditure.
Rajesh Ravi
Understood. So that it means you’re factoring in close to 500 odd rupees. You know at the beta margin level. And sir, on cost side if I look at yours. Yeah. Please tell me sir.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah. From a budget perspective we have penciled in 580 crore sir which is 100 rupees more than what we have achieved last year. As I mentioned before that 100 rupees is actually coming from the overall savings that we are likely to receive in the cost optimization alone. Mr. Rajesh, what we have also penciled in is whatever would be the incremental costs that are likely to happen from here on we are assuming that it would be a pass through where market should absorb them. Mr. Rajesh. Understood.
Rajesh Ravi
Correct. Correct. And if I just want to understand the OPEX breakup between your standalone and Andhra cement they are at quite different cost level. So if I look at your operating cost for your standalone entity that averages of close to 3,800 rupees per ton. And Rajesh, I’m sure
Sreekanth Reddy
You you’ll appreciate that is one of the reason why even in a difficult time we went with an investment because whatever we invested in has a very strong payback. Now with the investment more or less coming to conclusion. Yeah. The gap between Andhra and standalone should be very very minimal sir. Because the gap again very specific to Matampelli to Andhra the gap would be only the wasted recovery cost related issue or else more or less there is a complete alignment on cost that that’s what gives us confidence that from here on our margins are going to be I would not say very high but healthier like how it used to be before that.
That is one of the reason why we aggressively pursued the capex even in a difficult time
Rajesh Ravi
Difference between both the entities on costing sites. 383900 versus 48 4900. So am I missing something? Opex is close to 4900 or on a full year basis.
Sreekanth Reddy
Mr. Rajesh. Again it depends on what are all the line items that you are looking at. Because the logistics cost could be very different because the market spread is very different. But. But I think we’ll be more than happy to run through on an offline, Mr. Rajesh.
Rajesh Ravi
Sure. And lastly on the land sale, I understand the GR you’re expecting from the Telangana government. But in the interim have you lined up or are you are in some advanced stage of discussion with buyers? So once the GR is out you may be able to dispose of. And
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah, there has been an engagement. But as you know everybody needs clarity. Right. So. So we obviously have appointed a consultant who has helped us to reach out to few of them. Yeah, we are in discussion but nothing is concrete till you know the timeline and everything gets evolved. So that. That I think. And it should not be a big challenge selling a land in Vizag though that size of land for Vizag is very big. But with the activity that is happening in Vizag now we. We are reasonably sure and confident of executing the transaction fairly quickly.
Because our idea also is not to sell it as a single block. The idea is to make it into viable blocks. So that you know we don’t have to break it down into smaller pieces but some manageable pieces. I think sale should. Should not take longer than two years, Mr. Rajesh. So that is the reason why we. We penciled in the entire 350 crore spread over 18 to 24 months. With bulk of it, you know from around 150 to be received in the first year and the rest in next six to eight months. The balance to be received.
Rajesh Ravi
Yeah, that’s all. Thank you sir. And all the best.
Sreekanth Reddy
Thank you.
Operator
We will take the last question from Mr. Rajat Setia. Rajat, you can go ahead with your question. You can unmute your line and go ahead with the question. Since there are no response and as there are no further questions we will request management to give the closing commentary over to you. Shikant sir.
Sreekanth Reddy
Yeah. Thank you again. Appreciate each one of you for joining on the call. I. I hope you could get all your queries answered. If not please feel free to connect us at. At Sagar or Celia. We would be more than happy to address them. Thank you again. Have a great day. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And now we will conclude the call.