Grasim Industries Limited Q1 FY23 Earnings Conference Call Insights

Key highlights from Grasim Industries Limited (GRASIM) Q1 FY23 Earnings Concall

Management Update:

• [00:02:49] GRASIM said its Chlor-Alkali and Textile businesses reported highest ever quarterly EBITDA, driven by better realization and sales volume.

• [00:03:43] GRASIM said it expects FY23 capex guidance of INR3,117 crores for the existing lines of businesses and added that the capex for Paints and B2B will be in addition to this.

Q&A Highlights:

• [00:15:46] Nirav Jimudia with Anvil Research asked about VSF capacity, how much addition the company is intending to plan and the time frame for debottlenecking. H.K. Agarwal MD said the entire amount of INR587 crores is not for debottlenecking. Most of it is part of the residual capex commitments for Vilayat expansion. GRASIM expects to get around 80 TPD for investment of about INR200 crore.

• [00:20:18] Navin Sahadeo from Edelweiss enquired that in the near term, the peak margins are behind and in the next 1-2 quarters VSF may see some softness in the margins. H.K. Agarwal MD believes that if VSF market shows so much of softness then pulp prices also will have to adjust. So margins will remain under pressure.

• [00:22:31] Navin Sahadeo from Edelweiss asked that in chemicals if a sequential margin decline is expected. Jayant Dhobley CEO Global Chemicals said that the volatility is very high and the trend looks that it will be tapering downwards, but at present, to quantify it is very difficult.

• [00:27:04] Prateek Kumar from Jefferies enquired about the VSF segment, any major expansion in terms of brownfield.  H.K. Agarwal MD answered that the company would love to do that but for the time being it is not on the drawing board.

• [00:28:37] Prateek Kumar from Jefferies also asked about the utilization numbers for VSF capacity for FY23. H.K. Agarwal MD answered that if things remain normal, GRASIM have been always operating in high-90s or like above 90s. So that the target for sure.

• [00:32:33] Prateek Kumar from Jefferies asked about the annual maintenance capex. Ashish Adukia CFO said that it varies. Somewhere around INR1,000-1,500 crore can be assume for GRASIM.