Jubilant Ingrevia Ltd (NSE: JUBLINGREA) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Feb. 05, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Pavleen Taneja — Head of Investor Relations
Shyam S Bhartia — Chairman
Varun Gupta — President & Chief Financial Officer
Deepak Jain
Deepak Jain
Analysts:
Archit Joshi — Analyst
Abhijit Akella — Analyst
Nitesh Dhoot — Analyst
Siddharth Gadekar — Analyst
Avnish Burman — Analyst
Gokul Maheshwari — Analyst
Atishray Malhan — Analyst
Pavleen Taneja — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Foreign. Ladies and Gentlemen, good day and welcome to Jubilant Engrivia’s Q3 and 9 month FY26 earnings conference call. 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 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 the conference over to Mr. Pavleen Taneja, Head of Investor Relations at Jubilant Ingrieva Ltd. Thank you and over to you Mr. Taneja.
Pavleen Taneja — Head of Investor Relations
Thank you Raya Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining the quarter three of financial year 2026 earnings conference call of Jubilant Engravia Ltd. I would like to remind you that some of the statements made on the call today would be forward looking in nature and a detailed disclaimer in this regard has been included in the press release and the results presentation that has been shared on our website. On the call Today we have Mr. Shyam Bharatia, Chairman, Mr. Deepak Jain, CEO and Managing Director and Mr. Varun Gupta, CFO, Jubilant Engraver Ltd. I now invite Mr.
Shyam Bhatia to share his comments.
Shyam S Bhartia — Chairman
Thank you Pavleen we are pleased to share the financial results for the third quarter and nine months of this fiscal year. On year to date basis, our specialty chemicals segment has continued to fuel growth momentum delivering revenue expansion and a robust double digit increase in ebitda. Our nutrition business has sustained a healthy trajectory of volume growth across all core products. At the same time, our Chemical Intermediate segment has successfully maintained its market share while recording a year on year volume growth. This quarter presented its challenges with softer pricing across all three segments. However, strong volume growth helped offset this impact resulting in overall business performance remaining stable.
EBITDA. Was maintained at 13% same as quarter two. Over the nine months period, our volume growth in double digits leading to revenue increasing by 3% and EBITDA rising by 8%. And even after accounting for amendment to the Indian Labor Code and the associated one time exceptional expense, our profit after tax registered an increase of 8%. We are pleased to announce that the Board has recommended an interim dividend of 250% translating to Rs. 2.5 per equity share. Markets Update across the broader chemical industry. We are witnessing a steady recovery in volumes even as pricing pressure continue to persist across segments. Importantly, while many global players are reporting deteriorating financial due to weaker demand, sustained pricing pressure and elevated energy cost, our performance demonstrates resilience and strength in navigating these challenges. In the pharmaceutical end use market volumes have remained steady across segments with particular strength in our core fine chemicals portfolio. With recent signing of FTAs with United States and EU, we are expecting a high degree of engagement and inquiries from customers in coming months. In agrochemical sector we are witnessing a steady recovery in volumes both globally in India with pyridine based products and the Azitiles group showing consistent improvement.
However, the demand supply imbalance persist, exerting short term price pressures that we expect to ease in the coming quarters. We continue to advance our cost initiatives to ensure we can absorb this impact. In the nutrition market, niacinamide demand remains strong across key segments including feed, food and cosmetics. Pricing however has been under strained due to supply demand mismatches, though we anticipate margins to improve marginally in the next quarter. Meanwhile, the demand for choline vitamin B4 is stable while domestic prices are affected by global imports. We are encouraged by positive traction in the European market supported by tariffs imposed on Chinese suppliers.
Now let me share few details on our future outlook. Looking ahead to Q4FY26, we anticipate sustained growth momentum driven by progress in our specialty chemicals and nutrition businesses alongside a partial recovery in Acetyl’s portfolio. During the quarter we commissioned a new boiler at our Bharud site which will further enhance our operational efficiency. We are also on track to commence delivery of major CDMO order in Q4 FY26, a milestone that will significantly accelerate our growth trajectory in the CDMO segment. In addition, construction work has begun on our new multipurpose plant in Gujarola which will further strengthen our capacity and future readiness for upcoming CDMO projects.
With the latest FTEs signed with Europe and EU, we expect to gain share in these markets in the coming quarters. With this, I now hand over to Deepak to discuss the business in detail. Thank you.
Deepak Jain
Thank you Mr. Bhatia. A very good evening to all of you. I would like to thank you all for joining us today for the quarter three FY26 investor call of Jubilant Engravia Limited over the past year we have made significant progress across all pillars of our strategy, laying the groundwork for sustained long term growth while ensuring stability in the near term even amid current challenging global market conditions. These efforts are already delivering results as reflected in our stable quarterly performance in our specialty and nutrition portfolio overall margins along with a substantially expanded pipeline of more than 100 new opportunities including 16 wins in this year itself.
In Quarter 3 FY26 we further accelerated our pinnacle journey, achieving important milestones that reinforce our momentum and strengthen our trajectory toward enduring value creation. Let me share the overall business update with you all. First, from an overall business perspective, we are pleased to report stable revenues and margins delivered despite challenging market conditions. This performance was fueled by incremental sales volumes across all segments. While volumes grew during the quarter, performance in our specialty chemicals segment was tempered by pricing pressures across core products. Nevertheless, the segment demonstrated resilience, continuing to deliver margins above 25%, underscoring its strong fundamentals even in a challenging environment.
Our pyridine and derivatives business continued to deliver strong volume growth on both quarter on quarter and and year on year basis, reflecting the robustness of market demand and reaffirming our competitive positioning. Dicotine derivatives maintained steady volumes on a quarter to quarter basis and demonstrated strong growth momentum year on year reflecting consistent performance and clear market traction. In our CDMO business, we continue to see increased customer traction across pharma, agro, industrial and cosmetics and nutrition segments. The overall momentum underscores the strong demand and growing confidence in our capabilities. We continue to make rapid progress in our new growth segments such as cosmetics and semiconductor chemicals.
In cosmetics, our team is already developing multiple products and we are getting good traction with several customers. Similarly, in semiconductor chemicals too, the number of opportunities has increased in last quarter and we are making significant investments in equipment and teams to accelerate our journey. In our nutrition and health solutions business, we delivered volume growth both quarter on quarter and year on year. Demand for feed grade vitamin B3 remained steady with volumes reaching their highest level in past seven quarters. While intensified global competition placed some pressure on prices, the segment continued to demonstrate resilience. Cosmetic grade demand sustained its steady growth on both quarter on quarter and year on year basis with pricing remaining stable.
In food grade products, we observed marginal price softening, though demand trends remained encouraging and supportive of long term growth. In our chemical intermediate segment, we recorded higher market volumes in the domestic market supported by modest uptick in agrochemicals and paracetamol end use segment. In contrast, Europe continues to face headwinds with weak demand and plant closures weighing on the performance. While prices have remained subdued, rising raw material costs and positive momentum in acetic acid point toward an upward trend ahead. Importantly, our lean initiatives and cost efficiency measures have helped offset pricing pressures reinforcing the resilience of this segment.
Let me also give you a quick update on the progress made across our key pillars. Number one Driven by our customer centric approach, our key account management strategy continues to deliver strong results. In Q3, we expanded our opportunity funnel beyond 100 active opportunities reflecting deeper engagement and growing interest across our strategic accounts. Collectively, these opportunities represent a peak annual revenue potential of 3500 crores. Over the past year we have secured confirmation for more than 16 molecules with an estimated peak potential of 1400 crores and we are in advanced discussions on over seven additional opportunities with a potential of 900 crores.
From an operations and ESG perspective, we are seeing tangible outcomes from our sustainability initiatives. The benefits of green power are evident with power and fuel expenses reduced by 10% year on year and around 3% quarter on quarter despite higher production volumes. This progress reflects the successful commissioning of renewable O2 power at our Bharuch site which has taken Engbia’s renewal power share to 34% in Q3 as against 28% in Q2, a significant milestone in our clean energy journey. On the operational front, our 120crore plus annual lean savings program remains firmly on track driving efficiency across the value chain.
Complementing these efforts, our ESG initiatives earned significant recognition. Last quarter we received multiple recognitions at the 7th South Asia ASQ Team Excellence Awards and were also awarded as the Manufacturing Team of the year 2025 large category at the Manufacturing Today 13th annual conference and Awards. These accolades highlight our unwavering commitment to responsible practices and sustainable growth from a people and organization perspective. I am pleased to share that we have been recognized among the top 50 best workplaces in manufacturing in India for 2026. We continue to strengthen our leadership bench with strategic senior talent additions. This quarter we welcomed a new Chief of Manufacturing, further reinforcing our operational excellence.
In addition, we remain committed to continuously strengthen our R and D and technology teams through key hires in strategic growth areas such as human nutrition and semiconductors, positioning us for long term success. On the innovation and R and D front, we continue to build a strong pipeline that supports our long term growth strategy. We now have approximately 55 products under development across our business segments reflecting our commitment to differentiated and value added solutions. These innovations will further strengthen our portfolio and reinforce our position as a science led and customer centric organization. On the CAPEX front, we commissioned a new boiler at our Bharuch site in Quarter 3 FY26 further enhancing operational efficiency.
We remain firmly on track for the commissioning of our Agro Innovator project which is expected to begin dispatching volumes from March 2026. During the quarter we also commenced construction of a new multipurpose plant at Gajwala which will add significant flexibility and capacity to our CDMO and Fine Chemicals portfolio. Given the progress across our strategic initiatives, we remain confident in sustaining the expected growth trajectory in both top line and margins over the next 3 3/4. With that, I would now like to hand over to Varun to walk you through the financial performance of each of our businesses, followed by Consolidated Financial Overview.
Thanks Deepak.
Varun Gupta — President & Chief Financial Officer
Very good evening to all of you. Starting with overall financial update, we achieved our second highest volumes in the last 12 quarters with overall revenue at Rupees 1051 crores compared to 1057 crores in quarter 3 25. Notably, volumes grew by nearly 9% during the quarter despite macroeconomic headwinds and the typical muted price momentum across most segments. In quarter three, EBITDA per quarter stood at 136 crore reflecting an 8% year on year decline primarily due to lower pricing across most segments. However, on a nine month basis EBITDA reached 436 crores representing an 8% increase compared to the same period last year.
PAT for the quarter excluding the impact of amendments under the Indian labor code stood at 60 crores with a margin of 6%. The adjustment of rupees 13 crores was recorded under the Exceptional items and primarily related to provisioning of employee gratuity and leave encashements mandated by the new Labor Code amendments. PAD for the quarter after accounting for Exceptional Items stood at 47 crores comparable to 69 crores in Q3 financial year 25. Consequently, the net debt to EBITDA ratio improved 2.94 times during the quarter compared to 1.24 compared times in quarter 2 financial year 26 based on trailing twelve months EBITDA we have incurred year to date capex of 366 crores.
The majority of this spend was directed towards the upcoming CDMO agro plant at Baruch and the construction of our new multipurpose facility at Gajrola. These investments were largely funded through internal accruals. Looking ahead, we plan to invest approximately 500 crores in 2027 which will also be supported by internal accruals. Specialty Chemicals in quarter three our Specialty Chemicals segment reported revenue of Rupees 458 crores compared to 468 crores in the same period last year. While segment revenues was impacted by pricing pressures across core products, this was partially offsetted by healthy volume growth in our Pyridine and Dicatein portfolios.
Our quarterly EBITDA margin for the segment remains stable sustaining a trajectory above 25% with absolute EBITDA reported at 116 crores. This performance was supported by a favorable product mix driven by higher uptakes in volumes of Kine chemicals and CDMO offerings along with ongoing cost optimization initiatives. On a nine month basis, segment revenue stood at 1421 crores compared to 1331 crores in the same period last year reflecting a growth over 7% with EBITDA margins remaining well above 26%. Segment EBITDA for nine months period was 371 crores up from 293 crores last year representing growth of 27% during the quarter.
Nutrition, Health and Segment Business Segment during the quarter segment revenue stood at 201 crores compared to 190 crores in quarter 325 reflecting a year on year growth of 6%. This growth was primarily driven by steady market demand with the segment recording its highest overall volumes in the last seven quarters and delivering the strongest ever volume growth in the vitamin B3 portfolio segment EBITDA for the quarter stood at 23 crores declining 10% year on year with margin trending lower at 11% primarily due to price declines across vitamin B3 portfolio and choline. However, margins are expected to improve in the coming quarters as prices recover and the share of cosmetic and food grade products increases in the overall product mix.
On a ninth month basis segment revenue for this upper nutrition remains stable at 560 crores with EBITDA margin sustained over 12%. Segment EBITDA PER stood at 68 crores. Chemical Intermediates Business Segment during the quarter, segment revenue stood at 393 crores compared to 400 crores in the same period last year. Also on a sequential basis revenue declined primarily due to lower realization across our key products such as ethyl acetate and acetic anhydride. On a ninth month basis segment revenue stood at 1229 crores compared to 1237 crores in the same period last year. The margin decline in absolute EBITDA was driven by pricing contraction along with the pass through of lower input raw material cost in an oversupplied market which also impacted overall EBITDA performance.
Overall, the business delivered a resilient quarter posting stable results despite a very challenging and dynamic market environment. We will now be happy to address any questions that you may have.
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press Star and one on the Touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press Star and two also. Before we begin a request to participants to please limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have follow up questions, we request you to rejoin the queue. We take the first question from Archit Joshi from nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Archit Joshi — Analyst
Good evening. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. So first question, I think when looking at our comments from the last maybe two or three quarters we have been continuously highlighting pricing pressure in most of the portfolios that we operate in. So is this supposed to be seen as price decline happening quarter after quarter sequentially? How transient would it be in your opinion if you can give your understanding on all three segments, specifically Pyridine B3 and in the acetyls business.
Deepak Jain
Thank you Archit, very relevant question and the answer there are nuances by business segment so let me just cover each one of them one by one. So if you look at our specialty business, particularly on the Prydin and its derivatives, the pricing pressure has come in the last two quarters and particularly let’s say second half of last calendar year and the real big impact of that has been on the last quarter results. As we just described the outlook going forward on that segment from at least our side, we are already seeing some uptick in pricing in certain derivatives and as you might be tracking, China has also announced some imperatives or some actions as part of their anti involution strategy which we are hoping will help in bringing the price back.
But we can already see some uptick so that’s on specialty. Similarly on the nutrition, particularly the vitamin B3 which is a derivative of pyridine value chain we see the similar impact. In fact in the last few days itself we have seen almost a 7 to 8% increase in price of vitamin B3 feed grade and we are hoping it will sustain in coming weeks. Acetyl is a different story. Where obviously it’s been it’s a commodity and hence it goes through its own cycles. The price has been deflated for last couple of years there was pressure and it had bottomed out as I explained in the last analyst call, also in the last quarter and since then if I look at the last two months particularly, we have seen already an uptick in acetic acid price which we are hoping will gradually start to translate into our acetic anhydride and methyl acetate prices as well.
So the different product categories are at different stages of the cycles. But one thing we can see we have bottomed out in the last six months or so. We haven’t seen any significant further decline in price. In fact in couple of areas we have only seen a marginal increase. So that’s why we are hopeful that going forward we should only have upside on the pricing front rather than any further decline across the segments.
Archit Joshi — Analyst
Sure. So thanks for that elaborate answer. So my second one, a slightly longer question given the data points from the presentation. So in the previous quarter we were speaking of around 1200 odd crores of net realizable value from, you know, few products that we had mentioned. I think that number has jumped to 1400 crores. So maybe an increase of 200 crores on the same lines even in the previous quarter and this quarter we are talking about this three and a half thousand crores of net realizable value from peak potential of some of these 100 plus products that we have mentioned.
So in line with that, if you can throw some light as to which application areas, which products, maybe the timeline in which we will be able to realize this benefit, would this be in cdmo because these are all products that we have been talking about for quite some time and quite keen to understand how our CDMO journey is going to be through these new initiatives that we have taken.
Deepak Jain
Yeah, good. Again good question Arshit. So let me try to address each of your points one by one. Number one, I think from a pipeline perspective we Talked about this 100 plus opportunities with a peak potential of about three and a half thousand crores. And I think in the last analyst also I explained that generally the peak potential takes at least at least three years if not more because it is linked to the pace at which the innovator are able to grow their volumes. And over demand is a derivative demand of that. So we hope that for most of these, once confirmed it will take at least three to four years to get to the peak demand.
Number two, what we announced in the last quarterly investor call was about 10 or 11 molecules with a peak potential of 1200 crores in last three months as you would have seen in today’s announcement. Also we have added another 5 molecules and the peak potential has reached almost 1400 crores. So that is a moving pipeline and we are getting the confirmation and of course we start counting revenues of those molecules as confirmed as soon as we get our samples are cleared and the customer starts giving us the first commercial order of these molecules. So all these 16 molecules and largely in the last 10 or 11 months of this fiscal year we have gotten our samples approved, the customer have given the first commercial orders, which also means even in this fiscal year we are seeing revenue and margins accruing to our overall PNL from these molecules and FY27 we will see a big jump because we have supply of contracts which will be scaling up pretty quickly.
And of course the real peak potential of these already confirmed molecules as I explained earlier, will take at least three years. Point three there is another 80 plus 80, 85 molecules. We are of course continuously pushing. Hopefully we’ll be able to expand the funnel by adding more opportunities. We’ll of course lose some as well. So it is a dynamic funnel funnel which we’ll keep working on and we are hoping as we, as we move along in coming quarters we’ll be able to announce more wins. So I think I, I covered all, all parts of your questions, Archit.
Deepak Jain
Yes. Yes sir. So just I want to. You also had a question, sorry, you also were asking about whether these are CDMO policies. So like I explained in last call also these are most of the molecules which are CDMO belong to CDMO and Fine Chemical part of our businesses. And in most of those situations we will have exclusive or semi exclusive kind of arrangement with the customers with specialty chemical kind of margins and you know, the EBITDA margins that we have in our specialty chemical business.
Archit Joshi — Analyst
Sure sir, understood. So just one more. If I just look at the total global landscape or rather the Indian landscape of the CDMO players that we have in India, I think there will be about two or three of them who are able to garner a critical scale and mass with regards to one product. So maybe crossing more than $50 million of revenues per year. And I think there’ll be only about two or three products which might be able to do that in the current scheme of things. And the potential that we are talking about is with 100 products for 3500 crores.
So if I take a simple average, each product does about 35 crores. So would our approach be as dilute as this much that you know, a product can do maybe somewhere between 50 to 100 crore stops at peak sales? Or do you think that there will be opportunities for us available in the agri space or the agri CDMO space for, for us to you know, garner similar kind of contracts that we have had. The one that we are going to commission in Q4, which is about $60 million or so. So sir, your thoughts on this to, to understand the ramp up in CDMO business for us in the next three to five years.
Deepak Jain
Again, very good question. Yeah, again a very good question Archit. I think what you talked about $50 million kind of opportunities, as you rightly said towards the end of your Question. Those kind of opportunities largely exist in agrochemical segment and there have been handful of such contracts in the Indian CDMO industry in the last few years and we are lucky to have one of them. Having said that, if you just step back and look at our portfolio and our capabilities, our business mix is roughly 30% pharma at an overall level I am saying not just specialty or CDMO, 30% is pharma about 20, 25%, agro 15 to 20%, nutrition, now increasingly consumer about 10% and some industrial.
So by nature our portfolio or at a fundamental level our portfolio is well diversified. What it means is we have access to customers across all these segments and invariably in each of these segments we’ll be working with most of the top 10 or top 20 customers because some of our products are going there. Moreover, we have 35 plus chemistries which cover a vast space of the products that new products that most of these customers will be working on. And hence when we are going and speaking to them and talking about first we have the relationship with them and second, when we present our capabilities to them, we are getting traction from them across these verticals.
And with that, now if you look at those hundred plus opportunities and while we have not disclosed the breakup of that publicly, the mix of opportunities in terms of numbers pretty much reflect the mix of our overall portfolio. Which means we have opportunities from agro, from industrials, from cosmetics, from nutrition and from pharma. And that’s why when you do the average math, while the average is coming out to be 30, 35 crores, there are opportunities which are worth hundreds of crores within that. And there are opportunities which could be even 5, 10 crores. Because if you look at the pharma opportunities or cosmetics opportunities, some of them will run into just 5, 10, 15 crores while the agro one could run into 100, 200 or even 500 crore as we have in our portfolio.
So it’s a spectrum. Given our strength, given our relationship with customers across these five key segments where we operate, we are able to get traction with the customers across the board and create the funnel. We have internally aligned ourselves to focus on each of these verticals. There are separate teams with the right kind of expertise and depth. Not just from a BD perspective but from R and D and technical capabilities perspective. From that we are able to provide the right kind of support and respond to these inquiries and which is reflected in the first 16 sins that we have announced so far.
Archit Joshi — Analyst
Understood sir. That’s quite elaborate. Thank you sir. And all the best. Thank you. Deepakjeep. Thanks.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from Abhijit Akela from Kotak Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Abhijit Akella — Analyst
Yeah, sorry. Good afternoon. Yeah, thank you so much for taking my questions first. Just on the, you know, Agrochemical Intermediate project which you’ve stated in your presentation is to be, you know, start deliveries in March. Is there some, you know, meaningful amount of business that we could expect this year itself in fiscal 26 and then do you expect it to scale up to full potential in 27 itself or will it take a little bit longer? And if I may just add on one related kind of extension to that question, Deepak would appreciate your outlook for how this year is going to end up overall in terms of maybe EBITDA or something and then what you’re expecting for next year as well.
Thank you.
Deepak Jain
Thank you, Abhijit. On the first question, we remain pretty much on track as we had announced at the time of signing this contract that by this quarter the plant will be ready. The good news is the plant is ready. We had our board, the whole board visiting the Bharuch site yesterday. We had our board meeting there. So we showcased not just that plant but the other infrastructure and plants that we have developed in Bharuch. And I’m happy to share that with all the investors and analysts that the board came back very happy with the progress we have made, not just on that plant but overall.
And the plant is already charged with the batch a few weeks back. And we are hoping that the first output, lot of output will come within this quarter, quantum wise. We’ll have to see because obviously it’s a complex molecule with multiple stages. We are trying our best to maximize the production within this quarter and we already have confirmation from the customer to start dispatching as soon as we are ready. So that remains on track. The contract and I think this question was asked. A couple of analysts call back. We get to full potential of the production as soon as we start.
That is the understanding with the customer. So far they have given us visibility for first few months, which is what we are gearing towards and planning to start supplies of that hopefully by mid and late March. This so as of now everything remains on track. The second part of the question, Abhijit, I think as you can see we have given a consistent EBITDA growth. Our business mix has been changing. We obviously last quarter there was some impact coming on the business because of pricing which I have explained in response to Architra. The pricing gradually seems to be coming back.
So we are hoping that if you take the average performance for this year, we will maintain that kind of run rate and we’ll continue to give the volume growth. The pricing as of now looks like we have hit the bottom and will see some recovery. So definitely this quarter should be better than the previous one in terms of both plan as well as whatever visibility we have right now.
Abhijit Akella — Analyst
Just to add to it, Deepak Varun here. Abhijee, if you see our nine months, we have delivered an 8% increase in the EBITDA overall and as Deepak mentioned for the full year we expect it to be higher than that.
Deepak Jain
Yeah. So if that gives you certain outlook for the quarter four.
Abhijit Akella — Analyst
No, thank you, that’s really helpful. And any thoughts, preliminary thoughts for fiscal 27 as well at this point or is it too early?
Deepak Jain
It’s too early, too early. But I think we have given a multi year guidance anyway in last year also that we hope to continue to grow if you take a multi year average, our EBITDA at least at 20%. So that’s the trajectory now, one particular year. There’s so many factors Abhijit, but that is the aspiration and that is what all of us are working towards.
Abhijit Akella — Analyst
So Abhijit, maybe in the next board call in the next week once we conclude we’ll be able to throw more light on the year after we have presented it to the board. Yeah.
Archit Joshi — Analyst
Sure, Perfect. Appreciate that. And just one last quick one from me. Any deferrals of any shipments that happened in this past quarter that may spill over into the next quarter.
Deepak Jain
There are always see portfolio is so wide and diversified. There are always some orders which move up and down based on the customer’s requirement and sometimes even let’s say the availability of ships. But there was no major change. But at the same time because there was some uncertainty, particularly in this FTA that was to be signed with us, which now is signed, couple of customers had slowed down the booking of our new orders which now obviously that now that the FTA signed and that uncertainty is gone, they are hoping those customers will go ahead and confirm the orders which anyway they had given the visibility of so no major movement.
But at the same time I am hoping that the pace of booking and the quantum of booking from some of the customers on the back of the two FTAs which have been signed in last couple of weeks will help us accelerate the momentum.
Abhijit Akella — Analyst
Thank you. Thank you so much and wish you all the best.
Deepak Jain
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Nitesh Dutt, from Anandrathi Institutional Equity. Please go ahead.
Nitesh Dhoot — Analyst
Yeah, good evening, Dean. Thank you for this opportunity. So my first question is on the CDMO part. So our CDMO customer has guided, you know, for continued pressure in its BPC dynamite portfolio and you know, modest volumes for CY26. So how does that translate into, you know, into the minimum of take commitments or the volume visibility for jubilant under this CDNO arrangement?
Deepak Jain
Ritesh, we never disclose the names of our CDNO molecules or customers publicly. So I will not be able to answer this question in the specific context of what you refer to. But as I mentioned in response to Abhijit’s question, our CDMO contracts and the delivery against what we have agreed with the customer stays on track and we don’t see any lack of visibility there, at least for the first few months. Even for the big contract. We have already gotten visibility from the customer and we are planning to start dispatching late March.
Nitesh Dhoot — Analyst
Sure. So in case of any resistance or any regulatory tightening in certain geographies, we are insulated contractually or does any of the volume risk sit partially with us?
Deepak Jain
As you would be aware, the typical construct in CDMO industries to have commitment from both sides for some minimum volume of take. So we have covered our risk by having similar arrangements with wherever we have invested heavily. So, and of course that is a typical nature of the CDMO industry, particularly on the agro side, as you know. So we, we have followed a similar norm and, and we are well covered there.
Nitesh Dhoot — Analyst
Sure. So just one last. On the, on the fta, on the India EU fta. So as I understand, I mean, on the US part, I believe there will not be too much of an incremental benefit, you know, from this reduction because we are not any which way impacted significantly. But on the EU trade deal, you know, I mean, which are the products, you know, the areas where we expect, you know, significant gains coming, coming through in terms of market share.
Archit Joshi — Analyst
Yeah, nitesh.
Deepak Jain
I think there is, of course, I’ll answer the direct impact of it. But as I was mentioning, because of the uncertainty created by particularly the US fta, some customers had become tentative even on the products which were not coming under any duty regime or tariff regime because there’s a long exemption list, as you know, in an extra 3. But the indirect impact, and that is true for both US and European FTAs is that we are hoping now customers the tentativeness will go and pace and the quantum of order booking will increase. In terms of direct impact, I think you’re right.
On the US in a call couple of quarterback. I clarified only 2% of the overall portfolio was getting directly impacted. Now that is gone and that will. We are hoping that with increased competitiveness we’ll be able to increase volumes there on the EU side. Also right now there is duty or tariff of about 6 to 7% for a bunch of our products like it is for China. As well as those duties go away next year, hopefully our level of competitiveness will increase which we are hoping to leverage to get some volume and hopefully even price upside down starting next year.
The exact quantum will depend on a case to case basis of course because in many of the customer or product categories we already have a very high share in those products. And one example by the way is Kolin, where as soon as we had a favorable tariff structure vis a vis the Chinese competition, overshare has already started to increase and we have started to book volumes in European market. So we are hoping a similar kind of upside will start to come once the EU FTA is executed, hopefully early next year.
Nitesh Dhoot — Analyst
Great sir, I think that’s, that’s very helpful. Thank you so much and all the best. I’ll get back into the qfi. Thank you.
Deepak Jain
Thank you Nitesh.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Siddharth Gadekar from Equirus. Please go ahead.
Siddharth Gadekar — Analyst
Hi sir. First, coming to the specialty chemical business, if you look at our EBITDA for the last five quarters, it has largely been range bound at 115 to 130 crores. Now can you quantify how much of this would be we had a positive volume gain and how much would be the negative pricing impact over the last five quarters?
Deepak Jain
Yes Siddharth, you’re right. I think as I was explaining in response to the first set of questions, the price of course has taken off or offset some of the volume growth that we have seen at an overall, if you take the last two years other than this quarter, I think our specialty chemical volumes have grown at least at 1012% every year. But what is also true is in the last six, seven months, particularly the pricing has come down which as I was explaining in our view has bottomed out and we have seen, seen already some uptick in price in some of the product categories.
So on the back of that we should hopefully be able to increase the absolute value as well. What you should also see is that our margin has remained at 25, 26% despite all the pressure which is coming from pricing, which has happened because of two reasons. One is, as we have been publicly announcing from time to time, we have taken a cost program couple of years back and that remains on track and we are actually still working on it. And even next year. For next year also we are putting together a similar program which we should be able to announce by next quarter.
At the same time the mix of our specialty chemical business is also improving because the share of fine chemicals and CDMO in specialty is increasing and those are high margin growth, diverse segments for us as we explained in last year investor call as well. So the hope is as soon as the pricing starts to come back you will see a meaningful jump in the absolute margins as well. While we still maintain the percentage EBITDA at least at 25% like we have done in the last five or six quarters. Quarters.
Siddharth Gadekar — Analyst
So basically I wanted to understand that because given we would have some cost savings also in this. So the pricing decline would have been much higher than the volume growth. Is that a fair understanding?
Deepak Jain
Yes, that’s. That’s right. For part. Part of the portfolio for specialty.
Siddharth Gadekar — Analyst
Yeah, specialty. Our volume growth and the mix is. Is higher than the price decline.
Archit Joshi — Analyst
Okay. For the first nine months of the year our. If I take it together to give you a more broader view. We have grown more than 10 double digit in volume and mix for the specialty. Yeah. And the pricing has gone back in the high single digits. That’s why our specialty has grown on a year to date basis which we have mentioned in our notes also. So answer to your question is pricing has come down but not ahead of the volume and mix.
Siddharth Gadekar — Analyst
Secondly, in terms of capacity utilization now from here on beyond the CDMO can you give some color in terms of capacity utilization or what kind of volume can we see going ahead also?
Deepak Jain
So if you just see Siddharth, we announced 2000 crore capex program three years back and all of that capex with this new CDMO plant that we are constructing in Baruch coming in would be deployed on the back of that 2,000 crore. We had expected about let’s say 3,000 crore of additional revenue on the base of 3,000, three and a half thousand crore we had a few years back. So of course there is some price deflation which has happened versus the projection we had at that time. So if you take that lens I think we are pretty much on track.
And most of the new capacity we have created including the one which we just are commissioning for the new agro project we run at around 50 odd percent capacity utilization. So we have enough growth room with the already invested assets which we are hoping a significant portion of that will get capitalized in FY27 because from the overall growth journey perspective which we shared with the market also FY27 is like a pivotal year in which a lot of that capacity we are hoping to fill on the back of both confirmed orders which we have announced as part of our pipeline, but also some of the new areas that we are working on.
Siddharth Gadekar — Analyst
Okay, got it. Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Avnish Berman from Zakaria. Please go ahead.
Avnish Burman — Analyst
Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my question. Deepak, this large agrochemical order that you have, I just wanted some color on the profitability. If I’m not mistaken in the last call you mentioned this is coming at. About 2025% EBITDA margin. I just wanted some understanding on. Typically when CDMO players are working with. Innovators, the margins are typically higher.
Deepak Jain
Why in this contract are the margins lower than what we typically see with some of the other players who are working with innovators? So Avnish, the first part of your question. As we have been consistently saying, every new project, every new capex that we take in our company, we keep at least a threshold margin of 20% EBITDA and ROCE of 20% plus. So the same is true for this project. Also I won’t be able to give the specific margins, but that will be north of that threshold for sure. To your second question, we need to just appreciate that this product is a generic product and obviously we have to.
Ultimately the key product principle behind a CDMO business is also to support the customer to be competitive in the market. So obviously we worked together on it and got to a point where it felt like a win win and hence we have the margin more broadly also, if you look at the agro segment within CDMO at margin for most players will be between 20 and 25%. Of course pharma operates closer to the 30% 25 to 30, 30% mark. But in agro CDMO segment, 20 to 25% margins are not bad, especially when the products are much bigger and give a step change kind of group to you.
Understood, thanks. The second question is more of a directional thing. I mean I’m referring to the presentation that you made last year. Your FY30 guidance for Specchem also kind of indicated a 25% margin which you have been maintaining in the last three quarters. Business seems to be stable at that margin. The growth from here on to FY30 seems to be driven more by fine chemicals and CDMO. And like you said, I mean that improves the business mix Then why is the guidance for FY30 not higher than 25 and the same as the current business mix right now, which has a.
Avnish Burman — Analyst
Larger proportion of, let’s say pnp.
Deepak Jain
Yeah, no. So I think in terms of mix, you’re right, Avnish, of course we made certain assumptions at that time. I do feel if we continue growing our fine chemicals and CDMO business at the pace, at what we see with the pipeline building up and particularly all the cost initiatives which we have taken, which by the way were not built into the five year projection when we shared those numbers last year, I think we should hopefully be able to do better than 25% in specialty chemical. But at the same time, right. FY30 is far away.
There’s so many factors which will have to positive and negative, which we may need to navigate through over the years. But I think I would put it more like an aspiration that we need at least 25% EBITDA in specialty chemicals, which is what we have been maintaining. And from whatever we can see, we should hopefully be able to do that quarter on quarter and year on year. We’ll of course try to do better than that with all the cost saving initiatives as well as some of the new projects that that we are working on.
Varun Gupta — President & Chief Financial Officer
Just to add to it. Avneesh, what Deepak just mentioned, we are also reinvesting it for the growth. Doing specialty chemicals remains the key focus area and there is an reinvestment of incremental margin that we go in building the capability both in R D and in our technical teams.
Siddharth Gadekar — Analyst
Right, Makes sense.
Deepak Jain
Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Gokul Maheshwari from Auriga Capital. Please go ahead.
Gokul Maheshwari — Analyst
Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on the nutrition in the health business. When do you start seeing the benefit of improving margins with the mix improving towards cosmetics and food moving away from the animal feed?
Deepak Jain
Yeah, so actually that has already started to happen. Implicitly of course that is not visible to you based on the public number, but because the impact of price decline in feed segment, which as you might know if you’re tracking us for a few years, is a very volatile market or security, the price decline in feed has kind of offset the positive impact coming from cosmetic and food segment growth which we are hoping that as we grow, continue to grow, the volumes of cosmetic and food relative to feed will become more and more prominent. And like I was explaining in the last few days itself, we have seen price uptake in feed as well, which we are hoping will help us anyway.
Counter the negative impact. So the combined impact of both of these should hopefully start reflecting in this quarter and definitely next quarter onwards. And just to give you a sense versus the peak volume we expected to get from the new plant that we commissioned last year, already we have reached almost 30, 35% of those volumes within the first year despite the fact that it takes some time for the the customers to approve the product. So we are hoping in FY27 we will scale up the utilization and the volumes coming out of that plant even further which will accelerate or help us in taking the margins up further.
Gokul Maheshwari — Analyst
Okay, and my second question on the large CDMO order which we start from March, is the product largely going to be sold in India or will be exported across the world?
Deepak Jain
We are making an intermediate and we’ll be sending it to the innovator. They will convert it into the final molecule and obviously they can send in any part of the world. That is their prerogative. But they have told us where we need to send the molecule where they will convert into the final. Yeah.
Gokul Maheshwari — Analyst
So it’s a largely an export order.
Deepak Jain
Our intermediate. Yes. Is an export. Yes.
Gokul Maheshwari — Analyst
Okay, great. And lastly just on the INR depreciation which has happened, does this really help us for where we have import substitution for certain products which helps in gas getting better pricing versus pricing which was benchmark to import pricing?
Deepak Jain
Yes, it does. Gokul. Obviously there’s been lot of volatility in rupee. So whenever rupee depreciates in the segments where we export a lot of products to outside markets and in import substitution segment it does help us increasing the price and we have marginally increased the price there as well. But our overall portfolio, if you look at, we are naturally hedged because we also import a lot of raw materials, particularly on our acetyl business and even in specialty. So we have a natural hedge within the P and L. So at the overall company level we are by and large agnostic to the rupee movement.
Gokul Maheshwari — Analyst
Okay, great. Thank you so much and all the best.
Deepak Jain
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Atishre Marhan from Abacus Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Atishray Malhan — Analyst
Hi, good evening. My question pertains to the agrochemical CDMO contract. So I believe in the last con call you had mentioned that the contract should start from about January onwards which has now been moved to March. Now I appreciate that it’s a very slight delay but if you could just help me understand the reasons behind it. Or is it just to do with the delivery schedule of the Innovator.
Deepak Jain
This I think we always maintain will start the production process, the plant in January. So which is what we did the first 5th of January. We did the puja at the plant and commissioned the first batch. It’s a complex multi stage product. So the whole cycle of producing, even the first kg of final product is at least a six to eight week process because it goes through the different stages. So there is no delay or delay of production or even. Or one placement of the order from the customer is just the process. And that’s why I said by mid March we are hoping we’ll get the first kg out and we’ll start shipments in March itself.
So couple of weeks here and there, but by and large it’s on track.
Atishray Malhan — Analyst
Okay, understood. Thanks. That was very clear. Thank you and good luck for the forthcoming quarters.
Deepak Jain
Thank you.
operator
Thank you very much. We’ll take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference back to the management team for closing comments.
Shyam S Bhartia — Chairman
Hi, Pavleen, this side. On behalf of the entire management team, we would like to thank you for joining the call today. We hope we’ve been able to answer your queries. For further clarification, I would request you to get in touch with me. Thank you once again for your interest in Jubilant Engraver limited.
Pavleen Taneja — Head of Investor Relations
Thank you very much on behalf of Jub Linden Greva limited. That concludes the conference. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect your lines.