Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
EPL Limited (NSE: EPL) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 14, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Hemant Bakshi — Chief Executive Officer
Deepak Goyal — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Pratik Ahuja — Analyst
Sandesh Jain — Analyst
Sameer Gupta — Analyst
Mihail Shah — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Smith Gala — Analyst
Tushar Talwar — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen. Good day and welcome to EPL Limited Q4FY26 earnings conference call hosted by Systematic Institutional Equities. 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 the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand conference over to Mr.
Pratik Ahuja from Systematic Institutional Equity. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Pratik Ahuja — Analyst
Thank you. Nitesh. Good evening everyone. On behalf of Systematics Institutional Equities, I welcome you all to the Q4 and full year FY26 earnings conference call of EPL Limited. Representing the management today we have Mr. Hemant Bakshi, MD and Global CEO Mr. Emma Ramasamy, COO Mr. Deepak Goyal, CFO and Mr. Omkar Gangode, Head Legal Company Secretary and Compliance Officer. We thank the EPL management team for giving us the opportunity to host this call. Without further ado, I will hand the floor to Mr.
Heman Bakshi to commence the proceedings. Over to you sir.
Hemant Bakshi — Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us for EPL Limited. Quarter 4 FY earning call. This has been a landmark quarter for EPL. We announced our proposed merger with Indovita. A transformational move that will significantly enhance our scale and strengthen our position as a leading player in emerging markets. Together, the combined entity will create a nearly$1 billion consumer packaging platform with a broader product portfolio, stronger manufacturing and innovation capabilities and an expanded presence across high growth markets.
While also being margin and value accretive. We as the management team are very excited about this combination. I’m pleased to share. At the same time, we have delivered exceptional operating performance in a dynamic and challenging macroeconomic environment. Reflecting the resilience of our business model and the strength of our execution. Revenue for the quarter grew by 17.6% with EBITDA growing by 17.2% and margins sustained above 20%. This is the highest ever revenue growth in the last five years.
This is also the fourth consecutive quarter of double digit revenue growth reflecting the consistency and strength of our performance. The momentum was led by Beauty and Cosmetics which delivered a record 30% year on year growth. Aligned with our strategic focus on this segment. Oral Care also showed a healthy recovery, growing 10% year on year growth during the quarter was broad based with all four regions delivering double digit performance. EAP and the Americas led the way growing 25% and 24.1% respectively, driven by a focused push in beauty and cosmetics, new customer additions and strong pipeline conversions.
Europe also delivered a robust performance growing 15.5%. Amesa grew by 10.4% while India standalone recorded a healthy 11.5% growth. EBITDA margin stood at 20.2% with all regions within our guided operating range marking the seventh consecutive quarter of 20% plus margins. Fat for the quarter excluding exceptional items marginally increased by 1%. However, on a full year basis PAT grew by 15%. For the full year we delivered a solid performance. Revenue grew by 13% in line with our commitment to deliver consistent double digit growth.
EBITDA increased by 15.8% with margins at 20.4%. Our strategic shift towards beauty and cosmetics is now translating into results with the segment delivering fourth consecutive quarter of over 20% growth in this segment and an exceptional 30% growth during the year. This helped us effectively manage temporary headwinds in Oral care. Our personal care and beyond mix now stands at 53% and beauty and cosmetics is now larger than Oral Care in most key markets, marking a clear shift towards a more balanced and diversified portfolio.
Strong EBITDA and PAT performance combined with healthy cash flow generation have enabled a further deleveraging of our balance sheet with net debt to EBITDA improving to 0.52x. Return on capital employed also improved to 19% expanding by 96 basis points. Sustainability and Innovation Sustainability and innovation continue to be integral to our growth agenda. During the quarter, sustainable tube formats contributed 38% of total sales reflecting steady progress in customer adoption. We are also proud to have achieved the EcoVadis Platinum rating this year placing us among the top 1% of companies globally on ESG performance.
We are the only packaging company from India to be globally certified. Innovation remains a key focus area with continued progress across advanced tube formats and differentiated solutions aligned to evolving consumer needs. EPL was certified as a great place to work across seven countries this year, a reflection of our consistent efforts to build an inclusive, engaging and high performance workplace. Looking ahead, let me first address the impact of current Middle east crisis on our business. The crisis has affected both the availability and cost of our key raw materials.
We are proactively navigating the situation with a clear and structured approach. We are prioritizing supply security for our customers while ensuring that cost impact gets fully passed on. In these dynamic times we realize that strength of our decades long Supplier partnerships and meaningful scale allow us to be a reliable partner for our customers. With nearly 50% of our business covered under contractual pass through arrangements and capabilities built post Covid to effectively implement pass throughs across the balanced business, we remain confident of delivering robust absolute EBITDA growth.
Our approach during this period is anchored in a few clear principles executing with agility, maintaining financial discipline, safeguarding customer relationships and continuing to drive long term value creation. As we navigate this environment, our priorities for the future remain clear. First, to sustain the growth momentum in beauty and cosmetics. We have now delivered consistent performance and with ahead of the curve investment in capacity, innovations, extruded solutions, front end specialization and new technologies we are seeing we see strong headroom to maintain this robust growth trajectory.
Second, we remain committed to scaling in high growth emerging markets. Brazil continues to outperform and deliver strong growth. Our plant in Thailand is gaining traction supported by a strong pipeline and new customer acquisitions. Thailand represents a large and attractive beauty and cosmetics market with significant long term potential for us. We are strengthening our presence and capabilities to capture this opportunity while also exploring new markets that represent white spaces. Third, we remain focused on margin, discipline and capital efficiency.
We continue to focus on delivering profitable growth and improved margins through scale, benefits and efficiency projects. In closing, FY26 has been a defining year for EPS marked by consistent double digit growth, resilient margins and a transformative strategic milestone with the announcement of our proposed merger. As we move into the next year, we remain focused on sustaining this growth momentum, executing our strategy with discipline, scaling our presence in high growth markets and navigating near term challenges with agility and a continued hunger for more.
Thank you for your continued support and and we will now open the floor for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question press star and one on the Touchton telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you May Press Star N2 participants are requested to use handset while asking question. Ladies and gentlemen, you will wait for a moment while the question be assembled. We have first question from the line of Sandesh Jain from ICIC Securities. Please go ahead.
Sandesh Jain
Yeah Good evening sir. Thanks thanks for taking my questions and for this opportunity. First on the point you you did touch upon your initial remark post Covid. In an inflationary environment we have seen a two year of struggle to reach back to the margin of 20%. You did made a point that you have taken a corrective measure in terms of contracts pass through and all. How much are we prepared in this scenario because this appears to be very similar. Higher logistic cost, higher raw material cost, higher power cost in Europe.
It appears to be a very close scenario. What happened for us between 23 and 24? How should we see FY27 playing out for us?
Hemant Bakshi
Yeah, okay. Thank you very much, Sandesh, for that question. Obviously very, very topical and something which is top of mind for everyone. So, firstly, I think this is a significant event, there’s no question about it. And there are two important things that we are dealing with at this point in time. The first is to secure supply availability, which is something which is extremely important for our customers. And second is then to manage cost. As far as the first is concerned, as I mentioned, we have long standing relationships with our supply partners as well as the fact that we are a scale player, which gives us an advantage.
And we made sure that availability is adequately covered till at least at this point in time, till middle of July. And we continue to increase that on a weekly basis. So therefore, on availability we are in a strong position, I think, on pass through of our cost, our model is much more advanced and sophisticated compared to where it was at the time of COVID We’ve learned a lot from that period as well. More than 50% of our business comes from contractual customers where there is a clear agreement on pass through on the other customers.
We’ve been very proactive by being in the market and making sure we are able to get price increases. So at this point in time, we are very confident that we will be able to manage the cost impact that we will feel through this crisis.
Sandesh Jain
So when we say pass through contractual term, is this pass through for the raw material or this also include the logistic plus currency plus freight? How is this pass through working? As of now? I think in the past the problem was that we were able to pass on the raw material cost inflation, but other operational cost inflation is what took a lot of time for us to recoup those costs and renegotiate the contract.
Hemant Bakshi
Yes, our model right now is a landed cost plus power pass through model and therefore it covers a lot of things which you’ve spoken about. So that is something which we have covered for and this has been something which we’ve also learned through and evolved over a period of time.
Sandesh Jain
Got it. My second question is on the availability which you touched upon, have you seen any or have we been in a position where we were not able to meet the requirement and is the shortage a reality? And hence, if we, if we are able to procure the raw material, we have an opportunity to grab some market share.
Hemant Bakshi
So availability overall is a challenge. But in our case we’ve been able to secure supplies of all our raw materials as I’ve already mentioned, and we are being very agile at this point in time where we are being able to expand our inventories and extend this on a weekly basis. So at this point in time, across all our raw materials, we are secure. Having said that, this is a difficult time, challenging time and we do feel that we have some competitive advantage in a situation like this and therefore there would be some opportunity for market share gains as well.
Sandesh Jain
Got it. One follow up question on Amesa, the revenue appears to have grown 10%. I think a lot of pricing pass through would have happened but EBITDA still at just 1% growth, right? And EBIT growth negative 11% and we have seen volume recovery for some of the FMCG players as they have reported the result. How should we see msi? Are we expecting a recovery or a recovery in the EBITDA and EBIT for MSR in FY27?
Hemant Bakshi
Yeah. So I will cover one part of your question and then pass on to Deepak, our CFO who can respond to the second half. I think you implied that in this volume growth there might be some effect of the Middle east crisis. I just want to clarify that’s not the case. This quarter has not really been to that extent affected by the Middle east crisis. So this is really underlying growth which we are seeing and I think it’s made up of two very important factors. I think one is that beauty and cosmetics, which is something which we’ve spoken about in the past, which is a strategic priority for us, is gaining momentum in Misa, especially in our large market of India and we are seeing really good response there and that continues to grow quarter on quarter.
I think in addition to that we’ve clearly seen recovery in the oral care category as well. Well and when the two of them come together we get good results on the top line as indeed you are seeing for India standalone as well as Amisa. I think on bottom line I’ll ask Deepak to cover that part.
Deepak Goyal
Hi Sanjay. So Amisa margins remain structurally very strong. If you look at full year, our margins have improved from 18.5% last year to 18.7%. This quarter is particularly impacted because of two one offs. One we had CEO transition related cost. We had two CEO costs in this quarter which impacted and second is last year margin included a phasing one off reversal because of which the base is high. If we Equalize for both then our margins are in the target range and that’s reflected in the full year numbers.
Sandesh Jain
Got it. 1. One question on beauty and cosmetic. Earlier we used to tell that when as the beauty and cosmetic contribution increases, we will see a kicker in the margin. This year has been a exceptionally strong year for beauty and cosmetics. But that really didn’t translate into the better margin though we are able to hold on to 20%. I thought there was a scope to increase further considering that there was a product mix tailwind with us.
Deepak Goyal
So if you look at our margin Sanjesh and we should look at.
Operator
Please be in all management line has been disconnected. I have reconnected. Participant management line has been reconnected.
Deepak Goyal
Hello.
Operator
Yeah,
Deepak Goyal
Sanjish Margins. Let’s look at full year to full year because that’s a right benchmark. We have improved from 19.9% to 20.4% which is a 50 basis point expansion in a year on an already high base. Another thing is that we have got this margin improvement when we continue to invest in the beauty and cosmetics category. We are investing in the frontline, we are investing in innovation. We are also investing in the capabilities across both back end and front end. Right. And those investments. If you see some of our cost lines et cetera have grown and I have mentioned it in the past as well, that our priority is to drive growth and we will resource the growth fully because we believe that these are the good costs and hence the expansion is gradual and that’s how we expect it to continue.
Sandesh Jain
Deepak, I was just looking at EBIT because some of the currency LED benefit would have come in ebitda. While that get negated at the level of depreciation, right. You will have higher ebitda, you will have higher depreciation. That’s purely a translation effect. EBIT margin has not really grown. So my fear is that the growth what we are putting. I completely appreciate that we are focusing on growth. No doubt that’s the priority for us. But if I look at EBIT level, the growth really doesn’t look like as strong as it appears at the level of ebitda.
Deepak Goyal
If I look at EBIT and again I prefer to look at full year numbers versus the quarter. When we are comparing as a structural business performance. Our revenue has grown at 13%, our EBITDA has grown at 15.8%, EBIT has grown at 18% and EBIT has moved from 11.8% to 12.3%. So even in EBIT we see 50 basis point expansion and you’re right. So if you look at our capex for this year, we have spent 480 crore plus which reflects the investment that we are making in BNC. So there are investments in all the lines, but all the investments are in the areas where we want to grow and the results are also reflected.
But at the same time we are very, very conscious of our margin profile and how we are spending our costs. And I believe both EBITDA and EBITDA are moving in the right direction.
Sandesh Jain
I was referring to more Q4, Deepak.
Deepak Goyal
Yeah, but Q4, my request is Sanjesh, that for these structural questions saying are we really improving our EBITDA margin or not? A slightly longer term allows us to see how we’re performing on a yearly basis.
Sandesh Jain
That’s fair enough. Just one last question. With the improving volumes in India, are we hopeful of a better msr performance in FY27?
Hemant Bakshi
I think as we’ve mentioned in the past, we are clearly seeing improvement on oral care which had headwinds which we had faced last year. We feel confident that this year will be a much better, better year in oral and we are sustaining our BNC momentum. So we remain very, very optimistic about the AMISA region and more specifically India.
Sandesh Jain
Got it. Great. Thanks for answering all those questions and best of luck for the coming quarters.
Operator
Thank you. We have next question from the line of Sameer Gupta from IAFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Sameer Gupta
Hi, good evening sir. Congrats on a good set of numbers and thanks for taking my question. Firstly sir, can you just quantify the amount of inflation that we are facing in our cost basket? And I know Sanjay asked this question, but last time around we saw EBITDA margin bottoming at around 16%. With the current capabilities and sophistication surround the pass throughs, where do you expect the margin to bottom out at this time? And your absolute EBITDA might not see a contraction, but margin optically will still because the pass through will just cover the absolute increase in prices.
So this is the first question, sir.
Hemant Bakshi
So thank you very much for the question, Sameer. Obviously, as we said, this is a very uncertain and volatile time. We are managing it on a agile basis at this point in time. I think what we can say very confidently is that we will recover all the additional costs which comes on account of this crisis. And that itself is a monumental task. But we built the muscle to be able to do it and we will do it both with our contractual customers as well as our other customers. There might be some optical changes as a result of it which we will see as we go along.
Sameer Gupta
And do you still expect the non contractual to come with a significant lag or any kind of guidance on this will be helpful?
Hemant Bakshi
Yeah. So we don’t see, even with non contractual we don’t see any lag, any likely lag but over a period of time we are absolutely confident that we will recover all the additional costs.
Sameer Gupta
Great. Sir, second question and I think Deepak mentioned this to Sandesh but capex of 480 crore this year versus depreciation of 385 slightly on the higher side. I understand there was a greenfield in Thailand but is there any other or maybe you can just give a breakup of the broad capex this year. And a related question to that is I noticed no dividend this time. So any particular reason for that? Are we planning on a big capex or is this like an indication of any further inorganic activity that is in the plans?
Deepak Goyal
Yeah, let me take that. First of all, capex is largely driven by the beauty and cosmetics investments. If you see that the beauty and cosmetic category has grown by 30%, 30% on a already higher base and that requires certain investments. And as we had said earlier, while over a period of time our capex will be closer to our depreciation, we will pull back, we will do the phasing of the capex investments to make sure that the growth is not constrained. And for this kind of growth then we have invested ahead of the curve and we will continue doing that.
If we, if we see that there are growth opportunities that we can capture on the dividend. The dividend is actually because of the merger. We are doing a share swap as per the proposed merger announcement and both the companies cannot declare dividend till the time merger is completed which is common in these kind of mergers to ensure that the valuation construct remains. But at the same time let me also talk about the inorganic. We continue to remain hungry for the inorganic because we believe that as a combined organization or as we are kind of going along we have significant balance sheet muscle and also customer relationships that we can capitalize on.
So we continue to be on a lookout for an inorganic opportunity.
Sameer Gupta
Just a follow up here. Can you quantify the greenfield investment in Thailand that has gone
Deepak Goyal
$5 million?
Sameer Gupta
Great sir. And last question, if I may squeeze in more of a bookkeeping. One tax rate continues to be up and down. So I understand there are nitty gritties but any kind of guidance here would be helpful.
Deepak Goyal
I think our tax rate is a combination of country mix where the tax rates continue to be Very, very different. We have tax rates right from 0% because of certain exemptions going up to 34%, 35% in some countries and hence the country mix plays a big role on the tax rate steady state. I expect our tax rates to be in the range of 18% to 22%. I know it’s a large wide range, but that’s how differential or the variation in the tax rate exists in various countries. If you see this year our tax rate is about 18% which is at the lower end of the lower end of the range.
Sameer Gupta
That’s all from me. Thanks Deepak. Thanks Ayman. All the best for the future. We’ll come back in the queue if there are any follow ups. Thanks.
Hemant Bakshi
Thanks Amir.
Operator
Thank you. Reminder to all the participants, please restrict yourself to two per question. Reminder to other participants, please restrict yourself to two per question. Next question from the line of Misha from Please go ahead.
Mihail Shah
Hi sir, good evening, this is Mihisha from Nomura. So first question on the revenue growth of 17 and a half percent and across the geographies, except for Misa, the growth has been relatively super strong. Can you explain what is really driving the 17.5% revenue growth? Is there any pricing growth element in this point one or is there any because of the Trump tariff, any inventory push of sorts or any of one off that was there? It’s sitting in this quarter.
Hemant Bakshi
Yeah. Mahesha, thank you for your question. The first thing I want to clarify is that there is no one off in this growth. You know, all the things you mentioned, whether it’s the Middle east crisis, of the tariffs, etc. This growth is not because of that. I feel that our strategy, which we’ve articulated many times, you are seeing the manifestation of that. We’ve said that we will get steady growth in oral care and we will get significantly higher growth in bnc. And in this quarter both of those categories have done well and have been on strategy.
So let me first talk about BNC which has grown 30%. We’ve made some very conscious strategic choices this year. We’ve invested ahead of the curve on CapEx. We have focused a lot in building our innovation capabilities. We then started participating, participating in the extrusion segment which we hadn’t done as actively in the past. And in addition to that we are bringing in a lot of premiumization and new technologies in the BNC market. It’s a faster growing market. We start with lower market shares and we are gaining market share across all markets.
And some of our big markets are really getting to scale and they are driving growth. So B and C, our strategies clearly work and you’ve seen the results this quarter. But I think it’s also important to look at oral. Oral care did have some headwinds last year, which we’ve spoken about, but in this quarter we’ve seen a very healthy return to growth in oral. Oral has grown by 10%, so therefore both our categories have done well. But in addition to that, BMC now has scale. So 40% of our business comes from BNC, 49% of our business comes from oral.
And when a large category which has scale starts growing at this rate, you get the growth which we delivered this quarter. So I feel very confident that our strategy which we’ve articulated, where we’ve invested behind and really gotten behind it, is now delivering and you can see the results in this quarter.
Mihail Shah
Understood. So the 25% growth in EAP is largely Thailand led and the 24% in Americas and 15 in Europe is broadly category led. Or any specifics you can share out there?
Hemant Bakshi
Yeah, no, very happy to share that. So firstly, I must start by saying that Thailand is a very attractive market. It’s a large BNC market. We feel very excited about what we can do in Thailand. We have a strong pipeline. But to also be fair, our plant was set up only in November. We’ve since then been working on validation with our customers. There’s a lot of certification which has to be done and you will see significant growth coming out of Thailand in the future. However, in this quarter, I must say that bulk of the growth, if not the entire growth, is because of a very strong performance which we’ve got in China.
So therefore Thailand we are very excited about, very optimistic. But that has not contributed to growth in this quarter. This is coming from our core market of China. As far as Americas is concerned, again, Brazil’s been a standout performance. It’s a blockbuster for us. In the last, since the three years we’ve gone there, we’ve made a significant impact. In Brazil, we started with a single customer, but we’ve got multiple customers there. So Brazil, again, a standout performance. But what I’m even happier about is that every country in America has grown double digit.
So therefore a great performance in America. But it is is because of us, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, all four growing double digits. So, you know, really good performance there. And again in Europe it’s a growth which we are getting as a result of a strong category performance across different markets. So, you know, it’s not because there is no one off in this growth
Mihail Shah
Sounds like all round performance. So how should one think about the sustainability of this growth, sir? I mean should one expect this kind of elevated growth to continue given that these structural changes have happened? Any light you can share on that one?
Hemant Bakshi
So if you look at our full year growth, Mahisha is 13% and we’ve so far guided to a low double digit growth in the range of 11 to 13% and for a longest period of time we will hold on to the same guidance. So therefore you can expect a low double digit growth from us. Our range remains between 11 to 13%.
Mihail Shah
Understood. Sorry, I am asking a few more questions. Pardon me for that. Just on the West Asia crisis, if you can share what is the element of price increases that you will have to take and that will be sitting in the growth in the coming quarters and the impact on margins, if at all, how should we think about that in the near term? And I’m sure 50% is covered. 50%, you will have to take a hit initially and then it will be recovered later on. So just how the walkthrough of the West Asia crisis, pricing, growth and the margins.
And I’ll stop here for my questions.
Hemant Bakshi
Yeah, Maisha on West Asia crisis, we’ve spoken earlier as well. So the first thing is that we are confident that we will recover the full cost impact and we do not think that there will be a lag in recovery of the cost. Your question implies that with 50% of our customers there will be a lag. We are making sure that our price increase is proactive and we do not have a lag. So we remain confident that the full cost will will be recovered. As far as how much will be the pricing, it’s very difficult to give one number because it’s different by market.
Every geography is behaving differently and the situation changes on an ongoing basis. As I said earlier, we’ll remain agile, we will act quickly and we’ll make sure that our model is resilient to this crisis which we face. But I again want to reiterate that we will recover the entire cost increase which we see.
Mihail Shah
Got it. Wishing you all the very best. That’s all from my side. Thank you very much.
Hemant Bakshi
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question from the line of Subham Segal from SI mpl. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello, I’m audible. Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. My first question is. So previously we had mentioned that, you know, to focus on increasing our gross margins and our operating margins. The management has monthly meetings where I think the discussion is mainly about where all we can take the price size and the price increases. So first part is that are we still doing these, you know, proactive monthly meetings and what kind of price increases customers have made in Any questions?
Deepak Goyal
Yeah, Shubham, your voice is volatile going up and down so we couldn’t hear you fully. But what I understand, I think you are referring to question. Are you referring to our customer GC review that we had spoken about?
Unidentified Participant
Are you able to hear me properly?
Deepak Goyal
Yes, we can hear you now. Yeah. Yeah, I’m
Unidentified Participant
Just asking. Yeah, I’m just asking about the monthly meetings that we had mentioned about taking price hikes throughout our customers wherever we can, you know, to support our margins and increase our margins. So my question was are we still conducting these monthly meetings with the management and where we are taking proactive decisions to increase prices across the customers and if we are doing it, what have we achieved through it? That’s my first question.
Deepak Goyal
So let me clarify. What we had mentioned was that we have post corona, we have developed a muscle on pricing. We now review our customer wise DC on a monthly basis to make sure that if there are any deviations, any, any abnormal margins, etc. We go and initiate conversations at an early stage. In times like this, that muscle becomes very, very important. So today we are even more focused on customer wide margins and what is the price increase that we have to take to absorb all the cost that we are getting and that we are doing very, very regularly.
And that is why Hemant has mentioned that we remain confident that we’ll be able to recover all the cost increase that will come through.
Hemant Bakshi
Yeah, I just want to say that we are not doing monthly meetings. We are doing more likely weekly or even more frequent meetings. This is a time where we have to be significantly agile. We can’t wait for a month. So within our business in this crisis, it’s all hands on the deck and we are being significantly more agile than what you would have expected in the past.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. Thanks for the answer. My second question was could you provide any color on Indo Vida’s operating margin? Like are we able to maintain the operating margins there?
Hemant Bakshi
So I think the first thing I want to say is that we are very excited about the opportunity we have of this merger. It’s in line with our strategy, it takes us into more emerging markets, it helps us expand our portfolio and in addition to that it’s margin accretive lead to faster growth for us. So it has lots of positives. It’s also one thing which I think we did mention in the past is that they are completely debt free. And therefore, with our ratio of debt also being very low, we now have a very healthy balance sheet which will allow us to invest both for growth as well as acquisitions.
So we are very excited about this opportunity. Opportunity. The merger which we have spoken about. At this point in time, we are seeking a regulatory approval for it and the work which needs to be done for that is also on track. We are hopeful that we will have the approval within a year of us filing for it. But till such time, as per the regulation, we have to remain extremely careful that there is no sharing of information of any kind between the two companies because we remain independent companies till such time as we get approval.
So we neither have any knowledge of nor can we share obviously any information about Indo Vita now.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, got it. Just lastly, two short questions. So the oral growth, we have finally seen recovery, good growth we saw this quarter. So firstly, how are we seeing the oral segment going forward? Like, what do you believe? Will we still continue this kind of growth or what exactly is going on? If you could provide some color. And the second question being, as you mentioned, that, you know already we have gotten good growth through our Thailand plant and we are still in order to get good growth from there.
So what could be the, roughly the, you know, capacity utilization at our Thailand plant? Just last two questions.
Hemant Bakshi
Yeah, Shubham, I just want to clarify the Thailand question first. What I had said earlier as well that we are very optimistic of what Thailand will deliver in the future at this point in time. The plant was set up in November. Since then we’ve been doing certification in the plant, validation with customers and building a pipeline. All of that is going very well and on track. But at this point in time in these numbers, there’s not much volume from Thailand. Thailand, because it’s still at a stage where it’s being set up and will be ready.
So therefore we are very optimistic about it. But I think it will be wrong to assume that there is a significant volume of Thailand in our numbers which we’ve declared so far. As far as oral care is concerned, it’s a very. We. Our core is in oral care. 49% of our business comes from oral care. It’s a very steady category. And globally we have very strong relationships with leading customers. And therefore we feel that this will be a category which will deliver as expected results in this year. So we are optimistic about oral care as well.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay, got it. So Thailand plant. So you mean to say that we can expect the growth coming in in FY27 or will it take much more longer for all the validation to clear? All of that has happened and now we are ready for it.
Hemant Bakshi
FY27 we will start seeing volumes from Thailand in the next couple of quarters and it will scale gradually. And you know, as you’ve seen, Brazil after three years is giving us fantastic growth which you are all aware of. And we see no reason why Thailand will not repeat the same example. We will see growth over an extended period of time. But I just want to also say that, you know, the expectation that in the quarter which has just gone by we would have got significant Thai volume is unrealistic.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. Thanks for the clarification. All the best.
Operator
Thank you. Reminder, reminder to all the participants, please stick to two per question. Reminder to all the participants, please stick to two per question. We have next question from the line of Akshay Sheda from Kenya. Rebecca mf, please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, so thank you for the opportunity. So just on your guidance, the question is related to the guidance that you have given about 11 to 13%. So sir, if I just see the RM inflation that’s, I’m referring to the slide 27, even if I assume say the 40, that is our COGS that has gone up by around say a 20, you can correct me if here what is the blended inflation that we are seeing at the company level? So even if I assume a 20 inflation then so 40% goes up by 20. So 8% would come from the cost inflation itself.
So still why we are guiding for 11 to 13, shouldn’t it be a mid teens kind of a number? Because even your thymine plant has to start kicking in. And if we are anticipating a strong growth in BNC, which I assume is a better ESP product for still, why 11 to 13%, sir? Yeah, that is the only question that has. Thank you.
Hemant Bakshi
Yeah, I think guidance is a long term guidance and therefore for us to look at it every quarter and all will be challenging. If you look at our full year delivery this year it’s 13% and we are guiding in the long run that we will continue to deliver low double digit growth. Having said that, there will be quarters where if the pricing, I mean costs go up, pricing is much higher, there could be some change from. There could be a variation from that. But I think we just want to make sure that we are guiding for the long run.
And in the long run we are guiding that we will grow in the range of 11 to 13% consistently and our EBITDA growth will be slightly Ahead of our revenue growth. Deepak, you want to add anything or specify?
Deepak Goyal
I would just say that the situation in Middle east is very very volatile and hence we don’t know for how long would it continue. And hence right now what we can guide which is a steady state guidance etc cannot include the inflation. So that will come probably on a temporary basis in a quarter
Unidentified Participant
And any blended inflation that we are seeing on the raw material at a company level if you could quantify, I know it would be difficult but
Deepak Goyal
I would say it is actually different by regions. Right. So I can tell you that India impact is different from China impact while both are in Southeast Asia and Europe and US are behaving differently and hence getting to a common. And this impact is actually changing almost by week. The pricing is changing by the week, the availability challenges are are there and hence it is very difficult to quantify to a common global number.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Smith Gala from SPN Ventures. Please go ahead.
Smith Gala
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity and congratulations. A good set of numbers. My first question is on a book picking question like our depreciation has grown 7 to 8 crores on sequential basis and 385 crores for the full year. So what has gone along this quarter and what is the steady state capex? What is the capex will be looking at for FY27 and will the depreciation be in line with the capex? And secondly have we booked all of our merger expenses in this quarter?
Deepak Goyal
Yeah. So first on the depreciation there were some large equipments which we got in Q4 and capitalized and the depreciation in the quarter has grown sequentially. As I said, when the BNC is growing at 30% we had to make investments in capacity, innovation and flexibility at our back end and that is reflected in our capexes as well as depreciation for FY27. I think we will continue at a slightly elevated level of capex because we are seeing the opportunity in the marketplace gain market share and we will continue capturing that.
On the. And your. Your second question was on.
Smith Gala
On the merger expenses have all the expenses. The expenses the book already.
Deepak Goyal
Yeah. On the merger we have taken almost all cost in this quarter.
Smith Gala
Okay, that was all comment.
Operator
Thank you. We have next question from the line of Tushar Talwar Indigen investor. Please go ahead.
Tushar Talwar
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. I have a limited question on the dividend point which was raised earlier. So I just wanted to understand that when are we expecting the merger to be complete because I assume that for that period we will not be able to issue any dividends.
Deepak Goyal
We had said, Tushar, that merger would take about 12 months from the date of announcement, which was end of March. So it could get completed, let’s say in Q4 of this financial year.
Tushar Talwar
Right, sir. So the typical timeline generally tends to extend to at least 18 months practically. So should we be looking at no dividend for roughly the next two financial years, this one and the next one?
Deepak Goyal
Right now, as we understand, we expect the merger to get completed by Q4 of Next Financial year. However, obviously it is dependent on multiple approvals happening at multiple levels. We are also working rapidly on all the processes. We have already filed for SEBI approval, we have already filed for CCI approval, we are antitrust approvals etc in multiple countries. So we have, we have done all that. We are moving at fast pace. However, the timeline is not in our hand.
Operator
Partition. Please note the management line is disconnected. Please be on and you can see
Sandesh Jain
No problem.
Deepak Goyal
Hello?
Operator
Yes sir, you are audible.
Deepak Goyal
Yeah, Tushar. So basis what lawyers are guiding us. We believe that Q4FY27 is a fair timeline post which we will operate as a merged entity and then dividend payout will happen as per the board guidance and approval.
Tushar Talwar
Understood, sir. And so we have mentioned, you know, a few times and we’ve actually mentioned it over the years also that you know, we are going, we are always open to the right acquisition and given, you know, we could have, you know, up to one, one and a half years where we’re going to be accumulating a substantial amount of cash. Are we seriously looking at any opportunities or should we simply, I mean just from a conservative perspective, just consider that there’s going to be a new dividend policy after the merger and we should just look at this cash being used at that point in time.
Hemant Bakshi
We are very actively looking for acquisitions. We’ve said this in the past that inorganic growth is a clear part of our strategy. Having said that, we always say that when we are looking for a new acquisition, it should get us either into a new geography or get us a new capability. So those are the two key criteria we use. As we’ve said very often in the past and many times today, BNC is a priority for us. That’s a strategic choice we’ve made. So we will look for acquisitions which will strengthen our position in BNC and if they get us into new geographies and help us get new capabilities, that would be ideal.
We also Always maintain internal guideline that any acquisition we do should be growth and margin accretive. So those are the conditions and criteria we have. But we are very actively looking for acquisitions. And as soon as we have something which is in place, we will come back to you and inform you about it.
Tushar Talwar
Just one last follow up question. Are we looking especially hard now that we don’t have any dividend payout obligations for the next year or so?
Hemant Bakshi
No, I don’t think that’s influencing our decision. As we’ve said, and we’ve said this even before the merger announcement that we are actively seeking acquisitions after the merger. Actually our desire as well as our ability goes up. Because as I have mentioned, Indo Vida is debt free. Our debt to EBITDA ratios are very low. We have a very strong balance sheet. So we have the capability to do acquisition. In addition to that, the IVL group has strong capabilities in this space which should again help us and it’s clear part of our strategy.
So we sought acquisitions in the past. We continue to seek acquisitions now very, very actively. And the dividend policy has no material impact on that.
Tushar Talwar
And would we be maybe looking to pay down our debt further? Is that on the cards or are we comfortable with what we have?
Deepak Goyal
That is the ongoing cash management so far we keep seeing growth opportunities. All our Capexes are organically funded. BNC is kind of growing. Well, if we need to invest in Capex, we will not make it. We will not. Our growth will not be resource constraint and if we have excess cash then we’ll pay off the debt.
Tushar Talwar
All right, so thanks, that’s enough from my side.
Operator
Thank you. We have next question from the line of Ishan Sharma from Nuama Wealth PCT Research. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you for the opportunity sir and congratulations for great top line growth that we achieved. Sir, while I understand that we can’t share any details related to Indo Vida but it would be great help if you can share some sense on how the beverages category where they are strong that has done well because going forward that would also be an important factor to look at it. So just wanted to have some comfort on that front that how’s the performance, how’s the industry growth over there?
Hemant Bakshi
We don’t have any customers in the beverages industry. It’s not a category we track. So you know we’re not in a position to be able to give you any information or insights about the beverages category.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, sure. Because just wanted to sense going forward we would also be closely tracking how is the performance because that is going to get merged with us and broadly what we are targeting 11 to 13% kind of a growth that is precisely for EPL but as a console entity just wanted to have some sense on that front. That’s why I was just looking at that number
Hemant Bakshi
Post merger. Once the merger is completed, we’ll give you as much information as possible on the beverages category. At this point in time we have no knowledge or information on what’s happening on the Indo Vida business, their market, their market shares, etc. And I think it will be. We are not in a position to be commenting on the beverages category at this point in time.
Deepak Goyal
I could add that at the time of acquisition basis the information that we have shared with the investor Indo Vida will grow in high single digits on a steady state basis because it’s a very strong business with number one or number two position in all the markets that it plays in. They have a very strong new geography expansion strategy and hence have very solid growth plans in place. So it’s a business which we, at least from a historical performance basis, we looked at very, very closely and we realized that it’s accretive to our growth strategy, it’s accretive to our margins, that’s accretive to our balance sheet and that’s how we decided on the merger.
Unidentified Participant
Sure, sir. Thank you very much and all the very best. Thank you. I’ll fall back in queue
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen. That was the last question I now had. Conference over to management for closing comments.
Hemant Bakshi
No, I think. Thank you for a very engaging conversation. As we’ve said earlier, we are very excited about what lies ahead for this business and we look forward to your continued support. So thank you very much,
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of systematic institutional inequities. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us.