Best Agrolife Ltd (NSE: BESTAGRO) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Feb. 09, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Vimal Kumar — Managing Director
Vikas Jain — Chief Financial Officer
Surendra Sai Nallamalli — Executive Director
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Gunit Singh — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and Gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 and 9 months FY26 conference call of Best Agrolife Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. This conference call may contain forward looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on date of this call.
The statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Today. From the management side we have with us Mr. Vimal Kumar, Managing Director, Mr. Surendra Sai, Executive Director and Mr. Vikas Jain, Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to hand the call over to Mr. Vimal Kumar for his opening remarks. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Vimal Kumar — Managing Director
Thank you. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us today. I will start by sharing an overview of our performance for quarter 3 FY26 followed by our outlook for the coming quarters. During Q3 FY26, our sales performance was lower on a year on basis. This was mostly due to a combination of climate and market related factors. Q3 was significantly impacted by unusual weather conditions. October 2025 witnessed exceptionally high rainfall across the country. India recorded rainfall that was nearly 49% higher than the long period average making it the second highest October rainfall since 2001. Rainfall was also erratic and uneven across many regions.
North west and Central India saw heavy rains with parts of Punjab and Haryana having floods. These conditions disrupted sowing schedule and overall cropping cycle. At the same time, pest pressure in paddy crops remain very low. While this is positive promo for a crop health perspective, it reduced the need for crop protection products. As a result, demand in some of our important markets were affected during the quarter. In West India and Central India, excess rainfall impacted soya business spray programs. Important regions such as Madhya Pradesh and South Rajasthan were affected. Because of this, inventory from Q2 were carried forward into quarter three.
Fresh product placement and field activity could not take place as originally planned. Official data has indicated that During October to December 2025, all Karib crops exceptional except petty credit and discount 9 to 30% of the MSP. The impacted purchases by the farmer. For Rabi. The weather condition remained favorable with stable temperatures across many growing regions. But we saw less disease and pest in crop like wheat, cumin, potato and onion. These crops usually contribute to our quarter three revenues and this softness has an impact on our Q3 performance. On the market side industry face challenges related to high inventory of generic as a trade level.
This leads to higher price competition across the industry. Despite these near term challenges, we remain confident in the long term fundamentals of our business. We are taking active actions for improving productivity, have better predictability and increasing increase profitability. Step we are taking include database inventory control, ERP analytics for tracking sales and collections, comprehensive app for the sales team, operations, connecting dealer and farmer through digital campaigns and introducing chatbots for the dealers. These steps have begun to show results and we hope to leverage data analytics and AI to take a company forward to increase productivity, lower cost and improve profitability.
Our patent product portfolio continue to perform and our distribution reach remains strong. I am particularly encouraged by the performance of our two newly launched patent combination Bestman and Petagen. Both products have received strong acceptance from the farming community in this very first year. Even we got the registration at the end of the season in the last we can say July and September. In the two months we got very good response for this two product so we are confident that coming year 2327 we will get very good for this. Bestman and Fetajin each product has crossed more than 4 lakh treated acres which is a strong validation of our innovation efforts.
Alongside growth initiative we have remained focused on improving operational efficiency. Our continued emphasis on cost optimization, inventory reduction and disciplined receivables management has helped our balance sheet. Looking ahead, Seasonal activity is progressing well across central, western, eastern and northern India. Field conditions are improving and farmer sentiment are stable. With a strong pipeline, better cost discipline and improving market conditions, we are positioned for growth in the coming quarters. We remain committed to delivering sustainable value to our farmer partners and stakeholders. With that I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Vita Jim who will walk you through the detailed financial performance for Q3 and 9 month FY26.
Thank you.
Vikas Jain — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Vimalji and good afternoon everyone. I’ll take you through the financial performance for the quarter and nine months ended 12/31/2025. Starting with Q3FY26 revenue from operations stood at 202.9 crores compared to 274.1 crores in Q3FY25. This was largely due to unseasonal rainfall affecting crop patterns. Gross margin for the quarter was 65 crores down from 89 crores in Q3FY25. Despite the unfavorable seasonal conditions we were able to maintain gross margins of 32%. EBITDA for the quarter was a profit of 3.8 crores an improvement over a loss of 5.8 crores in Q3 FY25 with the EBITDA margin improving to 1.9% from a negative 2.1% in the same period last year.
Operationally we focused on cost optimization with OPEX excluding the finance and Depreciation reduced by 36% in Q3 and 20% over nine months helping maintain financial discipline despite lower revenue. On the profit after tax front we reported a loss of 12.7 crores improving on a loss of 24.2 crores in Q3FY25. Looking at the nine month performance, revenue from operations was 1101 crore compared to 1540 crores in nine months. FY25 gross margin stood at 345 crores down from 468 crore in the same period last year. EBITDA for nine months FY26 was 127 crores with an EBITDA margin of 11.5% while PAD for the period was 46.1 crore compared to 91.8 crore in nine month FY25 nine month year on year sales declined by 28% with 23% attributable to volume decline and 5% due to price variation.
Despite the overall decline, the patented portfolio remained relatively stable with only a 5% reduction whereas the non patent portfolio declined by 48%. Sales return is also much lower than last year largely due to implementation of the stringent sales return policies. This concludes my overview of the financials I now hand over to Mr. Tsai who will walk you through other business highlights. Good afternoon everyone.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli — Executive Director
I will quickly take you through what’s happening on the international business plan mainly around exports, registration and ip. Starting with our exports, markets are moving steadily across regions. Across key markets, progress remains steady. Our registration for our patented products in Sri Lanka are moving well. Document preparation is underway for finalized products in Vietnam and in Morocco. We continue discussion around pesticides and our patented nano urea. On the execution front, we finalized our third export shipment to Sudan. We continue to do these exports on a cash basis. The IP side has been particularly strong. We secured three patents for novel combination formulation. In addition, we were awarded a process patent for an intermediate with export potential. This patent improves the yield and purity of the product. Beyond this, we have filed four international patent applications which continue to strengthen our global IP position. We also received our first grant in a nano formulation. Our nanoparticulate fertilizer is aimed at improving. Nutrient efficiency across crop yields. Overall, we are seeing a steady progress. Both in expanding our international footprint and in building a strong innovation and IP LED pipeline. That’s a quick list from my side. Thank you. We can now open the floor for questions. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Heman Gupta, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Sir. In the previous con call we were. Discussing mostly about the sales return and the H2 numbers and you were very, very confident that you will achieve 600 cross in H2 with positive Pratt in both the quarters. What happened, sir? Suddenly.
Vikas Jain
No, it’s not about the sale return. What we talking about there is not. That is under in the provision only sale return. That is under the provision only.
Vimal Kumar
So Emma, mostly in the sense if you. You are aware that most part of September, August and September and including October, there was continuous rainfalls especially in the north. Most of the flooding has also happened. So this impacted a little bit of sales. So we were pretty confident that we’ve been positive.
Vimal Kumar
Yeah. Can you hear me?
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, yeah. But we had this call in mid. Of November for not October.
Vikas Jain
Yes, you’re right. What I’m saying is that the liquidation and all impact of ca, we come to know only at the end of December and at the end of the quarter. So even though we were hopeful that we might do a good placement for Ravi, but even Ravi is little softer. So the placement also for Ravi has not happened up to the mark. So that was the reason that some sales was missed. But still as was committed that will will not have major losses like last year. Our key improvement was that we had reduced our inventory drastically along with the reduction in opex.
Even though we missed out a little bit on the profit front.
Unidentified Participant
Sorry, even in one of the call which you had in the end of December with one of the news channels, you were clearly mentioning that you are trying to have profitability in both the quarter and it is just a week before the quarter ending and I’m not, not understanding why this suddenly how this loss has come.
Vikas Jain
Yeah. Mr. Yamant, as I mentioned, mostly the Debbie happens from the replacement happens from end of December and most of the liquidation will happen during now. So presently liquidation is going on so yes, we were confident with respect to our profitability but we had missed a little bit on the placement front because of the soft Ruby season.
So still as you see our losses are still pretty limiting to 12 crores which we could have done based on the placement what we were expecting but that didn’t happen. So again our expectation is that Q3, Q4 we should be not having losses. So we had little losses this year. Again we are trying for Q4 not to have any losses.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And in terms of this warrant issue sir, do you have any communication now the shareholders, are they willing to pay before May of this year?
Vikas Jain
Still based on the market prices, we have to wait for a few more months before we can take any call as to what what will happen and
Unidentified Participant
if they don’t pay before May, what will happen sir,
Vikas Jain
so as per the terms the amount will get forfeited.
So we don’t want that situation to happen. But yeah, based on the market situation we will take a call and discuss with the investors.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
Thank you. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Gunit Singh from Counter Silicon pms. Please go ahead. Hi sir.
Gunit Singh
Thank you for this opportunity. So I would like to understand if we have been losing market share. If we compare from FY24 to currently. So the revenue went down from 1800cr to about 1400cr trading per month. So I want to understand what were the sales volumes for nine months of FY25 versus the nine months currently to understand if we’re losing any market share or not. Because if you see one of our competitors, Dhanuka Agritech, they have been maintaining their revenues as well as improving their EBITDA margins. So for example our ebitda margins in FY23 were about 18% and theirs were also the same then.
But now theirs have gone up to about 20% but ours has come down to 10%. So can you please help me understand what’s going on?
Vikas Jain
So with respect to the market share, so obviously Danuka and we are obviously in a different growth phase because ours is mostly recently that we have gone into B2C in recent three, four years. But yeah, compared to the volumes our NDV at the beginning of the year itself was that we want to increase our sales of patented product so which we were able to do. So our patent portfolio compared to last nine months and this nine months was just about minus 4%. That was also because of the prices. Otherwise our volumes are up but for the non patent because last Two years we had suffered little higher on the sales return front wherein we had to take little bit of inventory.
That also affected our working capital. Our sales of the non patent was lower. So that we said was lower by 35 to 40%. Yes, we might have lost a little bit but not on the patent portfolio but on the non patent sales a little bit. And with respect to Danuka. Yes, only for Q3 if you see most of the companies were able to show better results was because of the exports. But if you see other peer players, what we have most of them had a reduction of 10 to 20% reduction in the sales as well as in the profitability.
Gunit Singh
So overall our volumes have fallen about 30, 35% if you compare year on year. So whereas the competitors their volumes have not fallen this much. So can you, I mean help me understand why are we losing market share? What are we not doing right and what is going forward for us?
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
Yes, Mr. Gunit. Yeah, in fact we are losing our market share. It depends on the products. Like you know, last some years we were doing mix of some generics and our patent portfolio. And now we are mainly focusing our patent product. Definitely if I say when our patent are selling more and our generics are, we are not selling that way. So definitely our profitability should be higher. Beta margin should be high. That is correct. Your question is very correct. And our concern is the same. But at the same time when we are pushing, when we are developing this kind of our patented molecule which in India if you see any other company, you say the name.
No company have that much of own patent molecules they are doing in India. But this is the. This is the period where the last year and this year we are totally changing toward from generic to patents. And when we are developing this kind of patent products like our one product, you know, because you know some depth also. So the roundfin, you know, so that itself one drone friend product is. Is we are selling more than 200 crore and it was. We have started in 2022 mainly. So in you can see in three years, four years 21 we started but 22 were the main year.
So in three year one product we are getting 200 crore. But definitely what about the others? So we are in the phase where we are doing marketing more, where we are doing salesforce more, where we are expenses more. So the main reason is our expenses and more. And sometimes this kind of condition climatic things and to develop the new molecule little bit harder. So that is the only thing. If we talk about next year and one year is Enough for us. If it will go well. I can say like this way. And we are in some of the products like I said, two products and this our best man.
These two products are fantastically doing that can be bigger than Ron Pen in coming years that we can see. So. So it depends so of course. But result is a real where we are now standing up near 10%, 11% of beta and we have to reach 20% and we are not far away. But definitely the results are result and I hope next year will be very good.
Gunit Singh
In my understanding it is because the R D spends this year that the margins are falling down. Is that correct? So how much is the R and D spent for nine months? And what are the better margins for a patient products?
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
I’m not talking about R D I’m talking about the expenses on the sales and marketing. Sales and marketing as well as R D but not R D is not that big part. But major part is sales and marketing for the new products.
Gunit Singh
Please go ahead.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
If you talk about our gross margin. So our gross margin already is around 32%. So gross margin is good. But when we come into the ebitda EBITDA less just because of the new product it is taking some time and if any climatic things or anything come that will hit us more than others because we are in a new product and development stage. So definitely nobody will try if there is a very less demander already market is hitting in that way. So. But the way we are doing, the way we are, you know, doing our new products. So I. I think one year is enough to change all the scenario because we are on the same path. And I think we’re on the right path. Last two, three years we have seen generic. Slowly, slowly it is decreasing and the exclusive molecule which we have is increasing year by year. But definitely we are ready with the products. So whenever a chance we get and one year is enough to come back.
Gunit Singh
Based on the current demand scenario and outlook. I mean what do you feel like should be our top line and ebitda margins for FY27?
operator
Yeah please.
Vikas Jain
So FY27 still pretty early to say for this year. For FY26 only for nine months are saved around 1100 crores. So we expect to close the year between 1300 to 1400 crores. So this is for the current year which will close by March 26 for 2627 still we are in the process to have our number. But we should see our growth coming back and we should be coming back to our earlier numbers which we had since our earlier two years.
Gunit Singh
All right, sir. And we did an acquisition of about 140cr in March 2024. But if we look at the numbers for FY25, I mean, it does not reflect neither in the revenues nor in the bottom line. So can you throw some light on how the operations are going there? And I mean, why did the numbers not reflect in our revenues?
Vikas Jain
See, this year we are already at the beginning of the year itself. We had given to say that this year we will stabilize. Because what happens is when the sales team since last two years were in a mood to do a lot of placements and do higher sales, but because of sales we were getting affected on our inventory and working capital front. So this one year it takes time for the sales team to come to newer policies. And we had already informed at the beginning that this year we will stabilize. And once we are in good shape with respect to our balance sheet next year we can think of growing our sales.
So it was not that it was surprised to some extent because of the continuous rainfall that we missed around 70 to 100 crores of sales. But otherwise this year was expected as we had thought at the beginning of the year. With respect to, as I said, inventory front, reduction in the inventory, reduction in sales return, reduction in opex. Now all these three are mostly achieved. And there is already awareness in the market with respect to dealers and sales team that we are more concentrating on our patented products. And we will not accept such huge sales return which is stabilized this year.
So next year again we are talking about the present numbers, what we are taking from sales team. We are pretty confident of having our growth back, especially that we have our three products which we introduced last year. It was little late, but next year we will see the full results and also three new products which are going to come. So our growth will be back from next year after whatever we have done in this year with respect to stabilizing the inventory and working capital.
Gunit Singh
Okay, so my last question would be, what is the revenue potential from our existing capacity? And in your judgment and opinion, do you think that the worst is behind us? And I mean our revenues and EBITDA margins cannot go below the current levels. And there’s only upside going forward.
Vikas Jain
So our capacity to earlier at 1800 crores also we have sufficient capacity. So based on our existing capacity, we can do 2000 plus crores. So capacity is not a constraint. So that thing more or less we can easily achieve from our existing capacity without actually adding anything. So it was only because that our B2C business was pretty much happened or we pushed a lot in last two, three years. So whatever we had gained from around 400 crores to today thousand crores in our branded business happened in last two to three years. So we took a year to stabilize that operation and we’ll see that next year our numbers will go up.
So our capacity is more than enough for us. And even our opex which we had reduced drastically have stabilized. We had done a lot of restructuring on our locations on the territories that also has happened and have stabilized this year.
Gunit Singh
All right, so got it. Thank you very much, John Magdiq.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Chintan Mehta, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello sir. So my name is. So thank you for numbers. I just want to understand what is the position for the international expansion for best agro going forward like because the margins will be much better. So where we are looking, where we are looking in terms of numbers or in terms of potential in the international expansion?
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
Yes please. So in terms of in terms of a new revenue stream, exports and international markets will definitely be one big area. And in that front one of the key challenges in case of international business is the number of registrations. So currently we are progressing on our patented portfolio registrations which are expensive and then we have found very good partners who are doing that. So in addition to this particular registration process which is going on, there is a parallel R and D which is going on in terms of identifying certain intermediates which can also be sold abroad where the registration cost or the registration challenges do not exist.
The third thing that has been working on is in the area of nano urea where we are seeing a good amount of potential abroad. So as a result of these multiple initiatives that we have taken on the export front, we opened our China subsidiary and China subsidiary currently is doing at least it is doing some degree of revenue. Although it is okay on the gross margin there is a slight amount of in terms of the net profitability that is because of the initial expenses. This China subsidiary is currently doing some degree of trading practices for buying and selling in China itself.
Overall, there is a potential upside that we see in terms of our export revenue. It will be a little bit difficult to be able to give a hard number because that would be a projection. But we do expect our export revenues to be a good percentage of of our total top line. And as you mentioned correctly, yes, India has been doing a significant amount of export. We are one of the largest exporters. Of pesticides in the whole world. Given the challenges in China and other things I do expect and the options and advantages in India, I do expect this export market to grow. We are little slow on this particular front because initially we have not been able to, you know, leverage and catch this bus. But yes, this will be, this will be one big area for us going ahead.
Unidentified Participant
The follow up question is that like let’s say for example the patent is granted so how much time it takes from registration? Because I’m not like we, I do not have understanding of how that registration works. But if I want to understand if registration is completed, what is the time frame or a time period from which the, you know, revenue gets start generating after the patent is granted. Because I, I, in the recent discussion you mentioned one of the patent is granted. Right. So that doesn’t mean that the product can be developed on that or like what is the time frame or a time duration that it takes from a pattern Grant grant to convert into the real numbers like what, what about the journey looks like.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
Yes, that’s a good question because in case of the agrochemical industry, what happens is getting a patent is little different from being registering that particular agrochemical in that country and being allowed to export and sell. The two are different. Now what happens is while we are getting a patent portfolio, as far as the export is concerned, that country’s registration time takes anywhere between two to six years. In case of Brazil, it may take even more longer than that. So the reason for that is very simple. This is a patented product and hence it is a new formulation or a new technical sort of combination in that particular country.
And hence the amount of a regulatory oversight is more. So we have started multiple products registration in multiple countries. These will come up anywhere between the next I would say certain, certain things will be available for the registered in the next year, especially in Vietnam and Sri Lanka. And from the year that is 27 onwards you should be able to see a good amount of revenue. Once this is registered, the sale of that particular product can happen.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. So this is similar to the Sharda crop Chem is doing the export. So basically and any kind of a European agreement that recently we completed the European Union. So is there going to be any benefits beneficial for best Seguro?
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
So as of this, yeah, yeah. As of this minute, if we had had multiple active registration for registered products, we could have immediately been able to utilize the opening up of the both the US trade market, European market as well as certain parts of the Australian market. But right now we don’t have that so once our products get registered. Yes. Obviously the open trade regime which is happening, that will help us a lot.
Unidentified Participant
Okay.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
It will help us more because. Yeah, yeah it will help us more because what we are registering is all high value, high margin products.
Unidentified Participant
Okay sir, thank you.
operator
The next question comes from the line of Kailash Chander, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi, good afternoon. My question is basically regarding receivables. So it has been observed that receivables below six months are continuously, I mean being increasing ratio wise than the receivables more than six months. So can you please innovate in this front?
Vikas Jain
Yes. Receivables more or less it’s in line with what we had previous year. So this year because of the continuous rainfall and there was a delay in the produce and the same being repaid by the government. So there was a delay by just about a month or so. But most of the receivables are under control and there’s not a big surprise. There.
Unidentified Participant
Actually ratio wise if we see ratio wise, I mean initially in the financial year, previous financial. Previous financial years if we see so ratio was lower, lower side three months particularly if we see three, three, three months below it was somewhere around. So I’ll just open that thing.
Vikas Jain
So if we look at the balance sheet so in it was.
Unidentified Participant
For the time being I’ll ask second question. So yeah as you mentioned that you are most focusing on the patented product. So what is the time for these products?
Vikas Jain
We are focusing on the patented products. We are not focusing on non patented, the generic ones. So and with respect to tam, it’s. It’s not overall market for the agri industry in that we define which are the is selling crops and within that crops which are the solutions we want to provide. So for each of the crops it would be different. But yeah we are still as others are playing, we are playing in the overall market which is around 3.5 billion or so.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay.
Vikas Jain
So that is 7 part in the March 2022. So receivable 6 months were 38 crores as compared to receivables under 6 months was 2 to 3. Now it has increased drastically for year 2025 if we see so it is 182 over 6 months and under 6 months it is 400. So ratio wise it is very at the higher side. So that part I was talking about.
Vimal Kumar
So as I said in our business the collection period is defined based on how the produce sells and the money flows from the government to the farmers, dealers and to us. So this year mostly it has been delayed by a month or so, but we don’t see any major surprises as I said. So most of our collection will happen now between December to April. So each month we are getting collections and each month we see that there’s a reduction in the six months. So March, once you see, you see improvement in our more than six months from what you would have seen in September or March numbers.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, great. So my last question is as you mentioned, that the company will try to achieve somewhere between 1300-1400 cr of revenue in this particular financial year. So can you please let us know about the EBITDA margin?
Vikas Jain
So ebitda, with respect to EBITDA we will be similarly our endeavor would be to possibly not to have losses, but we’ll have minimum profits. So our EBITDA would be little higher than what we have in Q3 because Q3 and Q4 are softer seasons compared to main Q1 and Q2. So again like how we had planned for Q3, our plan is not to have losses. So EBITDA would be would be in similar lines like current quarter, but it would be little better. And we will try not to have losses in Q4.
Unidentified Participant
Actually I was talking about annualized basis for financial year 20 basis.
Vikas Jain
Annualized basis we will be in the range of around, we’ll be at around 12% or so. So that would be our EBITDA targets.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. That’s all from my side.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vivek Routella, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hi all. Good afternoon. So basically I have question regarding the outstanding warrants. So the current the exercise price for them is 64 rupees per share. Okay. While the current market price is around 18.94. And it may face further down downside because of the recent results as it is in lower circuit today also. So in this context I just wanted to know what is the management view on this warrant conversion and how like should their order think about the potential impact of this.
Vikas Jain
So our price was 640. That was pre split and pre bonus. Now if I consider the written bonus it becomes yes, after considering the split and bonus it is supposed to get 42. So 640 is equivalent to 42. So instead of 42 here we are at around between close to 20 or so. But, but as I said, we are hopeful that we are improving so we are not having big losses like what we had last year. So we hope that the prices would come to a level wherein investors would feel that okay, they will pay that balance amount.
So we are still wait for our March numbers and then we’ll take a decision.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, but during like I’m following it since two years. Okay. So during this period the company’s revenues have been like continued to decline line. I understand that the business model has undergone changes. Like you are focusing more on patented products but in several earnings. Because mostly I, I hear all the earnings. So the management has indicated that, that the worst phase is behind but the financial performance, like whether it is revenue or profitability, like something happens, like sometimes the weather issues, sometimes something. So can you like tell us like when we can expect the revenue growth to be back? At least like when it to our peak numbers, I think it was around 2021 or 2022.
So can we expect the same revenue?
Vikas Jain
So for this year it was not that in one or two quarters we could have come back to a normal term. So for the entire year our guidance was that our revenue would be lower but we would still go on to improve our profitability percentages and reduction in our opex. Because we had spent heavily on the nine patents what we had launched. So most of it we are able to achieve in terms of what we had given the guidance. But it’s not that this year was like a big surprise. Yes, surprise was as I said was only to the extent of 50100 crores which we missed.
Otherwise our results would have been better. So this year, this year would be the worst what we say and the worst will be gained for us. And from next June onwards already we have our plans and we have our policies which are in place which till last year was. We were about, we were changing those policies. So now we are more stable with respect to our. The number of people, the policies, what we have and the products which we want to sell. And also on the supply chain front as well. So the growth will come and it will come from the next year immediately from June onwards you see the growth which will be back.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so just wanted to know one thing. Suppose if we want to do 1800 crores or 2000 crores of revenue. And so when can we expect that? And like within one, two years or it will take more time. And what should be the path at that time? Like profit before tax and profit after tax, what can be the operating profit? If you can tell, like a little bit, if you can guide it.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
Yeah, yeah, your question is right. In fact the next two years we are of course changing that number and next year we will come around 1600, 1700 also because just I told them in the Mr. Gunit question also that we are already in the. In the same path where we are developing our new products. And each product will give us good revenue in coming year in FY27. And I firmly believe FY28 will be the again very good year because each of our, each of our product which is patented, each of our product will have you know, two year, three year, four year, five year history.
And when there is a history of three or four year there will be a big revenue we can expect from these products and that the profitability will be again very high. So again I want to say earlier we were doing in a different way and then we change our way because that was also important because our inventory level now is very drastically down which we. Which is required by our. Which was required to our balance sheet, good balance sheet. And also our debtors had reduced. So so that was our agenda for this current year. But definitely next coming year because of our patented molecule, definitely we will do better.
And the revenue almost I can say in next two years again we will touch to more than whatever we have did in the past.
Unidentified Participant
So what can be the OPM percent? Can you tell me like if you told around a 20 we can expect. Right
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
after two years you can say.
Unidentified Participant
So this year it won’t be 20%. Like if we talk about this like this and the next financial year that is coming. Yeah,
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
not 20 but definitely our target is there. But I cannot say 20 but definitely it will be 16 to 17% will be minimum.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so like you are sure like the worst is over. Like it can’t be like worse than this, right? Like just wanted to confirm that thing.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
Yeah, yeah, we can say, we can say because because I told you everything. Why it is it? Is it because we want to create a discipline and we have in my commentary also I said we have done very well many things. Data based inventory control, ERP and our, you know, comprehensive apps. And also we are now directly looking at the liquidation at the farmer level. So definitely when we are tightening this and making something like chatbot for the dealer. So so many things we have did in the one year it was a developing year for us for the new product again I would say and definitely I can say according to the performance of balance sheet.
Definitely you can say to. I can say we have seen the worst and now it will be better only.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. Thank you so much for your answers. Really helpful.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor Company please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Sir, I’m audible.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
Yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Unidentified Participant
Just taking into consideration Joby Abita discussion.[Foreign Language] Exercise. Profitability, revenue or. So. Collection upon Karnata already home and cabbage or Bikuch Baki. Motorhead company gave 50% stake. Including me. Integrity. Depending upon the market conditions. Market conditions, external environment. Other than that he walked the talk at least. Thank you. Yes you are there on the track.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
Thank you.[Foreign Language] Thank you for that. To showing interest. And definitely your concern is correct. And as you said I have major shareholdings. So definitely my concern are the same always with the company within the company. But definitely what I can control and what I can change here as a. As a small shareholder you cannot do. But definitely I’m doing my job. And our team is extremely doing very well. And in other parties I will say and because we all are because you are our shareholder stakeholder. So I can frankly tell you if an other way I would say I’m very happy with the teamwork which groundwork they are doing.
If anybody on the call who knows the farmers and every you know who has you know related to dealers. If you check in some of the market like Maharashtra or if you check some of the Maharashtra like Gujarat or some of the states, you know there our brand his. You know they don’t about. They don’t know about balance sheet. They don’t know about you know share price. They don’t know about anything. But they know about the new company which is the new company who is growing very fast in the brand image of the company like Ron Penn or Best Agro. So it is very popular in the. In the. In the. In the farmer community. I would say so I. I feel sometimes very happy. But definitely it is. We are doing business. So profit. Profitability is equally important and revenue is also equally important. And I can say from next year it will be definitely better. And again I would say last. Question so I cannot say worse. But definitely we have done much corrections and I don’t think so there is any surprise on the downward side you will get. Of course I am hoping you should get surprised on the upper side. And we are doing for our best.
Unidentified Participant
Returns pay whatever course correction was needed. I think so. Because you would would be answering that better that that provision and all. If you could just give us some color for the quarter. How much have been our sales return. And[Foreign Language].
Vikas Jain
If I tell you overall last year almost around 280 crores. Returns are nine months. So we had drastically reduced. To sales excess rainfall. So for example around 70 crores provision but what we got was around 90 crores. So we thought we’ll end up with 4050 crores of sales return. But sales return. Across different crops and still the Deviation the overall nine months. Nine months. 40 to 45% come sales return. And specific question of Q3 around 70. But returns actually 90.
Unidentified Participant
Okay sir. Fourth quarter.[Foreign Language]
Vikas Jain
Fourth quarter.[Foreign Language] But. So we will do a little bit of sales. But with respect to sales return almost clear last year 50 60%. Pest attack come or products may be effective because of the product prices, farmers expense. But we’ll do reasonably. Okay. And try to ensure last quarter.
Unidentified Participant
[Foreign Language]If I remember correctly.
Vikas Jain
It is still on hold.[Foreign Language]
Unidentified Participant
That is give us gains that we are anticipating. And we hope for we will be participate in the journey with best efforts. Thank you, sir. Let me write up.
Vikas Jain
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vijay Jawar, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi sir.
operator
Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Want to understand whether we have utilized the proceeds which we have got from the preferential amount.
Vikas Jain
Whether we. What.
Unidentified Participant
The amount which we received during the preferential. Have we used it or not?
Vikas Jain
Yeah. So the 25% amount. What we got those as part of our utilization. This thing. We’ve already utilized it for the working capital purpose.
Unidentified Participant
But we need to. But we have actually planned for a capex, right? Some new plant. So I thought that we are using that particular amount to fund that capex. Am I wrong?
Vikas Jain
So the capex was only from that second tranche. From that 75% which we had thought so that we’ll see only once we get that balance 75%. We’ll think of the capex.
Unidentified Participant
Are we looking for any fundraise? Because we are already at a lifetime low in our share prices. So are we looking for any fundraise from some other person, some institutions.
Vikas Jain
So for capex we are not doing anything as of now.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, sir. But we have a due of due around June, right? So as the earlier participant asked that the price is like 50, 60% down from what they have actually subscribed. So it looks like impossible to receive the balance 25% amount. So. So is there any plan B?
Vikas Jain
So we don’t want to commit as of now that okay, we are not going to get that 75 and we will do something else. So the capex plan can hold. Because we have enough capacities to go for our target for next two years. So we will see if the situation will improve. If. If we feel that we are in a better position then we think of taking the funding from outside. But yet presently we are not thinking about that.
Unidentified Participant
And we have report from weather agencies. So there is a possible of El Nino in current. In next financial year. So do you have any plans? Because you have now your promoter starts giving you a guidance of 1700, 1800 crore. And if at all there is a possibility of L. Nino then do you feel that there is a risk even to the current revenue levels.
Vikas Jain
So 17, 18 was for next two years in the sense. So next year our plan would be to achieve at least at around higher than 1500 crores. 151600 crores and then going up to 171800 crores. So El Nino. Obviously there are presently some articles going on to say that there are El Nino effect which might be there. But our nature of industry is that we cannot be waiting to see that how it pans out. We have to work on our supply chain much before. So we will work with the caution. But because we have already put good policies to ensure that we’ll not place too much and then later on take it that will help us.
So. So yes, Elmino effect might be there but it will show only in July, August. But before that we have to prepare ourselves with the inventory which we will do. But we will go with the caution.
Unidentified Participant
There is a person called Rajkumar in our shareholding pattern. So is there, is there any connection to him with the promoters?
Vikas Jain
Not here. Not clear. We are not aware of Rajkumar.
Unidentified Participant
No, no. There is a person called Rajkumar who is holding 7 to 8% equity in best Agro Life. So is there any connection with the promoter group?
Vikas Jain
No, no, I don’t think so.
Unidentified Participant
Because he’s a. He’s a huge equity person in West Agro and he has told quite a large chunk during the split and bonus time. So I. I felt that he’s an insider or something because.
Vikas Jain
Yeah, you know. There’S no relation as such. Yes, possibly he might have higher holding but then we don’t know about it. With respect to the relation with promoter.
Unidentified Participant
No relationship with promoter. Okay. So yeah. So what’s your expectation from Q4? Because we are already at a 1212 crore loss in Q3. So do you think that it will continue or we’ll have a better quarter?
Vikas Jain
Our expectation is not to have losses. So in Q4 last year we had. We had very high losses. So based on already we have worked on the OPEX part which we are reducing drastically. So sales obviously as I said the demand is little softer. So we don’t expect very high sales. But we expect not to go into losses and have even the small profit. But our plan is not to have losses, sir.
Unidentified Participant
Because we are already paying 50 to 55 crore interest to the banks. And our profitability is below since last few years. So how do you think that the business is sustainable? Because our interest cost is more than our net profit.
Vikas Jain
There is a huge potential because based on the market situation we see that many of the companies doesn’t have this kind of portfolio. What we have now obviously company is going through a situation wherein we had gone heavily into the market and faced certain situation which we are trying to improve. And this year we already knew that the steps if we take there might be some reduction in the sales. So yes, sales are down. Profitability is not so heavily lower. So we are still profitable for full year. And we will remain profitable. It’s only that after going through these policies now we are in much comfortable position with respect to our inventory.
Even our dealers are more comfortable with respect to the policies what we are doing. And even our sales team is more stable now. Because last year because of restructuring of territories there might be situation where people are moving from one place to another. But now everything is pretty stable. And we are in a much better position to grow because of our portfolio strength. So that we are going to do this year. And we are hopeful that if everything goes well we will see much much better numbers this year.
Unidentified Participant
Why has the interest cost gone up in Q3?
Vikas Jain
So interest cost obviously would be based on the loan what you would have utilized. So if there was a delay by a month or so. Meaning if delays are paid late. Generally we charge dealers with little bit of interest for delay payments. So that we do based on after they do the payment. So even though on one side there would be interest. So this next, this quarter or next quarter we will see that we might be charging some amount as recovery of that interest. So it’s not that we are paying higher. We would be recovering this from the dealer who are paying related to us.
operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Due to time constraints, we would take that as the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Surendra Rai for the closing remarks.
Surendra Sai Nallamalli
Thank you everyone for your time today. We appreciate your interest, feedback and confidence in the company. Your engagement will help us sharpen our focus and stay aligned with long term value creation. I would also like to thank our employees, partners, customers and investors for their support and commitment. We look forward to staying engaged with. You and updating you on the progress in the coming quarter. Thank you very much and have a good afternoon.
operator
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Best Agrolife Limited, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.