Galaxy Surfactants Limited (NSE: GALAXYSURF) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated May. 19, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
K. Natarajan — Managing Director
Vaijanath Kulkarni — Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer
Abhijit Damle — Chief Financial Officer SGA– Investor Relations Advisors
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Aditya Khetan — Analyst
B&K Securities — Analyst
Rohit Nagraj — Analyst
Sanjesh Jain — Analyst
Arun Prasath — Analyst
Oman Shah — Analyst
Gaurav Nigam — Analyst
Krishan Parwani — Analyst
Sudhanshu Nahta — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and Gentlemen, good day and welcome to Galaxy Surfactants Limited Q4 and FY25 earnings conference call. This conference call may contain forward looking statements about the company which are based on beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involves risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. 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. Conclude. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Start then zero on your touch tone phone.
Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. K. Natarajan, managing Director of the company. Thank you. And over to you sir.
K. Natarajan — Managing Director
Thank you. Very good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our quarterly Earnings call for Q4FY2425. As we gather here today, I’d like to take a moment to express my gratitude to all our stakeholders for their unwavering support and dedication. Your commitment has been instrumental in navigating the challenges and seizing the opportunities that this fiscal year had presented. As we reflect on the past quarter and the full fiscal year, it is evident that the business environment has been in more than one ways dynamic and complex. The supply side volatility, which has been a persistent theme, has shown some signs of stabilization, yet it remains a critical factor to monitor.
The geopolitical landscape, while less turbulent compared to previous quarters, still poses uncertainties that we must navigate with caution. On the demand front, the story remains mixed. India, which constitutes a significant portion of our business, has seen flat performance this quarter and for the full fiscal year. This is primarily due to the lingering effects of the previous quarter slowdown compounded by rising fatty alcohol prices from Q2 onwards by more than 40%, leading to a slower than expected recovery of demand in the performance of action segment. We remain optimistic though about the potential for growth in the coming quarters driven by improving economic indicators and the gradual normalization of market conditions.
The Africa, Middle east and Turkey region has also experienced flat performance. While the macroeconomic environment remains challenging, there are signs of improvement in demand factors and the easing of supply chain disruptions, making us cautiously optimistic. We are taking proactive measures to enhance our market presence and capitalize on emerging opportunities as the region stabilizes. In contrast, the rest of the world has been a bright spot, registering double digit growth this quarter and for the full fiscal year as well. This robust performance is a testament to our strategic focus on expanding our global footprint and leveraging the growing demand for premium specialties.
The strong demand in the rest of the world is driven by continued expansion in Europe, APEC north and Latin America. We are confident that this momentum will sustain supported by favorable market conditions and our ongoing efforts to innovate and diversify our product portfolio. While for this quarter in Rest of the world we reached a 9% volume growth, the year to date volume growth stands at 17% driven by Mastiff Specialties. Coming to Q4FY25 performance I am pleased to report that our consolidated EBITDA for the quarter stood at 135 crores, marking a strong sequential growth of 23% over Q3.
In line with this, our EBITDA per metric ton improved significantly from 17,534 metric ton to 21,715 per metric ton, an impressive 24% increase quarter on quarter basis and a 5% increase on year on year basis. This performance was driven by the effective posture of raw material price increases to customers, a reduction in freight cost due to the easing of supply chain constraints, improved yield and cost management across various operational areas. Furthermore, certain onetime costs that had impacted profitable in the previous quarters were effectively addressed contributing to the overall margin expansion. On a YTD consolidated basis, we have reported an EBITDA of 510 crores which translates to EBITDA per metric turn of 19,868 per metric ton which is broadly in line with the performance of the previous year.
These results reflect our continued focus on operational excellence, cost efficiency and strategic agility, positioning us well for sustained and profitable growth from innovation perspective. We are proud to share that our latest innovation, Galguard3Biotale has been honored in the Best Ingredient Silver Award in the Functional category at the Innovation Zone in the incosmetics Global Exhibition that was held in Amsterdam in April. Beginning this facility recognition is testament to our unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation. It not only validates our efforts but also inspires us to continue developing sustainable ingredients that will shape the future of the personal care industry.
Coming to the Outlook While the past quarter and the full fiscal year present their share of challenges, we remain resilient and focused on our long term goals. The performance of business in Rest of the world demonstrates our ability to adapt and thrive in a dynamic environment. We are optimistic about the future and are confident that our strategic initiatives will drive sustainable growth and profitability. Looking ahead, Uncertainties persist, particularly around geopolitical developments, such as the implications of US Tariffs and its impact on overall global demand. While these may have a direct impact on certain products, the broader concern lies in their potential to drive inflation and dampen overall demand.
For India, we are successfully optimistic on Condensed Story with inflation under control, interest rates going down, and the government providing tax reliefs in the budget, all the prerequisites for revival of growth are in place. On the supply side, we continue to face challenges that have persisted from the previous quarters. Notably, the price of fatty alcohol have remained elevated at the same levels as seen in Q3, and we anticipate that they will stay high for at least one more quarter. This situation is primarily due to supply shortages in Southeast Asia, where production shutdowns of breakdowns in palm oil manufacturers have significantly impacted the availability of these critical raw materials.
International sea freight cost has eased out as compared to previous quarter. However, it is being affected by several factors like the postponement of reciprocal tariffs by the usa, which has led to higher demand for containers. Further straining complicated Moreover, there are no sense of ships returning to the Suez Canal route, which continues to disrupt the traditional shipping lanes. Congestion in Europe, China and Southeast Asia is also affecting export and import shipments, exacerbating the delays and increasing lead times. Despite these ongoing challenges, we are actively working to mitigate the impact on operations. We are closely monitoring the supply chain, engaging with multiple suppliers and exploring alternative sourcing options to ensure that we can maintain our production schedules and meet customer demand.
While the current environment presents difficulties, we remain committed to navigating these challenges with agility and resilience, ensuring that we continue to deliver value to our stakeholders. To conclude, as we look forward, we are inspired by our vision for the future. As Nelson Mandela said, it always seems impossible until it’s done. We are committed to taking the necessary steps today to ensure a bright and prosperous future for your company. We remain vigilant and prepared to navigate these uncertainties, leveraging on our strengths and the strategic initiatives required to ensure continued success. Thank you once again for your continued support and interest.
We look forward to sharing more updates and progress in the coming quarters. Thank you. And now handing over to the Meeting Coordinator.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you sir. 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 withdraw 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. We have our first question from the line of Aditya Ketan from Smith’s Inch Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Aditya Khetan
Thank you sir for the opportunity. Sir, in this quarter this rise into your pricing per kilo, have we taken the complete impact of the raw material price or there is still left like we would be taking further price hikes in next quarter also.
K. Natarajan
You see it’s a. It’s pretty dynamic because you know it always gets passed on with a lag. The only thing is that the sequential increase seems to be like it was close to about in the last quarter, about $2,600 for metric ton, it’s gone to about $2,800 $2009 progressively. So yes, there’ll be always some lag in terms of passing on. But I would say that you know a good portion has always been, is already been passed on.
Aditya Khetan
Okay. Okay. And sir, like as you had mentioned that Indian market will continue to remain subdued and raw material prices also might remain elevated for the next three to six months. So is there any change in your volume guidance for FY26 from the earlier 8% which we have given?
K. Natarajan
Yeah, so as I said that is the guidance. But then I did mention in the last conference call itself that that continues to be our long term guided range. But then that is not something that we are looking to deliver at least till the time the India market really starts turning around. So we would probably be looking at closer to the lower end of the band like we delivered up close to about 3.5% last year. And then we would probably want to continue the momentum that we generated on volumes in the last quarter. And look at how do we leverage on the other geographies like this of the world to be able to deliver closer to the lower end of the band.
That would be something that I would like to look at for the Q1 of 24, 25, 26. Okay. We’d be in a better position to talk about whether we’ll go back to the early guided range of 6 to 8% probably when we do the conference call for Q2 Q1, 25, 26.
Aditya Khetan
Okay. Onto the raw material prices. So this palm kernel oil prices are on an uptrend whereas the lab prices have been more or less, you can say subdued only or flattish. So sir, now surfactant can be made via the lab route also. So is there any change in contracts like Global Players are shifting more towards the lab route. They are procuring more surfactants from this segment.
K. Natarajan
So rather than majorly in your powder detergents, so you know that’s something that our customers will try various ways of reformulation and all that. But then we don’t supply majorly into powder detergents, we supply major into liquid detergents and there we do see that something that is remaining intact. But then yes, we need to be conscious that these sort of changes can happen and we are seeing as to how well we are able to get prepared to that.
Aditya Khetan
Got it sir, any idea onto the freight cost? Like for full fiscal FY25 we had again seen a rise in freight cost which is why your per kilo EBITDA also remains impacted. So what is your outlook like? Can it remain at these levels or there’s a chance like this can go down and improve your ebitda?
K. Natarajan
We expect freight rates. I think it’s hard actually coming down very well. But then these recent issues on reciprocal tariffs being introduced, then postponing it and people trying to prepone shipments as his own share of challenges in terms of that sustaining. The other issue also is that with the ongoing issues still continuing in the Israel and conflict, I think the Red Sea crisis continues to remain very live. Unless we have the Suez Canal route getting opened up and people taking the Red Sea, I think we will continue to be having these challenges on the freight front.
Aditya Khetan
Sir, just one last question sir onto the volumes. When we look at the breakup. So the Ammet volumes are still subdued in 25 I believe last year also they were at the bottom and there has been no material improvement in FY25 but the rest of the world volumes have seen a good uptick. Any idea sir on these two markets how this could behave for the next two years?
K. Natarajan
Yes, one of the thing is that last year if you see most part of this thing, Amit was impacted not so much by demand but because the supply side issues because of the incoming raw materials getting delayed. So I think we do see that that has probably got significantly better. We do expect that Africa, Middle East, Turkey this year should start resuming its growth momentum. Whereas rest of the world driven by the Americas region, we have also done well across all other geographies like Europe and Asia Pacific. We would expect this momentum to continue. That’s what I said.
That that gives me the confidence that even with India really not picking up in the first half, we should be able to be looking at volumes at the lower end of the guided range of 6 to 8%.
Aditya Khetan
Got it. Thank you sir.
K. Natarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Rohit Nagraj from BNK Securities. Please go ahead.
Rohit Nagraj
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. So first question is on the specialty care products. So Last year during FY24 we had seen a very strong growth during the year it was probably primarily propelled by even the conjunction in India which was growing at mid teens and this year it has become flattish. So what is. And I understand that it is again predominantly driven even from the developed markets. And last year, only from last year we had seen some pickup because inventories were normalized and there was pickup in terms of demand. So what is our current perception on the specialty products and how things are likely to shape up in future, in near future given that generally these are slightly higher value than the performance.
So factors. Thank you.
K. Natarajan
Yeah. So in specialties what we have what goes into the premium, special premium formulations and what goes into Mastich formulation. So if you see the volumes are majorly impacted by the specialties that goes into the Mastich products which is majorly in India and Africa, Middle East, Turkey which is where we have seen an impact because there’s been some down trading that has happened into people going more into really low end products. So I think this is going to be a factor in terms of how the commodity prices start getting better and the demand momentum has to come back.
Once demand momentum comes back, everything it takes up everything along with it. So massive specialties have impacted the specialties growth for the current year. Whereas if you look at the sort of momentum we are generating on projects getting done on my prestige specialties those seem to be in a good space and then we do see a good amount of pipeline projects and pipeline getting developed with customers.
Rohit Nagraj
Sure sir. Second question in terms of given that this year our volume growth has been slightly tapered off and next year also we are guiding on a lower end of our normal band in terms of capacities which are available. Do we still have to go in for the normalized CAPEX of 150, 170 crores or we will probably take a breather in the coming year.
K. Natarajan
There are some projects that we’ve already. I know there’s nothing new that we are taking up so the projects that we have rolled out will start getting commissioned in this year. But there’s nothing significant that we’re looking at this year at least because we need to take a breather as you rightly said because my project team also has been pretty busy. So we Will wait and watch. But what is absolutely required. Okay. What will be done?
Rohit Nagraj
And just one last clarification. In terms of the Unilever has announced that we’ll be making this a factor facility for them in Mexico. Any numbers on the same. From our perspective, the impact is about $1.5 billion. So any clarity if you want to provide?
K. Natarajan
No, I cannot. I’m allowed to. But then I am born to condensate with the customers. So it’s only what the customer them as himself. They have themselves disclosed. Beyond that we are not able to because we are born by a very clear conversation with them in terms of what is our role, what is the investment that we will be responsible for. Okay. So I think that’s something that we would need to keep out of the discussion.
Rohit Nagraj
Thanks a lot and all the best.
K. Natarajan
Thank you. All the best.
operator
Thank you. Before we move on to the next question, a reminder to all participants. If you wish to ask a question, you may press star and 1. If anyone wishes to ask a question, you may press Star and one. Now we have our next question from the line of Sanjay Jain from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Sanjesh Jain
Yeah. Good afternoon sir. Thanks.
K. Natarajan
Good afternoon, Sanjay.
Sanjesh Jain
I got few questions. First on this margin Q4 appears to be very strong. So we hold on to our guidance of 20.5 to 21.5 EBITDA margin for FY26.
K. Natarajan
Yes, Sanjay.
Sanjesh Jain
So that guidance remains intact, right?
K. Natarajan
Yes.
Sanjesh Jain
And second question is on other expenses. Volume sequentially appears to be stable to better while there is a drop in the other expenses. Any particular reason why there is drop in the other expenses?
K. Natarajan
So that’s because there have been some. We also been looking at given the demand scenario. We also looked at certain cost optimization efforts. That’s one Second is also there were some one time cost that were there earlier which has also been taken care of. So there is a combination of certain things that are not continuing into this quarter. And also in terms of good amount of actions we have taken on cost optimization and freight rates also coming down is also reflecting in expenses being lower.
Sanjesh Jain
But that again may jump up that right in Q1 if
K. Natarajan
the freight costs go up. Okay. But at least we have right now the problem is the freight costs haven’t jumped up that significantly. Although they have started going up. The major challenge the freight front is in terms of getting containers and schedules from the shipping companies. So I probably expect that it may remain at the level that they were in Q4.
Sanjesh Jain
The next question is on demand itself. What are the measures are we taking within our Control to drive the higher volume growth both in India, across the region, India, Middle east, which is M and rest of the world.
K. Natarajan
Yeah. So the first one is in terms of is how do we ensure that we are able to have a sales team getting every drop of demand that is available and we have the ability to be able to fight in the market to be able to get our share of the business. So that is something we are very clear. So it’s like how do you prioritize volume growth over margin growth? That’s very clear. Second is also in terms of how we also are able to create certain better go to market strategies. I think we are also working on that.
But those who start showing more results as far as the specialties are concerned but the performance of ictance we are well positioned in terms of what we are currently doing on the go to market strategy is only in terms of how do we ensure that given the tepid demand situation, how do we don’t lose even a single metric turn of business. So that way the question of how do you get your sales team focused on that particular single minded objective.
Sanjesh Jain
Very clear. The next question is on fatty alcohol versus crude based surfactant. Now that crude prices have been falling. Well, fatty alcohol remains very sticky and high. Do you see there is a shift at least on the lower end of the product from fatty alcohol to say petro based surfactant?
K. Natarajan
Yeah, we do see. Okay. But we also know that you know it’s not that they could have been done earlier. There have been enough times when this particular scenario has played out. But then there are formulation challenges. But yes, given the way things are with a very tippet demand and elevated prices of molecule feedstocks, we do see certain reformulations happening and we are also looking at how do we prepare ourselves to be able to even at a. If it is even for a short term, how do we able to manage this flexibility in a more effective manner? Although we are very clear that this is not going to be a long term trend but we’ll keep having these short term challenges of reformulation and we are seeing how well we are able to participate in that.
Sanjesh Jain
Any products that we want to introduce within the petro based in India which can help us add little bit of volume and drive the growth. Any product portfolio changes, I know we don’t want to do lapsa but any product beyond labsa.
K. Natarajan
So there are alpha lipin sulfonates which is one other alternative and there are certain synthetic alcohol based derivatives instead of fatty alcohol based derivatives. So there are multiple options. It all depends on how customers because it’s not that a particular ingredient will fit every customer. So each customer, when they reformulate, they have their own reformulated thing and we need to work with that. So we are saying how we are able to prepare to be managing all that we can do. Labsa is something that we will not do in India, which we are very clear. Other than that, we are evaluating every other option including synthetic alcohol based surfactants to alpha olefin based surfactants.
Sanjesh Jain
Got it. But we haven’t started any of that.
K. Natarajan
Right.
Sanjesh Jain
That means we need to
operator
interrupt. Mr. Sanjeev Shree, we’ll request you to move on.
K. Natarajan
Let me answer this for him. Let me answer this for him. So it is, it’s not that we are. We have the service only because how are you reaching your internal supply chain to be able to manage multiple grades? That’s all. And skus because every time that you change your runs and everything you need to have a Washington all. That’s. How do you manage productivity and flexibility? How do you manage these two in a very effective way is what is the challenge which you’re working on.
Sanjesh Jain
But from the capacity perspective, we are covered for that as well. You don’t need a separate plan for that.
K. Natarajan
No, no, no, no, no, no, we don’t need.
Sanjesh Jain
We don’t need that.
K. Natarajan
Yes, yes, yes.
Sanjesh Jain
Very clear, sir. Thanks.
K. Natarajan
Yeah, we require some debottle making, but that we will do. Those are not significant.
Sanjesh Jain
Those are not significant. But yeah, this plant can handle the new age or the petro based. Not new age, sorry, petrol based,
K. Natarajan
not exactly. New age. Old age products. We can.
Sanjesh Jain
Old age products. That’s what I was correcting. Just one last question before I get back.
operator
Sorry to interrupt. Mr. Sanjesh, we’ll request you to rejoin the queue.
Sanjesh Jain
Okay, fine. Thank you, sir. Thanks for answering all those questions.
K. Natarajan
I can come back in the queue. We’ll answer. Yeah,
Sanjesh Jain
yeah, yeah. Thank you sir.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to take questions from all participants in the conference, please restrict yourself to only two questions per participant. Should you have a follow up question, we request you to rejoin the queue. I repeat, ladies and gentlemen, please restrict yourself to only two questions per participant. Should you have a follow up question, please rejoin the queue. We have our next question from the line of Arun Prasad from Evander’s Park. Please go ahead.
Arun Prasath
Good afternoon, sir. I have a couple of questions. First job. This free trades continues to be. Continues to hamper our performance in a very volatile manner. So last time also we discussed when this happened. So are we still doing CFR based billing? Why we are not completely shifting to FOB based billing so that the free trades are completely passed down to the customers on the same shipping process.
K. Natarajan
So that is not. See, that is, you know, one of the things we need to be clear is that that’s one of the value that we need to provide to customers. Okay. The moment, you know, it can’t be that I keep shifting, tomorrow freight rates will come down. Okay. And then it doesn’t mean that I want to do cfr. So these are all things that we as an organization would have the capability to manage that which is what we are doing. There is no way because customers are also want delivery done on time. Okay. They also have challenges in terms of getting the containers same thing.
And they expect that validity from us. That’s the reason why they need us. So I don’t want to be hitting at our basic purpose of existence itself. That’s the way I’ll put it.
Arun Prasath
But sir, if we are giving that value added service, we should also be able to recover the incremental free trades over and above that, right?
K. Natarajan
We are recovering. No, we are recovering. Okay. It’s not that. But then if it traded jumps up today and I’ve already done a contract which is there up to June, there’s no way I can go and in between take it up. So that will be the, that will be the volatility situation that we will have to contend with.
Arun Prasath
So, so in this, in this, in the situation where you said say hypothetical situation where a June contract ends and when the contract renews in July, you will be able to recover the. Say that for by the time the free trade comes down to a normal level, so renewal happen happens at the new, the original rate or you, you pass it on or recover some of the freight rates also it will be.
K. Natarajan
On the new rate which we expect for the next contract. And my freight buyers have to manage that properly. Okay. With the relationship we have the shipping companies and freight service providers. Okay. So it is not that you know, you have, you will end up saying that, you know, I’ll continue of the last quarter. No, that never happens. The same thing happens when the freight rates also increase. Correct. So I don’t charge them the previous quarters rated. I don’t charge what is going to be applicable for the next contract period.
Arun Prasath
So if there is a high volatility, we have to observe. That is what I understand.
K. Natarajan
Yeah, yeah. I volatility both ways. There are times that it may benefit us also.
Arun Prasath
Sir, that means if you see in FY25, our gross margin per kg increased by around roughly 3 kg. 3 rupees per kg. Whereas on a our EBITDA per kg was flat. So if the current free trade continues, we should see this 3 rupees per kilogram coming into the. Flowing into EBITDA. That is the right way to expect an FY26.
K. Natarajan
No, I don’t. I’m not able to get the way that you’re looking at it. But one thing that I can tell you is that it is not that the freight, freight, you know, under or recovery impacts you by three rupees per kilo. No, that’s not the case at all.
Arun Prasath
Sorry sir. Why is it so? Because obviously the freight rates will be on a per kg basis only will be incurring, right?
K. Natarajan
Yes. But when you’re saying gross margin, when you look at it, it’s not only about freight. So if it does, then you have, you know, various other costs also that will be there.
Arun Prasath
Okay, so. So we already discussed that we will be passing on the raw material price within certain lag. So assuming that.
K. Natarajan
Yeah, everything else remaining same, what you’re saying is true,
Arun Prasath
Right? Understood. So second is on the volumes front we mentioned that rest of the world, this is the highest volume quarter is the kind of a baseline from which we can operate because or this kind of a top. In terms of maximum. We have, we have, we have completely realized maximum potential from the rest of the world volumes.
K. Natarajan
No, no, no. So we will, we are still looking at what more we can do. We are still hunting for more customers. We are trying to deepen our presence with existing customers. So there is a momentum that these businesses gather and we will continue to build on that momentum. It is not that we have really gotten and deepened our presence into those markets. Still huge potential available and we will continue to.
Arun Prasath
But sir, to maintain our 6 percentage lower end of the volume growth. And given that India is kind of flat and may not recover this year and continues to have its own problem. So rest of the world needs to grow at very high double digits even to deliver 6% volume growth. So what is.
K. Natarajan
I said I will look at lower end provided India continues to show some improvement. If India continues to be negative, Africa, Middle East, I expect that it would start growing this year. And we do see that we should have a clarity, you know, by the end of first quarter again of this year. And I have reasons to believe that will happen. India is where we have we still are not seeing that because my customers also are not giving us that confidence. Okay. So I would like India to at least start growing. Okay. At some decent level, not at the earlier very high levels.
Okay. And then we are able to look at the lower and otherwise last year with everything that we grew by about three and a half percent. Correct? Correct. So even if the rest of the world continues to grow at that, you know, 9% on a per annum basis, Africa, Middle east continues to grow at 2, 3%. But India doesn’t grow at all, you’ll still deliver only the 3 and a 4%. Correct.
Arun Prasath
And typically when the palm oil prices.
operator
Goes up, your two questions are up. Can we please request you to rejoin the queue?
Arun Prasath
Sure. Thank you very much.
operator
Thank you so much.
K. Natarajan
Thank you.
operator
We have our next question from the line of Oman Shah from Banyan Tree Advisors. Please go ahead.
Oman Shah
Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, just wanted to ask. We have 260 crores of CWIP in our balance sheet. What does it pertain to?
K. Natarajan
Is put into projects that are going to be commissioned.
Oman Shah
Okay, okay. And any one. Sorry, can you repeat the specialty or performance?
K. Natarajan
Yeah, it’s I think majorly skewed towards specialties. Yeah, sure.
Oman Shah
Sir. Yes, sir, answer in in specialty. If you could break, break the numbers for full year. In terms of preservatives and mild surfactants, I understand these are the two big categories. Any qualitative comments on how these two categories went or if there’s another big category that I’m missing out on? Any comments on that?
K. Natarajan
Voluntary. Both of them continue to be the major categories. Mild surfactants and preservatives. But yes, we don’t provide the breakup of our specialties into the individual components.
Oman Shah
Yeah, right, right. Sure, sir. Thank you.
K. Natarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please limit yourself to only two questions per participant. Should you have a follow up question, you may please rejoin the queue. We have our next question from the line of Gaurav Nigam from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead.
Gaurav Nigam
Good afternoon, sir. Thank you.
K. Natarajan
Good afternoon.
Gaurav Nigam
Sir. I have one question on the, on the AMEC business. Geopolitical tension between India, India and Turkey. Just wanted to understand how we are supplying, serving that market. And is there a near term impact that you expect in that market?
K. Natarajan
See India to Turkey, our business is not significant. So I don’t see any great impact on that.
Gaurav Nigam
And is it happening from outside India facilities? I mean, just wanted to.
K. Natarajan
Yeah, it will happen. It happens. From Egypt.
Gaurav Nigam
Thank you.
K. Natarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Krishan Parvani from JM Financials. Please go ahead.
Krishan Parwani
Yeah. Hi sir, thank you for taking a question. Two questions. First, if you look at overall volume growth over the last 6 to 7 years it has been around 3 to 4% CAGRADE. Just wanted to understand how do you intend to pick the growth rate to your long term aspiration of 6 to 8%.
K. Natarajan
Oh yeah, correct. So first is I think when we talked about 6 to 8% as of this thing we had factored in India growing at a very good pace and we are very confident that will happen. We only this what is happening now is the blip. So that is one. So how do we ensure that we are able to continue to maintain our leadership position in India is going to be an important criteria. And India also has to grow at a good pace and there is a huge amount of growth potential available given that the per capita consumption in India is the lowest in terms of home and personal care products.
The other thing is how we are deepening our presence in the other markets. If you see the way that the rest of the world we have started showing it happened because of almost three to four years of good work that we have been doing there and then how do we then keep deepening our presence and enhancing our business in the other markets is going to be one important for us to be delivering 6 to 8%. Okay. Even what we are doing say with our customer outside India is also to see as how we are able to participate in markets that they are currently not able to because.
Because we don’t have a manufacturing in that location.
Krishan Parwani
Understood, Understood. And secondly just on the continuation to that question, so if you look at our portfolio, I think the growth rate over the last 10 years is about four, four and a half and over the last six years is about 2%. So if this kind of growth rate continues, how do we expect to increase our PERT and EBITDA margin to our expired range?
K. Natarajan
Yeah. So one of the thing is that specialties is a huge focus this thing for us and we are putting in place various measures to be able to as I said, the products and the markets where we will be clearly focusing and the go to market market strategies relevant to each of the markets is something that we have very clearly laid a path for ourselves and that is something that’s going to be a critical component of our growth in the coming years. So we are preparing well for that as to how do we increase our specialties in linens business.
Krishan Parwani
Understood sir, thank you for answering my question. Wish you all the best.
K. Natarajan
Yeah. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Abhishek Ranavad from Oakland Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello.
K. Natarajan
Hello.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Thank you for taking my question. I have only one question about the EPC project. Actually I have joined this con call little late. So I just wanted to ask about the EPC project. What is the size of this project and what is the execution period and what is your future plans about this particular project and the overall EPC business?
K. Natarajan
So EPC is not. First clarification is EPC is not one of the business verticals that we have. It is just that to further the strategic interest of a customer. Because it also made a strategic fit for us. We are doing it for this customer. That’s very clear. With regards to how we are going to be, you know, doing what further we go to be in this project, we are evaluating how it can further our strategic interest in the markets that are of interest to us and the products that are going to be made in that particular, you know, site.
The third one with regard to what is the investment that as I said earlier, you joined late but it was asked to me earlier, that’s something we are born by confidence with the customer. We can’t be disclosing what is the size of investment that the customer is putting in.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, okay, thank you.
operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Sudanshu from Marcellus investment managers. Please go ahead.
Sudhanshu Nahta
Good afternoon sir, got a couple of questions. First is can you just help us. With the Q4 volume growth for India?
K. Natarajan
Q4 volume growth for India was about negative 1%.
Sudhanshu Nahta
Thank you sir. Secondly sir, in terms of our balance sheet items we see increase in inventory and receivables. So is it that the terms of trade have changed where we are offering higher credit and storing higher tonnage or is it just because the iron prices. Have gone up and hence.
K. Natarajan
I think Abhijit the CFO will answer this. Yeah, Abhijit.
Abhijit Damle
Yeah. It is primarily on account of the. Higher raw material prices when we compare it with respect to the last year numbers.
Sudhanshu Nahta
And one final question if I can just ask. This year our CVP is around 200 odd crores and our guidance is around 150 odd crores of capex every year. So is this any particular project which is driving this higher CV for this particular year and this would normalize to that guided range going forward?
K. Natarajan
No, we do expect that. See we give this guidance because we know that the replacement capex that we incur plus there are certain capexes that we incur with regard to revamping our this thing with regard to making our plans a little bit more efficient and effective. So it is in that context we guide. So as I said we expect that any new projects even brownfield this year we don’t see initiating anything in a significant way because we are commissioning a lot of projects this year. Okay. It will continue to be some project but there will be more need based in terms of either small improvements or require some replacement.
Sudhanshu Nahta
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We have a follow up question from the line of Rohit Nagraj from BNK Securities. Please go ahead.
Rohit Nagraj
Thanks for the follow up. So in terms of emit region given that the geopolitical issues and even on the currency front have we made any changes in terms of the trade credit which is also impacting our volumes and business over there? Thank you.
K. Natarajan
We are always very clear that you know trade credit is something we do only after a lot of done with regard to the credit worthiness of the customer and the country is in which the customer is based. So that is. There is nothing that has changed. It has been something that has been there since the time we started doing business in Africa and Middle East Turkey. So there’s nothing different that’s happening now unless you’re alluding to something which I’m not able to get.
Rohit Nagraj
So I would just Generally given that the situation has been quite volatile over the last two, three years have we made changes earlier the credit period was.
K. Natarajan
No, no. So we have been extremely particular CPC. That’s why in the last 45 years of Galaxy’s existence I think we would have hardly written off any bad debt. So we are very, very prudent in terms of trade terms that we offer to customers. We are very clear that we have to be extremely diligent in terms of lending trade terms.
Rohit Nagraj
Right. And second question is on Trike any new development on that front in terms of new products or newer areas which we are targeting and probably the growth process of the same.
K. Natarajan
Yeah so Trike I think it’s. It’s getting on to more. They just introduced three new products essentially one was finding a lot of interest is in what you call as everbond which is bonding this thing for say treated air. We also have something that is working in terms of hair growth which was launched in cosmetics Amsterdam. So we do see good amount of interest being generated in these products and that’s going to be a route for Trikay to expand its offerings and build its business. So we have good amount of interesting stuff Happening there as well.
Rohit Nagraj
Thanks a lot sir.
operator
Thank you. We have a follow up question from the line off Arun Prasad from MNS park. Please go ahead.
Arun Prasath
Thanks for the follow up opportunity sir. As I was trying to understand the projects which are currently we have done in the last two years roughly we have done around 300, 330 crores of capex in the last few years. Apart from maintenance Capex, is there any plant with plant which is it to commission? Can you just give those brief details will be helpful?
K. Natarajan
Yeah, we are putting in something which is we had some specialty ingredients project that’s getting commissioned. They’ll get commissioned in the first half of this year. We also have some that we have done with regard to getting our efforts effluent treatment systems spruced up. There’s some that we have done with regard to getting our pilot plant setup more capable of delivering you know, more reactions that we know to do more technologies that we need to do to establish capabilities for new products. So those also some of in phases is getting commissioned.
Arun Prasath
This ATP plan, pilot plan will not give any immediate boost to our volumes. Right. Only the specialty plant will give the volume booster. And what is the size of this plant in terms of Capex? Is it like a big plant or a very small plant?
K. Natarajan
It’s a big plant but I’m not able to give you the specifics of that because that would end up revealing too much. So I don’t think we would want to say that how much is it into specialty but if suffice to say that out of 330, you know a good portion will be on specialty.
Arun Prasath
Understood. So second on the Indian volumes we have seen this cycle playing out in the past as well where palm oil price goes up and then stabilizes and then the volume growth comes. So going by the current trends probably suffice to say that currently we are in the stabilization phase and after this we should expect some kind of volume growth once per mile price is stable here.
K. Natarajan
Yes, yes we will because India that way has a huge potential. If you see one of major players, global players in Omit Pasnika segment in India has made a very clear statement in terms of how India is critical to their global strategy and how do they see India contributing significantly to their growth in the years going ahead. So I think we also echo that particular sentiment. It’s only that we’ll have to pass through this phase and it always happens. This sort of situation we have even seen earlier. But yes, we need to stay watchful and ensure that we prepare well for the future to deliver in the growth that certainly is going to come our way.
Arun Prasath
So what is the time period typically this three months lag or six months lag or a one year lag. The volume growth comes post the per mile price stabilizations
K. Natarajan
typically six months. Because what happens is that consumers see unfortunately the quantum of increase has been so high that it had to be passed on to the consumers. So consumers then find their own ways to be able to cut back on consumption. So typically they can manage their budget in a month by saying that this is the quantity that they will buy in that month and they manage within that. So the usage in a very smart way gets reduced. But then once the prices start getting reduced for the consumers to again become little bit more, you know, carefree in terms of using it.
Multi more more per use or you know more usages per week. Okay. Would take easily because the sentiments have improved. So it will take about. We have seen earlier six months to one year.
Arun Prasath
And this is irrespective of the price differential between the petro based and olio based products.
K. Natarajan
Yeah, because petro finally there is an equilibrium that is always reach. But then petro based. We also know that petro based products have their own challenges in terms of formulation being very effective because consumers once they spot that there is a difference in the way that the formulation is performing then that can be a significant impact for the brands. So essentially they are very, very careful about India because given a choice I can say that they would always want to go back to all your chemical based feedstocks. All of them have been talking about their carbon footprint.
They have been talking about moving away from petro feedstocks. So I would say that these all will be getting to using some petro feed stocks. Little bit higher into the formulation may be a temporary thing that they will have to do from the point of view of managing their profitability. But that’s not, not something they would want to do as part of the long term strategy.
Arun Prasath
Thank you sir. Thanks for answering all the questions.
operator
Thank you. We have a follow up question from the line of Sanjay Jain from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Sanjesh Jain
Thanks. Thanks for taking my question. I got one question on the bio based or an enzyme based surfactant. Are we thinking on that direction to move up in the value chain add new line of product?
K. Natarajan
Oh yeah. So we are on to biosurfactants. Okay. That’s something that we have worked on. We also have a product that’s already into the pilot stage. So again how do we then we’ll probably be launching that once we complete all our application studies. So that is any of part of our innovation in terms of getting into the newest of actins. But we also know that the application of this is into niche products where they also come with a good amount of cost in formulation increase. But then we need to be very clear that you know there’s going to be the starting will be a low volume, high margin product.
But we need to find ways to see how we are able to get it into more brands. So that’s what you working on.
Sanjesh Jain
Got it. The last question is on the liquid detergent which saw good uptick in last two years which was driving a good growth for us in India because of this high cost raw material. Are we seeing the penetration of liquid detergent being less than what we aspired in FY25?
K. Natarajan
No. I think the momentum for liquid fabric detergents has been pretty good because we see more brands getting launched and there is a perceptible shift that is happening in the consumer preference to liquid at least in the urban areas. Based on the commentaries that most of our customers will be tracked their quarterly results, I think they have all been pretty gaga about liquid fabric wash continuing its momentum in terms of growth.
Sanjesh Jain
And despite that India for I thought this transition itself was very big for us.
K. Natarajan
So what happens is that it’s that this transition see we are talking about the fabric wash market is close to 15, you’re talking about 15 to 20 lakh tons out of that liquid is today probably it can be about 100,000 tonnes. So in terms of growth rate is very impressive. But it’s not enough to be looking at. So that will take time. It will go, it will happen faster but then it’s not going to happen in next two to three years because we also know that it’s very superior performing formulation liquid fabric war. But per wash cost is high.
Sanjesh Jain
Got it, Got it. Very clear. Sir. Thanks. Thanks for answering all those questions and thank you.
K. Natarajan
Welcome.
operator
Thank you. We have a last question from the line of Aditya Ketan from Smith Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Aditya Khetan
Hello. Yeah, thank you for the follow up. So my question is on to the US and the EU side. Are there any new ingredients or formulations we are planning to launch like we have launched a new product of Gansa Derma Green. How many new products are there in the pipeline targeting the international markets? And sir, if there is any sort of a market size which we can give for this product of Gelsar Dharma Green and what is the feedback from the customers and how is the acceptance.
K. Natarajan
See Gallery Derma Green essentially is so well received from our customers. There’s a huge amount of project in pipeline that is getting created. We continue to do a lot of efficacy studies into various end use requirements. Similarly, we just launched, we just did a curtain raiser of a product called Galguard Prebiotive that won an award as I told during my opening remarks in the In Cosmetics Amsterdam exhibition. So yes, so these two. And we will not be able to tell you the size typically because it all depends on specific customers. It’s not that we are trying to replace some huge.
It’s not an alternate subactive that we’re coming up with. It’s a use for coming up with superior formulations. So it can only be based on the sort of projects in pipeline value that we keep generating with customers.
Aditya Khetan
Okay. And sir, any feedback like from the customer side whether this product has been well accepted into the international markets and how is the traction?
K. Natarajan
Oh yeah. So the way we look at it is that first is when we customers are interested, they ask for a small sample. Then we find that, you know, they ask for bigger samples. So we find that the good amount of customers who are asking for a bigger quantity of samples that tells us that they want to do more studies in terms of formulating it and then seeing as to which applications they want to be launching, which brands they want to be incorporating. So that way we are able to gauss that it has generated significant amount of interest.
Aditya Khetan
Okay. And is it possible at least we can share what could be the penetration rate or we are still in the very early stages, we don’t want to do that.
K. Natarajan
So probably once this really gets into a situation where I have at least 10 customers who have got it into their brands and it is going in regularly on a commercial scale, then yes, we may be able to make some give you some idea about what can be the sort of size of this, the white space for this product.
Aditya Khetan
How many products are you planning to launch in the next two years?
K. Natarajan
See, typically we do about one or two products between us and say Tricare put together two, three. Like this year we launched two. Okay, so that’s what we’ll do. The more missing is because each product we launch it takes almost three to five years for it to blossom fully. So we don’t want to spread ourselves too thin. So we do have projects, products that are there in the pipeline to launch, but we launch them in a very calibrated manner.
Aditya Khetan
Got it. Thank you.
K. Natarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. This would be the last question for today and I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
K. Natarajan
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you all for the continued support and trust that you have placed in us. We look forward to sharing more updates and progress in the coming quarters. Look forward to meeting you sometime middle of August. Okay. To share our Q1 FY 2526 results. Wishing you all a great day. Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. On behalf of Galaxy Surfactants limited that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.