Laxmi Organic Industries Ltd (NSE: LXCHEM) Q3 2025 Earnings Call dated Jan. 23, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Rajan Venkatesh — Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Mahadeo Karnik — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Nishant Dudhoria — Analyst
Rohit Modi — Analyst
Nitesh Dhoot — Analyst
Aditya Sen — Analyst
Siddhant Arsad — Analyst
Harsh Shah — Analyst
Virag — Analyst
Chetan Thacker — Analyst
V. P. Rajesh — Analyst
Shantanu Basu — Analyst
Devang — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 FY ’25 Earnings Conference Call of Laxmi Organic Industry Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchstone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr Nishant. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Nishant Dudhoria — Analyst
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the Q3 FY ’25 earnings conference call for Laxmi Organic Industries Limited. We have with us on the call Dr. Rajan Venkatesh, MD and CEO; Mr MahadeoKarnik, CFO. The company has uploaded its financial results and investor presentation on the company’s website and stock exchanges. I hope everybody had an opportunity to go through the same. We will begin the call with opening commentary by the management, followed by Q&A session. Before we begin, I’d like to point out that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements do not guarantee the future performance of the company and it may involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. I would now like to invite Dr. Rajan, MD and CEO for Laxmi Organic Industries Limited to give his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, Dr. Rajan.
Rajan Venkatesh — Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Nishant, and Namaskaram to all. Good morning, good evening and good afternoon depending on where you’re dialing-in from. Again, thank you for investing your time and joining our call. What I would like to do as always is break it down into three buckets, give you first an industry outlook, the — we are privileged to serve multiple industries to give you a lens of how those industries are evolving. The second bucket would be raw materials, how we see raw materials having evolved and potentially evolving and then coming closer to home and talking about some of the key levers of our excellent performance in-quarter three and also for the first-nine months of the year. Starting with the markets, so the key segments that we serve, as you know, encompass segments like pharma, agro, printing and packaging, flavors and fragrances, we are into coatings and a host of other segments what we position under our Industrial Solutions segment. So let me take that one-by-one very quickly. In pharma, from a demand lens, we continue to see quarter-on-quarter demand being stable. In the coating segment, again, we see stability in-demand in printing and packaging, also we see demand having been stable quarter two to quarter three and also moving into quarter-four. Fundamentally, you’ll have seasonality in some of these segments. So that’s nothing new that you are grappling with or navigating through. Then when we look at flavors and fragrances, we continue to see demand for our solutions and products being stable. The one segment where we continue to see weakness is the agro space. So that hopefully you know, which we believe will improve over a period of time, but taking a point in time view has not yet rebounded. So that gives you the first market, which is the customers and the markets that we have the privilege to serve. Second comes into the feedstocks and one of the primary feedstocks that is key to Laxmi is acetic acid. So if you look at it quarter — year-on-year, so quarter three of last year versus quarter three of this year, we have certainly seen acetic acid prices significantly moderating in the range of about 15%. So to give you more numbers out there, quarter three, the average price of acetic acid last quarter was around $450. And if you remember minorative there, there was an unplanned shutdown, which basically caused that big spike up in acetic acid prices across Asia-Pacific. And then what we say is basically now at this quarter, we are seeing quarter three, we saw average prices sort of moderating to the normalized levels closer to the $380 range. So it was range about to that extent moving into quarter-four as a result of the Chinese New Year, which is expected by the end of January, we are seeing larger producers scaling down their operations, but most of it is done in a very planned way. So we are not seeing any large spikes. While we are seeing moderate increases in pricing moving from the 380 to the 410 ranges, we are not expecting large spikes at this point in time and that is where we are also seeing now linked to our product, if you see ethyl acetate, we see that the spreads are — remain in the bottom quartile being a bit suppressed in that about $145 to $150 range. We are expecting some movement, but nothing large as compared to what we experienced in the previous time last year, yeah. So that gives you a view on the feedstocks. And now coming closer to home, what you really see is our diligent focus over the last quarters in operational excellence has yielded strong benefits on volume side on both our essentials and also specialty vertical. Specifically deep driving into our specialty vertical. What I called out in the last call, we had a turnaround in early October of the quarter. We really went into the last quarter building an inventory for that. That has really come to play very positively for us. The product mix and our continued, as I called out, operational excellence have — what has yielded us a better performance when you see year-on-year quarter, right? So that keeps us in a good stead. When we are really looking at our Essential segment, again, the operational excellence journey has yielded us positive dividends as we had called out also in the past. More importantly, we are able to position these products into the market because that is as important as getting output from assets. So we see strong volume growth. We are also in-line with our strategy. We are going deep. So we are strengthening our core operational excellency is the key measure, but we are also already launching newer products like I have shared with you and this is being very positively received in the market. And clearly, the objective of doing this, the strategic objective is ethyl acetate, which has been core in the way Lakshmi has developed over the years and which if you see the last FY ’24 accounted for 60% of Laxmi’s revenues with the strategy that we are envisaging, this number will come down to 40%. So clearly, we will continue to double-click on our strengths and at the same time broaden the offerings for our customers. If we look again, now we are at an interesting cusp when we look at the projects that we are executing at our Dahej site, we continue to remain on-track to receive the pending regulatory approvals and the project remains in schedule, on timelines and in budget. And at our Floro Intermediate site at Lote, thrilled to share that in-quarter four, as we have been really working very diligently towards it is where we are seeking about 10% of the peak revenues. And in the course of the next financial year, that is FY ’26, we target to have 40% to 60% of the peak revenues. So lot — in fact, all the key products that will contribute into FY ’26, we have successfully commercialized at our asset-base in Loti. So that is also positioning us well moving ahead. If we then also look at our other achievements that we have achieved in the quarter, we received a very good appreciation from the National Safety Council for the third consecutive year focusing on safety management. We also received together for sustainability — from a sustainability lens, we had a big step-up in the ratings. We’ve achieved a rating of 87%, our last rating was 67%. So that is again committing ourselves to our customers, to our stakeholders and for future growth that keeps us in good stead. We’ve had the other lens on my management team, we’ve had Dr Milin, whom I’ve introduced to you, managing now both the R&D and marketing roles, which is then enabling end-to-end steering from market to in-house and which will turbocharge, we believe our innovation pipeline for growth for specialty and Mr Pratik Singh joins us at the end of January as the new CHRO into the management team. All said and done, while I’m deeply grateful to the Lakshmi team for a very strong quarter three, we are also continuing to gear ourselves for closing the year with a profitable volume and EBITDA growth. With that, I hand it over to my friend now, Mahadeo, as he takes us through our performance.
Mahadeo Karnik — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Rajal. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. You know, I was talking to my team in and I used one word, which is what called as resilient. And I think we stand as a resilient team in this today’s dynamic environment and a challenging environment. And we have been able to demonstrate a predictable performance. Our performance that we called out in last quarter, we are in-line with that performance for this quarter. So let me take you through the synopsies of quarter three. In-quarter three, our sales grew at 13% year-on-year with a strong business volume growth in essential business of 18%. That’s driven by the operational excellence, mainly without any capex. Our specialty business, which is a very much high profitable business, has grown 29% due on account of improved mix. This has enabled in improving our gross margin by nearly 240 bps. As you can see, our EBITDA has now stable at around INR75 crores, which has grown around by INR53 crores, mainly coming out-of-the power and fuel, which is remaining same in-spite of the volumes increasing by nearly 17%. Though we have still seen the challenges in our freight costs, which have grown year-on-year by nearly 100% due to international issues, but still this is a resilient performer for us. So overall, we remain very much on the course for delivering the strong profitable volume growth. Our export performance continued to be good sequentially. As you can see from our presentation, it has improved to 36% of our overall sales and that helps in derisking our any currency risk for us. We are progressing well on Dahej projects and that the activities are on-schedule as well as in cost. So with that, I hand it over to Nishant for questions-and-answers for him.
Nishant Dudhoria — Analyst
Yeah, we will now begin with the Q&A session.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star N1 on the touchstone telephone. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Rohit from B&K Securities. Please go-ahead, sir.
Rohit Modi
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and good to see that the performance is stable sequentially and Y-o-Y there good growth. So first question is in terms of the demand environment, particularly in the exports market, given that sequentially there has been growth in exports. What are we seeing across different segments? I mean, you have given a flavor about stable demand across the segments. But what are we seeing during Q3 and the initial part of January, how has been the sentiment from the customers in the exports market? Thank you so much.
Rajan Venkatesh
Right. So, Rohit, first and foremost, congratulations on the new role and wishing you every success. Thank you for that question. As we have always stated for us now specifically in the specialty business, the export part of our opportunity is dependent to specific industries. The case industries that is coating, additive sealants and elastomer industry, primarily we are serving the needs of large MNCs and catering to demand, not domestically but in the Americas, Europe and even China. So that’s the area we continue to see where we see growth that which has also contributed to a certain extent to our exports. On our pigments that we are serving, it’s a blend of both domestic and exports. That is what we are serving. When we talk about pharma, again, a blend, so I think that’s how we are steering the entire specialty part. So the split what you see in our specialty part on an average has been 50-50 barring a few quarters that you have some swings. On the essentials part, which we make is a big chunk of our exports, specifically for quarter three and you heard that in the narrative from, given the large spike that we observed in freight costs from India into some of the key markets, specifically Europe here is where we have actually pulled back a bit from that. We have obviously had different other avenues where we have more products to, but to Europe, we have pulled back, but we are already in-quarter four now seeing some positive telltale signs of certain moderation in freight and that’s where the evaluation happens, whether we can start that opportunity again. We have tank operations both in Antwap and Genova and hence are considered more quote-unquote local supplier given our tank presence in that geography. Hope that gives you a line-of-sight over it.
Rohit Modi
Absolutely, sir. Thanks a lot. Second question on the. Again, you’ve reiterated that things have now started working in favor of us and we are likely to clock 10% of peak revenues that’s close to about INR20 odd crores. So what is your initial assessment in terms of the customer feedback? Are we able to supply the right quality of product with the specifications immediately or have there been multiple regiterations before the product is being approved by the customer? Just a flavor on this. Thank you.
Rajan Venkatesh
So Rohit, there again, we’ve been very transparent. So you remember our entire and I’ve been speaking about the phasing of our samples to our customers. I think one of the big positives from the assets while the project has had its challenges, which we have alluded to in the past, has been once we produce the product, we are getting them on-spec in-line with what Mitini was producing assets and this is then obviously in-line with the customer’s expectation. So that is what is giving us the comfort and that’s been the really diligent work that still continues that while 10% is only the start point and for us, we are really looking at the end game because we also see the entire Fluoro platform as a larger growth engine for us Laxmi. So-far so good. Now some of the challenges we have had is looking back-in the rear mirror and we are really looking ahead with the efforts and with our customer engagement.
Rohit Modi
Sure. Thanks a lot and the best. I’ll come back-in the queue.
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitesh from Dolat Capital. Please go-ahead, sir.
Nitesh Dhoot
Yeah, hi, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity. So my first question is despite 11% sequential increase in specialty revenue and a better product mix, you know what explains the drop-in the overall gross margins from 35.8% to 33.1%.
Mahadeo Karnik
Yeah. Let me take that. So sequentially our deep is 3% mainly on account of input cost reason, you know, that’s around contributed to 1.5%. So sequentially, if you look at 3% drop, let me explain you that first. That is getting offset by a saving in the transport and freight cost of nearly 1.2%. So a real, real decrease is 1.8%. Around a percent of that is contributing to the raw-material cost increase, mainly in acetic acid and alcohol. And the second is we have now exchange rate impact, which is kicking-in contributing to 0.3% and we had some damage cost that we had to pay one-time, which has impacted by nearly 0.4%. So that’s Mota Moti, the broad breakup.
Nitesh Dhoot
Okay. All right, sir. And sir, higher depreciation sequentially so like did we capitalize anything in the in the quarter or late in the previous quarter.
Mahadeo Karnik
So we have capitalized INR220 crore of the assets in Lote as Rajan has alluded to. So that’s the impact that is coming in depreciation sequentially?
Nitesh Dhoot
Okay. And sir, on the capex of — I mean, the INR1,100 crore outlay that we have, we target INR750 crores in FY ’25 and ’26 put together. So how much of the INR750 crore has already been spent in the first-nine months of FY ’25?
Rajan Venkatesh
So here,, so the INR1,100 crores, if you remember the conversations, INR800 crores of that is allocated specifically to Dahej. And the midpoint of expenditure will happen in the early next first-half of the next financial year. So that’s the big chunk of it. And then was a part of it was INR50 crores of that was still pending from our Lote project in the INR550 crores. Then we had announced as which was also nestled under there the INR90 crores for ethyl acetate, world-scale ethyl acetate that we will be setting up in Lote. So all of that is what is being baked-in there and a big chunk of the midpoint of expenditure will happen in the first-half of next financial.
Nitesh Dhoot
Sure. Thank you, sir. I’ll come back-in the queue.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya from Ropo Capital. Please go-ahead, sir.
Aditya Sen
Thank you. Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, in your opening speak, you mentioned that 40% to 60% of peak revenue should come by FY ’26. So what is this peak revenue that you are referring to? And is it considering all the 1,100 CapEx that we have planned to do?
Rajan Venkatesh
So, thanks for thanks for the question. So the 1,100 capex is beyond what primarily we had spent for our fluoro intermediate project. So that is not encompassed in there. That’s the first point. So as you — as I just explained to the other colleague, we said cost to complete for our project was INR550 crores. As it stands, INR500 crore was already spent. So only INR50 crores of that is actually bundled in the INR1,100 crores. That was your first point. The second one is the peak revenues that we are achieving from that asset-base is a peak revenue of INR200 crores. So when we say 40% to 60% of that, I think the match is clear. So the comment was only for the fluoro business of the peak revenues.
Aditya Sen
So from the fluoro on, we are expecting approximately INR200 crores of peak revenue, right? Yes. So what is the peak revenue that we are expecting from total of INR1,100 CR capex?
Rajan Venkatesh
So we are going to double our sales, correct from INR2,800 crores last year to FY ’28, so balance is from the capex.
Aditya Sen
And margins should settle around 10%, is that fair to assume?
Rajan Venkatesh
So here, the margin profile, I think is also something we have called out in our investor deck is for our essentials business for every dollar that we invest, we are looking at specific asset turns and also specifically, so this is all lined-up. So asset turns for Essentials 3x to 5x for every dollar invested, EBITDA of 8 to 12 and for specialties, one to two asset turns, EBITDA 20% to 25%, which then enables us to get the ROCE what we are targeting. So if you look at Slide 17, ’18, ’19 and in that part, you will get more granularity because we have also broken it down the capex overlay when it is happening and also the revenue and EBITDA impact. That would hopefully help you to get more clarity.
Aditya Sen
All right, sir. Understood. Thank you.
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you for your questions and interest.
Operator
Thank you. Participant who wish to ask question, please press star N1. The next question is from the line of Siddhant from RV Investment. Please go-ahead.
Siddhant Arsad
Okay. Thank you for the opportunity. I would like to ask based on the guidance you have given for FY ’28,
Rajan Venkatesh
I think we lost the colleague.
Operator
Yes, yes, sir. The current participant line got disconnected.
Rajan Venkatesh
Okay, all right.
Operator
If current participant line got disconnected, we will now move to the next question. The next question is from the line of Harsh from Axis Capital. Please go-ahead.
Harsh Shah
Yeah. Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, just wanted — so earlier you had mentioned that you had specialty pipeline of around 11 products. So now has there been any change in that pipeline or we are still at 11 products?
Rajan Venkatesh
So the pipeline continues to be strong and actually gets further revitalized. So in-line with what we had shared in the past, 60% of our new business pipeline is fluoro-heavy and 40% of that is other derivatives. So we continue to remain — keep that focus. And what we are really diligently working on is really towards commercializing, bringing in first and foremost the business cases and thereafter the capex to monetize on that, which is by the way, on-top of the INR1,100 crores that will be baked-in.
Harsh Shah
Okay. Okay. And sir, another question on the agro side. So you mentioned in your opening remark that with the agro continues to remain weak. So any expectation there and what portion of our shares you derive from that a chem segment?
Rajan Venkatesh
So if you see really the slide deck again, AgChem segment is only about 10% to 13% or in fact, even less than if you look at quarter three, it is less than 10% of our overall exposure. I think one thing, while there’s a lot of talk about agro, if you take a step-back, the big reflection is now if you want to launch a product from lab to scale and if you want to globally launch it, this is coming, if you speak to the large innovators, it is costing them anywhere close to $0.5 billion. The macro trends in agro certainly don’t change. And I believe there is only going to be a clutch of companies that really have the firepower to do that type of R&D and also launch the product. So I truly remain very confident in conversations with the innovators that it is a tough, but we will come through this and I think there would be further growth that would in a line-of-sight. The question is the timing and the geographies, the anticipation is hopefully that Europe and US come out of it faster and South America may take — maybe a slight lag.
Harsh Shah
Right. Right. And sir, another question on the — the exposure to China bit. So earlier it used to be the portion, but now you have increased — increased the share of revenues in China. So is this something structural so you expect revenue there to increase or is it just because the share of revenue from Europe has increased and temporarily you have leased products there?
Rajan Venkatesh
So China has been really a conscious bias, not an unconscious bias. And again, and this is the strength of the portfolio, we have been able to target a specific application base, which has enabled us to tap into that. And there are, I would say adjacencies that we would be working towards.
Harsh Shah
All right. That’s all from my side. Thank you.
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you for your interest.
Operator
Before we take the next question, I would like to remind participants to press star N1 to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Virag from Shah Investment. Please go-ahead.
Virag
Many, congratulations on the good performance. Sir, what is the current demand situation in the chemical market when you see — are you seeing any trends or results from being bottomed up from the last few quarters? Any colors on that side?
Rajan Venkatesh
So, again, thank you for the congratulations on the performance. I think let me take it into the. One is we have the essentials part of our portfolio. And therein we see the spreads for a lot of those products still being, I would say, in the bottom quartile. So we have not seen certainly a large rebound yet. That being said, the downstream market demand for these products, especially if you look at the Asia markets continues to grow. So that is a positive element. But given that in certain segments, we see supply being long and that’s why we believe and also feedstock prices, if you talk about acetic acid that I explained, is hovering around whatever 380 to 400. So there is more stability also on the feedstock side and that’s why we see the spreads being where they are. Now specialty is a different focus for us and focus the way we are steering it is obviously product portfolio and performance. So that is the way I would differentiate the two. But again to — at a macro-level to say that we are seeing a big rebound would be not the correct statement.
Virag
Understood. Good that there is some over there. Sir, one to follow-up. I can see that your volumes have grown in double-digits and also this EBITDA spread has improved significantly. Does that mean the realization of spreads have increased over-time?
Rajan Venkatesh
Your question is versus previous year, correct?
Virag
Yes.
Rajan Venkatesh
It’s — yeah, it’s mainly because versus previous year, the prices have come down. So that trade has increased.
Virag
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Rajan Venkatesh
And volume growth was driven by our operational excellence journey.
Virag
Understood. Thank you, sir, so much. Thank you. All the best.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Chetan from Ask Investment Manager. Please go-ahead.
Chetan Thacker
Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Yeah, hi. Sir, just two questions. First was on the Essentials portfolio, given the efficiencies that we’ve undertaken, is it fair to assume that whenever we see pricing there improve and spreads improve, structurally, we should see a higher OP per kg compared to what we used to see earlier in a normalized situation, which was around INR4 to INR5. So given what we’ve undertaken internally, whenever this improves structurally, there should be an improvement here.
Rajan Venkatesh
Clearly, as you see, if there is a firming up on feedstock side and supply-demand dynamics continue to be in favor, that would certainly be a positive lift up on, I would say, the spreads. And I would like to talk about spreads here because that’s where the juice is. You already see what Mahadeo also alluded to in our power costing and others, while we have grown volumes, we have actually kept that at bay and that is also alluding — really directly impacting from our operational excellence journey.
Chetan Thacker
Understood. And sir, second question is more from a capitalization perspective, the balance part of the Lote plant will get capitalized in Q4, that should be a fair expectation?
Rajan Venkatesh
Yeah, that’s what we are aiming for.
Chetan Thacker
And that quantum would be how much given what we’ve already capitalized.
Mahadeo Karnik
So that would be around INR140 crores.
Chetan Thacker
Okay. Sure, sir. Thank you so much. All the best. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants are requested to press RN1 to ask questions. The next question is from the line of V.P. Rajesh from Manyan Capital. Please go-ahead.
V. P. Rajesh
Hi, thanks for the opportunity and congratulations fantastic numbers. My question was that how are you assessing the tariffs that may be coming on first Feb? I think there have been noises around 25%. So I’m just trying to understand how will it impact our business both from the raw-material standpoint as well as the end-markets. And then the second question, well, maybe I’ll ask my second question after the first one.
Rajan Venkatesh
Okay. So thank you, Rajesh. Again, glad to have you. I think first is where are we sourcing our feedstocks from, right? A lot of our sourcing strategy has been primarily coming in Asia. So that should, I would say buffer any untoured element. Secondly, as I’ve called out in the past, also for the feedstocks, when you look at supply-demand dynamics, a lot of the key products tend to be long. So for example, acetic acid. So I am not anticipating at this point of time any knee-jerk reaction. Secondly, if you look again at our spread of customers that we are serving, yes, we do serve customers in US, but primarily these are large MNC innovator companies who tend to have different buying patterns with buy centers in Europe, which buys globally. So that’s where we see it. If you ask me from a point in time, how things will evolve, we’ll keep a close watch. In fact, I would see another lens if with him coming on-board, a lot of the conflicts in Middle-East and also what is happening in Europe, if that tends to sort of subside, that would also open up opportunities when you look at the freight rates, which have jumped up significantly. This could actually moderate to back to the pre-COVID rates and then that would also open up larger opportunities.
V. P. Rajesh
Got it. And then in terms of our CapEx plans that you have outlined in the debt, my question is that how are we tracking towards that? Is it anything you know, given sort of the past for? But over the last three, four quarters, are we still on-track or is there some more delay? And just wanted to get a sense of that.
Rajan Venkatesh
So two elements there, Rajesh, to dissect. One was our fluoro intermediates project, where we had called out very transparently that there was a delay on cost to complete was focused at INR550 crores. That clearly is under check now. The second lens is our new investments, which are bundled in the INR1,100 crores and a big chunk of that at our Dahej site. That as I already called out in my pre-statement, this remains on-track. We remain on-track to receive pending regulatory approvals, the project, the timelines and budget and scope remains on-track. We have also, if you remember, we set-up a very robust way of tracking this. So we have established under the leadership of our Chief Technology Officer, the entire projects team lap to scale, continuous improvements, new technology and project procurement is tiered under one clear leadership and one umbrella, which I believe is also helping us to get the transparency and tracking.
V. P. Rajesh
Got it. Thank you and all the best. That’s why thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shantanu from Smiths Limited. Please go-ahead.
Shantanu Basu
Hello. Can you hear me?
Rajan Venkatesh
Yeah, Shantanu.
Shantanu Basu
Yes, hi, sir. Sir, just wanted to know-how do we optimize on the power cost? I mean, how is it possible to keep power cost at a confidence level?
Rajan Venkatesh
So I think the operational excellence — the operational excellence journey is the key here, Shantanu. So for example, we produce ethyl acetate, one of our key products across multiple lines. So when we started-off the journey, the entire topic of the data analytics here was to gleam out which is the best-in-class off the lines that we are producing, can we take an internal lens and bring the other lines to be best-in-class? And that’s been a key journey wherein we have had significant improvements in our variable inputs and the costs moving going lower. And that is what is keeping us in a good stead when you see our performance at these numbers.
Shantanu Basu
I see, sir, but maybe I’m missing something, but just want to understand, I mean, I don’t understand the technicality, but I mean, if your production volume, for example, increase then logically your power cost should also increase, right?
Rajan Venkatesh
So most of — yeah. So let me give you more color onto that one. First is, if you are running and I’m giving a hypothetical example, if you are running an asset and you’re consuming whatever 100 kilos of steam to run that process, in your operational excellence journey, suddenly that 100 kilos boils down to 50, okay, right? So you’re already bringing in efficiency from that leds. So you are actually having a higher output potentially here and actually consuming less. So that’s why while you’re producing more, you’re not consuming the same amount of steam. So our power plants are cogen power plants. So that’s where the Fabound or the integration works in our favor. And the other topic is obviously, when you look at the cost of coal, because our cogent plants, the coal is a key building block, we have also seen the cost of coal moderating lower. So that is also working in our favor. So I think both of these effects, hopefully this gives you better clarity.
Shantanu Basu
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. Participants are requested to press RN1 to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Devang is an individual investor. Please go-ahead.
Devang
Good morning, sir. Good afternoon. So my first question is, regarding the fluoro Intermediate business, what could be the gross margin trend for the fluoro business?
Rajan Venkatesh
So, basically in our specialty block and that’s what we have called out, the focus remains that we deliver EBITDA of 20% to 25%. You have seen that also with our specialty performance. We have actually delivered above — slightly above that. So that is also true for our fluoro intermediates business that has been that ballpark.
Devang
Any — any insights for gross margin?
Rajan Venkatesh
We are steering at an EBITDA lens. So I would request you that if you can accept that.
Devang
Okay. Thank you. And the next question is any pricing change expected after Chinese New Year?
Rajan Venkatesh
Pricing change after Chinese New Year, I think looking at maybe acetic acid as key building block, what I shared with you in the last quarter, quarter three, we were having an average price of acetic acid in the range of about INR380 million which has gone down, which is slightly increased to about INR410. So post Chinese New Year, once those capacities come back online after the scheduled turnaround, you could see that sort of moderating. That’s the lens I would have.
Devang
Okay. And the last question is, will we — will the company be investing in the HF plant for backward integration for our fluoro business?
Rajan Venkatesh
Simple answer to that, no, Devang, we will not be doing it. We are not a large consumer of HF and we believe there is enough capacity out there to meet our demands competitively.
Devang
Okay. Thank you.
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohit from B&K Securities. Please go-ahead.
Rohit Modi
Yeah. Thanks for the follow-up. First question is on the fluoration project. So next year when we will reach about 40% to 60% of revenues, is it safe to assume that we will be able to garner the EBITDA margins in the range of 20% 25%?
Rajan Venkatesh
Yeah. That is what we are diligently working towards Rohit. So that’s going to be the important element for us because as we ramp-up is where you really understand all the moving parts coming to play, but the focus remains. And as I’ve called out, I think I just want to take a step-back. You know, we — why did we do this again? The thesis of why we have invested here is because we believe there is a longer runway for us as Laxmi in this space. And for every dollar that I invest more into this is what I will juice out. And in fact, I will try to work towards the higher range of the ranges that we have provided, both in asset turns and also EBITDA. So that’s where that’s where I would like to park it for now, Rohit.
Rohit Modi
Got it. Got it. Fair enough. Second question is on the capex. Just wanted to understand the split-up. So what I got from last call and this call is 1,100 crore total capex, INR800 Dahej, INR50 crores, which is incremental on fluoro on butyle acetate 90 90 and the remaining 70 is it for the N profile acetate?
Rajan Venkatesh
No, so Rohit again the hedge 800 includes the acetate then you have the 90 which is designated for the world-scale ethyl acetate. We had 50 from the fluoro intermediate project which was still pending, right? So those are your big movers and then you would have obviously at our existing sites where we have always done incremental capex is that is also built.
Rohit Modi
Got it. And the n propyne acetate?
Rajan Venkatesh
N propyl acetate is fundamentally a refurbishment of our existing asset bases. So this is done in a very smart, smart way.
Rohit Modi
Perfect, perfect. Got it. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participant, I now hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you. Again, thank you for all having joined in and invested your time. So I would like to conclude by saying we have continued our growth journey and delivered double-digit growth in volumes, revenues, EBITDA in-quarter three and nine months on a year-on-year basis, despite the prevailing operating environment and in the constantly evolving geopolitical backdrop and its consequences. This growth continues to be driven with our focus on operational excellence effort, capacity augmentation and customer-centricity. At our Fluoro Intermediate site, we are steadily changing gears and now our focus to generate revenues as explained. At our Dahej site, we continue to remain on-track to receive the pending regulatory approvals and the project remains in schedule, on timelines and in budget. Also, I’m glad to share that in-quarter three, Laxmi Organic received a credit rating upgrade from India rating and got rated by CRISIL rated /table/A1 positive. The recognition of our efforts on sustainability was validated with the rating on the Together for sustainability at 87%, which was a big jump-up and also by the National Safety Council for the third consecutive year. With all these efforts in play, we remain geared to win and geared for growth to achieve our laid out plans for FY ’28. I would like to share my deep appreciation to the whole Laxmi Organic team, our customers and all related stakeholders. Thank you and have a great day-ahead.
Operator
On behalf of Laxmi Organic Industry Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you