Laxmi Organic Industries Ltd (NSE: LXCHEM) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated May. 21, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Rajan Venkatesh — Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Mahadeo Karnik — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Rohit Nagraj — Analyst
Ankur — Analyst
Rohan Mehta — Analyst
Aryan Jain — Analyst
Yash Mehta — Analyst
Jigar Shah — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Q4 and FY ’25 Earnings Conference Call of Lakshmi Organic Industries Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing and zero on your touchstone phone.
Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr Tanay Shah. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. Thank you,. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the Q4 and FY ’25 earnings conference call for Laxmi Organic Industries Limited. On the call, we have with us Dr Rajan Venkatesh, MD and CEO; and Mr, CFO. The company has uploaded its financial results and investor presentation on the website as well as stock exchanges. We hope everyone has had the opportunity to go through the same. We will begin the call with some opening commentary from the management, followed by a question-and-answer session.
Before we begin, I’d like to point out that this conference call may contain certain 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 involves risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. I now hand over the call to Dr Venkatesh, MV and CEO.
Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Rajan Venkatesh — Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Thank you, Tanay. Namaskaram to all. Good morning, good evening and yeah, depending on — good afternoon, depending on where you’re dialing-in from, thank you for investing your time with us. So as always, taking you through the various buckets that we would like to share with you first is a very quick look into macro. Then coming closer to home, which is our industries that we are very proud to serve. Then comes the element of our raw materials, which are key building blocks across our value chains. And then I would like to take the opportunity to give an update on our ongoing projects as a status update
. So let me start with macro, certainly one of the more exciting times we are all living in with what’s going on globally and evolving on a day-to-day basis as we speak. I have — I have received this question multiple times. So I’ll put that first upfront. Lakshmi, in four to into the US, Lakshmi has an exposure of less than 10% of our sales at an enterprise-level and broadly, given that things are still fluid and evolving, we view that opportunity as neutral to positive. So that’s the first point.
The second lens also when we look at the chemical ecosystem, I don’t think — I must say, unfortunately, things have not developed negatively, but certainly also not positively. We continue to see the overcapacities in China continuing to play-out. Other geographies like Europe continues to be in pressure now when I’m talking about this, this is the overall chemical ecosystem I’m talking about, not specifically Lakshmi.
I want to clarify that our producers in Japan and Korea continue to be under pressure. Certainly, India continues to be one of the more brighter spots and North-America to a certain extent. So that’s where we see if you look at the global chemical ecosystem. Then if we come to the next point, our customer-base that we serve in industries, I would say most of the industries from a quarter-on-quarter basis, we continue to see the demand being stable.
So when I’m talking about these industries, be it pharma, printing and packaging, be it our pigments, be it industrial solutions, the one section that we continue to see weakness is agro. So it is not, I think at this point of time continues to be weak in our lens. We are also very thrilled with the new segments that we have entered into, I’ve called that out in the past. And you would have also seen the recent LOI that we signed with Hitachi Energy, which is again bringing us into a very different segment,
Which we are excited about. When we talk about raw materials and I call about two of them, which is acetic acid and ethanol, on a full-year basis, FY ’25 versus FY ’24, we have seen double-digit decline, so about 11% decline in pricing for acetic acid and for ethanol, it is in the range of 15%. So this is also what you see is getting reflected. Our prices are a little more softer, which is obviously linked more so more pronounced in essentials,
But also certainly does impact the specialty portfolio given that the overall feedstock environment continues to be a bit more softer and has declined on a full-year basis. Then comes to the ongoing projects. Our project at Dahej, what we say very proudly, where we have received the EC and the factory license.
So that project building on the continuous efforts of the whole team remains on-track with on timelines on in scope and on-budget. When we come to our other project, which was the one — the Fluoro intermediate setup at Lote, there again, we remain committed to what we had shared. In-quarter four, we saw the first positive commercial sales happening and the ambition continues to be that into FY ’26, we are around the 40% to 60% of the peak revenues that we have laid out for ourselves. Obviously, some softening on the pricing points have happened, but broadly that remains our focus area as we take our Projects. If we then look at our performance, clearly, what we have shown is strong volume growth in certainly a point in time and markets which have not growing at that pace. So a lot of credit, a lot of focus, a lot of diligence from our side. We have also actually maintained our contribution margins by playing the entire portfolio across Essentials and also specialties. So that is a very positive reflection. If I have to look at the full-year basis. Then when we look at the SG&A costs, we have certainly added in areas where we have committed that is when we’re looking at the newer plants and also the capability people linked to running these assets and running us as an enterprise-level, while all other costs is we have been very, very prudent and we have held that in-line. We’ve also been financially very disciplined. We have held the debt at very low levels despite the capex cycle that we are into. And that is what is all keeping me, I would say, giving me comfort that once we are now very well-equipped and we are well geared and as the cycles turn, we are also very well-positioned, A, to navigate the current point in time and B, also leverage the upside, which we have done in the past and we will continue to do in the future.With that, I’ll pass it on to Mahadev, where we can take us through the numbers in more granularity. One other element which I would like to call-out as things move across in one-product in our specialty portfolio, the end application which it is serving is — has got a regulatory phase through phase-out. This is what we had anticipated for quite some time now, but we have been diligently serving our customers and their markets thereby. But that is what we will see, I would say for — while we have a substitute already lined-up, in the interim, it will have some minor impact and some softness into our P&L. But we are completely geared for it. It is at a specialty level, it is less than 10% of our specialty basket. We knew saw this coming and — but we are leveraging it now. So with that, Madev, I’ll pass it on to you. And I’ll talk about our project with Hitachi at in my closing.
Mahadeo Karnik — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Rajan. So as this is a call for full-year as well as quarter-four, I would like to take you through first full-year and then I will touch upon the quarter-four. Year-on-year, our volume growth was 11%, that was it seems like the management’s line has got disconnected. Wait till I connect the management we have the management’s line connected with.
Rajan Venkatesh — Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Yeah. Good. So, why don’t you get started? We got disconnected as an opportune time.
Mahadeo Karnik — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you. Thank you, Rajan. So as this is a call for full-year as well as the quarter numbers, I will take you through first full-year and then Q3, the quarter-four numbers. Our volume growth has been 11%, specifically coming from our Execution excellence project, which we call at Lakshya that was on the back of a minimal capex.
Our gross margin, if you look at in this environment has improved by 218 bps, which is a testimony that we are controlling the cost of the product because the realizations, specifically in essentially business has gone down. In case of our employee cost, employee cost remains same as previous year. Again, the power and fuel remained same low percentage versus the sales, though the volumes have increased by 11%, the power and have just grown by nearly 2%.
Other expenses have grown-up by nearly INR59 crores, mainly out-of-the whole part of this is the sea freight cost that we have to incur. The sea freight this time has increased nearly by 60% year-on-year. Excluding sea freight, the other costs remain exactly flat. So overall, EBITDA, we are at 9.4% versus 9%. Again, we are having an operating leverage in these movements. Other income remaining flat. The depreciation has started to increase now because we have capitalized the assets.
Finance cost has increased, finance cost has increased mainly because of the term-loan that we have taken as well as the buyer credit that we have taken and the GST interest that is getting accounted at this line. The tax — effective tax-rate nearly remains same as last year. So overall, the PAT remains at 3.8% versus 4.22%.
For the quarter, the volume have grown by 1%. The gross margin has reduced and now I will take you through two major levers that where are impacting this comparison versus previous year same quarter. In last year, same quarter, the essential price realization and margin realization was much higher and highest in the quarter of last year FY ’24, mainly on account of sudden shutdown of one of the suppliers. So that has not happened at this time.
So the margins are at a stable level. That’s why you can see a dip of gross margin from 35.6% in-quarter four ’24 to 34.6% in-quarter four ’25. We have also one-time impact of the assets that we have sold at a loss because are not in use of nearly INR68 million, which means that the EBITDA — adjusted EBITDA for the quarter is INR590 million versus INR900 million in previous year. The INR900 million excludes the — includes the one-time impact of the loss of profit claim that we received of INR10 crores. So overall, if you adjust the EBITDA like-to-like or excluding one-time costs, the EBITDA is at 9.3% versus 10.2% of last year. The depreciation again has increased from INR39 crores from INR30 crores to INR39 crores. The tax, we have one-time — we have a credit of nearly INR85 million. This is mainly coming off because of the merger with got announced and all the financials got restated for consolidated numbers. As YFCPL was tax earlier at 17%, now it is effectively taxed at nearly 36%. That’s why all the depreciation and the current year losses are the creating a deferred tax asset. So that is creating a one-time tax credit of INR85 million in this year. So overall, PAT margin remains at 3.1% versus 5.7%. On a business level, overall, the EBITDA of essential is at 3% and specialty is at 23%. The working capital remained very robust at 24 days versus 11 days of last year, 11 days of last year was because of a one-time blip in the extended credit on alcohol consignments, which has now normalized, so which we have now got the working capital days at 24. Our term loans have reduced from INR90 crores to nearly INR42 crores in this year. So we are looking at, you know-how we can be efficient in prior financing, how we can be efficient in our working capital and how efficient we can be on the project tracking and on cost. So that’s with that I will end-up my summaries here and Tanai over to you
Rajan Venkatesh — Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Sorry, yes, we can we can now. I’m sure we can start the Q&A session
Operator
Thank you very much. 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 remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Thank you. The first question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from B&K Securities. Please proceed.
Questions and Answers:
Rohit Nagraj
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, first question is on the LOI that we have signed with Energy. So if you can give just more details about what is the arrangement, what is the technology here, who is — whether there is a technology transfer and generally what is the size of the market we are looking at and when we will start you know, probably commercializing the product and getting the revenues. Thank you.
Rajan Venkatesh
That question, Rohit, you seem to be as excited as we are on signing-up this LOI. So I think let me just structurally explain it to you, we have signed the LOI. And as we speak now, we are in the next phase of detailing the contracts or signing — sticking the boxes and we want to pin down the moving parts. Thereafter is where we will go to our Board and seek final approvals.
And then thereafter, I’m very excited to share far more details in the granularity that you saw. So please bear with us. But what is important to call-out here for us is one is again a testimony to what we started-off like in our journey when we started with our fluorination journey, we said this is a platform we want to begin with. It’s a start point,
Not the endpoint. And I think this is now testimony the second time around, we already had one large MNC who collaborated with us in the past, which we have called out. And now this is the next big pivot that we are making. This is obviously, as you’ve seen, bringing us into an interesting new segment of power transmission and generation and transmission.
So I think that is what we are excited about and I am certainly will share the details as soon as I am privy to with you and the overall audience. So kindly bear with us.
Rohit Nagraj
Sure. Just one clarification. As of today, this market is served by Hitachi or is it a new market that will be developed once the tech transfer happens, happens. So broadly, Hitachi continues to be the market-leader by now.
Rajan Venkatesh
Yeah. Hitachi is the market-leader by far in this segment. So we are now collaborating with the leader. The — this product is primarily being sourced by them from China and this is a unique opportunity that brings in the mix.
Rohit Nagraj
A. That’s really helpful and a bit more details on the same. Second question on the front, so we have depicted in our slides that by FY ’27, we’ll be able to reach the peak potential of maybe close to about INR200 plus-minus crores. So are there any other projects that we are working on given that we — I understand we still have the team Miteni in Italy working with us.
And just a clarification on the same that we will be continuing with the R&D setups in Italy or are there any plans of for shifting it to India and probably kind of vacating that space there?
Rajan Venkatesh
So Rohit, again, thank you for the question. As we have clarified in the past, Rohit, we have no team today in Italy. The whole thing is absorbed within Lakshmi. We also recently-announced the opening of a brand-new innovation center that is where a lot of that technology is in India. So it becomes Lakshmi’s global innovation center in Navi Mumbai for the world and there is no team in Italy who are working with us.
Rohit Nagraj
Yeah, got that. Just clarification on this. In terms of any liabilities from the Italy plant, so we don’t have any connection to Italy whatsoever right now given that everything is being transferred to India. Is that the right way to looking at it? Yes. And on the new projects that we are working on the fluorination schemes, which user segments we are targeting?
Rajan Venkatesh
So as we have also said, the methany brings us a certain range of products and portfolio for the legacy. So that is serving the range of industries that today we are already very active in, be it in the agro, be it in the pharma space, be it in industrial solutions. And obviously, we are leveraging it into newer segments and the recent LOIs in a case in point.
Rohit Nagraj
Sure. Thanks a lot and all the best, sir. All the best.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankur from Axis. Please proceed.
Ankur
Yeah, hi, Rajan. Thanks for the opportunity. First question on the side. So now R&D team is relocated here and we had a set of portfolio with us from. Your thoughts in terms of, one, the ramp-up in the existing products that we’re working on? And secondly, the newer ones on which we were working. And when you are giving a guidance of full revenue ramp-up by FY ’27, we have some NOIs, some business contracts already signed-up or you know some visibility over there?
Rajan Venkatesh
Yeah, hey, Ankur, thank you for your question. So again, let me go back to the thesis, right, of what we have always maintained. Mitani, legacy Mitani and I like to Call-IT legacy because it is now came in with a technology platform base. Electrochemical fluorination being one part of the technology platform.
And that is what we are continuing to leverage both the electrochemical fluorination, part of what we had acquired and the other parts of that technology platform to A, build-on the existing portfolio that Mitini had and B, leverage that into the newer segments and again a case in point, what we have now just signed with Hitachi. Even prior to that, building on that adjacency was with another MNC that we had collaborated. So we are — so to be very precise to your question, the baseline is building on what we had — the majority of the baseline is building of what we had acquired and we are building off that?
Ankur
Sure. And from revenue — the second part, from the revenue ramp-up point-of-view, what gives — what gives us the confidence and the visibility of ramp-up in the next two years. So one is, if you look from a market lens in our assessment, certainly, the demand is certainly
Rajan Venkatesh
Higher than supply. So that’s a positive going-in positioning. We have also invested the last two years even more diligently to bring this entire asset to the level of comfort where we need to be and also where our customers are and that is what is now giving us the comfort as we move into FY ’26 and beyond to actually leverage this overall platform steadily
Ankur
Sure, Rajan. So will it be fair to say that we’ll have decent visibility on this revenue ramp-up there given our discussion with our global customers?
Rajan Venkatesh
Absolutely.
Ankur
Okay, great. Just you know, just a clarification, the new contract that — sorry, LOI that we are signing-up with Hitachi. Will this be made in the same premises as Nitini or there is an incremental capex requirement for that?
Rajan Venkatesh
Yeah. So this would be in anything fluorine, as we have also stated in the past, we have — we called it out that we had already overinvested in IOU from a line-of-sight of future expansion. That is what we are leveraging in. So it will be in our complex and there will be — obviously we will bake in wherever there are synergies feasible.
Ankur
Okay, cool. Secondly, on the full-year basis, we highlighted 11% odd volume growth. The spectrum revenues is up some 14-odd percent. If you can help break-up the volume growth specifically for specialty chemicals?
Mahadeo Karnik
Yeah so the specialty chemicals volume growth year-on-year is 7%.
Ankur
Okay. So there is a pricing improvement that we have seen in the specs — the specialty part of it.
Rajan Venkatesh
Yes, yes. Okay. And finally, the product mix, the portfolio, I think that’s been our strength that we’ve been calling out consistently in the diet derivative space today as we speak, even on a global lens, Lakshmi has the largest derivative portfolio and that is what we are consistently leveraging upon.
Ankur
Sure. And there were a couple of projects — projects that we are working on. Have they been ramped-up fully? And how do you see the growth outlook there in the business over the next two to three years?
Mahadeo Karnik
Okay. So Ankur, broadly again calling it out at a macro-level, we continue to see at least with the customer-base that we are engaged that agro still from a demand lens continues to be under pressure. So that’s the first point. I think specific projects, if you can be more specific, then I can answer, but broadly the projects that we are today already engaged in, we are well-entrenched with our customer-base. I would not at this point of time add anything or subtract anything from that. Okay, no problem. And from contribution here, that still will be a majority part of the specialty, right?
Ankur
Yes. No, if you really look at it also and this is considered and this is also shown into our chart,
Rajan Venkatesh
The agro as a part of our whole portfolio at an enterprise-level is less than 10%. And also within the specialties, this has been also very well entrance that our specialty downstream now, primarily it is our dieting derivatives is very well hedged across the industries that we are serving. And in fact, we are also entering newer industries like I called out last-time around, like personal care and others.
Ankur
Yeah. Okay, great. And just last bit. You know from a — while there is detail on the gross margin mix between the two segments, we had been sharing EBITDA mix there. So if you can help with the full-year of EBITDA margin or EBITDA contribution better for the two segments.
Mahadeo Karnik
So EBITDA contributor margin for specialty is 23%, EBITDA margin for specialty — sorry, essentially 3% on full-year basis.
Ankur
Okay. Great. Thank you and all the best. That’s it from my side, sir.
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. Before I take the next question, I would like to remind participants that you may press star in one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Rohan Mehta from Family Office. Please proceed.
Rohan Mehta
Hello, sir. Am I audible?
Rajan Venkatesh
Yes, you are Rohan.
Rohan Mehta
Perfect. Thank you so much for the opportunity. So in your initial address, I just wanted to clarify, so how have the acetic acid prices they’ve trended over the past month and what are the current spot prices versus what they were a month back? That would be the first one. And also if you could provide some color on the current spreads for ethane acety
Rajan Venkatesh
So okay, our acetic acid, the first is, again, let me take a step-back. So on a year-on-year basis, on a full-year basis, we have seen acetic acid prices decline in the range of 11%. So in FY ’24 on an average, it was about 450 on an FY ’25 average, it was about INR400. So as we speak now, we were — we exited sort of quarter-four in that similar ballpark of about 395 to 400. And I think that is where we are. Obviously, as we have also called out in the past, from a supply-demand side for acetic acid,
There is more supply than what demand curtails. So we continue to see some more softening anticipated into the acetic acid prices into obviously quarter one. That is where we have the line-of-sight at this point of time. When we talk about your second part of the question on the ethyl acetate spreads, we’ve also dwelled into that in the past. If you take-out the COVID speaks, the average spread over a 13-year period,
Whatever you take 10 to 13-year period should be over acetic acid and ethanol at a spread should be around $225 per metric ton. What we observed in the last quarter and that’s why we say today the spreads are far more subdued, has been in the range about for $140 to $150. Obviously, depending on certain aberrations, it could go down another $10 to $15, but that’s the range what we are expecting. And that’s why we say today we see our essentials portfolio and especially ethyl acetate in the bottom quartile.
But that being said, you see the leverage that we have. We have been able to grow market-share and we believe we have a good cost positioning to win. And as things move across upward, we are well-positioned. Sure, sure. Thanks for the clarification, sir. And on the, I believe there were some peers who have shut-down capacity last quarter or two so. Has there been any more capacity shutdowns in Q4, Q4? No, I think nothing that has been official, especially outside India,
I think you are referring to the announcement from that they made. And I think that is progressing as we understand from the market from today’s perspective. And the other players, I think we see them off and on. So at this point of time, no other official announcement that we are aware of apart from the one you called out in-quarter four
Rohan Mehta
Right, right. And lastly, sir, on the acidic anhydride, could you expend what the current spreads are?
Rajan Venkatesh
Acid again, anhydride is I think a much smaller part of our portfolio. Certainly, it would be fair to say there, again, we are continuing to see that the margins are under pressure as compared given that the downstream paracetamol, and you’ve heard that from the largest player in the acetic anhydride space calling that out. So it is no different for us from that lens, but we are a much smaller player in that space.
Rohan Mehta
Sure, sure, sir. Thank you so much for patiently answering my question and wishing you all the best.
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arian Jain from Lotus Wealth. Please proceed.
Aryan Jain
Thank you for the opportunity. You mentioned in one of the slides that we have a roadmap to achieve 20% ROCE by the year 2028. So what’s the goal — what’s the growth plan to achieve this number? And do you think there are some risks involved associated with this number?
Rajan Venkatesh
So Arian, thank you for the question. Again, so let me call that out. One is we have our essentials part of the business, as we have said, it is a cyclic business. And at this point of time, listening to the narrative that I was sharing with the previous caller, we are today in the bottom of the cycle. The margin assumptions Assumptions we have made is over a cycle and we remain very, very well-positioned to leverage once things pivot. And you already see certain producers actually announcing shutdown. So we will see given that the bottom of the cycle, as long as it prolongs, we will certainly see other producers also feeling the pressure, but we are well-positioned. So that’s one part of the puzzle that you need to understand when we look at our essentials basket. It’s not a point in time, it is over the cycle. In our specialty space, our ambition has been also very clear that we need to maintain EBITDA ranges of 20% to 25% independent of the cycle. As you saw also in our performance in FY ’24 where we closed out about 24%, Mahade have just said where we closed our 23%, I think we continue to be strongly positioned and are diligently working towards in that direction. What could be risks? Clearly from this side, obviously, the softening you would see on the raw materials is something I called out, but that could — that could be a double positive. So when things also pivot, we are well-positioned to leverage because we are also investing in the current down-cycle. So that’s the way I would view it, Arian. Just had a follow-up regarding this.
Aryan Jain
We actually have a margin of about, I think so 10% to 8% to 12%. And for us to achieve that number, we have to essentially double our revenues, maybe triple our EBITDA. So do you think like this number is actually sustainable given the margins that we have.
Rajan Venkatesh
So as I again said, the margins are twofold. One is, if you look at our Essentials business is over the cycle and we are in the bottom of the cycle. In the specialty business, we have continued to maintain our EBITDA ranges despite of the market backdrop that we are operating in. Thirdly, we are in an investment mode. So our volumes will increase by 1.7 times versus where we closed out in FY ’24. We have also called that out.
So it is not going to be simply achieved from the current baseline. There is an investment which is going-in. We will also be doubling our capability of the KT and die derivatives space. So all of that is what is going to play — come into play for us to be on-track with our ambition
Aryan Jain
Wonderful, wonderful. And just to confirm, our capacities that are going to be doubled in and products, they’re going to be at the Dahej plant, if I’m not on.
Rajan Venkatesh
Yes. The derivatives would be at our Dahej site, the expansion that we are doing for our ethyl acetate is at our low site. Wonderful. Thanks a lot. Thanks for answering my questions patiently.
Aryan Jain
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. MR. The next question is from the line of Please proceed.
Yash Mehta
Thank you for the opportunity. If there was a question by the — by one of the previous participants on volume growth. Sir, you mentioned 11% volume growth for the full-year. You mentioned that specialty is 7%. So is there a — is it a fair to say that assetized would have grown at 13% odd, 13% 14 odd percent volume growth for the full-year. Y
Rajan Venkatesh
Yeah, you are correct. And only one — not one suggestion. It is essential while is the older term, we Call-IT essential.
Yash Mehta
So my bad, my bad. So what would be the growth third — sorry, just to clarify, for the full-year,
Rajan Venkatesh
12.5%.
Yash Mehta
Understood. And for the quarter, it would be helpful to understand that there was a 10% odd decline. Is that largely volume-driven or there was a fair amount of pricing — pricing fall as well.
Rajan Venkatesh
So the volume has declined by a percent the rest is price fall. But you know in the last year the prices were quite you know exceptionally higher because of shutdown, underlying shutdown of one of our suppliers. So it may not be a right parameter to check that is specifically in residential business.
Yash Mehta
Understood, understood. So business like our volumes is broadly flat, only driven Y-o-Y pricing spike that happened last year. Okay. And on — and in terms of the product mix, it seems that this year was one of the first years where we had introduced a lot of new products in this essentials business as well.
Rajan Venkatesh
Yeah so where are you leading with the question?
Yash Mehta
What I was trying to understand is, was there a negative price-mix, price-mix because since new products get added, what would be the share of ethyl acetate within them? And has that changed over the last one year that is driving the 9% what price-mix — negative price-mix, price-mix?
Rajan Venkatesh
No. So in fact, the one of the key products that we introduced was n propyl acetate. So there is no negative price-mix in that, Yash. In our strategic timeline, we are also very clear that we need to find a good hedge to ethyl acetate. So if you look at FY ’24, ethyl acetate as part of our essentials basket was contributing 85% to our essentials basket and the ambition that we have is in that FY ’28 time horizon to bring this down to almost to 65%.
So I think that’s a conscious effort from our side. We are also looking at products which are primarily import substitute and propyl acetate is a case in point. Butyl acetate, what we called out about two quarters back is the case in point. I think that is also bringing in resilience to our customers in India in today’s, I would say trade backdrop.
Yash Mehta
Got it. So today, Ital would be much lower than in. It would be in that 80-ish range, early 80s range. Got it. And sir, the other question that I had was, as far as low-tech complex is concerned, we have already reached 40% 60% utilization, is it fair to suggest that the site has achieved cash breakeven at these levels on a monthly basis at least?
Rajan Venkatesh
So the first is, we’ve not achieved 40%. So quarter-four was the first, as we called out also if you see in the — in our chart is where we started commercial sales from our setup and the cash breakeven question that you have, this will happen in this financial year. So the target remains about close to 40% to 60% of our peak revenues and the cash breakeven will happen this year.
Yash Mehta
It will be helpful to kind of call-out the additional spends that are happening at the particular site today, like in terms of maybe operating drag, just to understand the EBITDA margins better, nothing — no other reason.
Rajan Venkatesh
We are happy to understand the granularity that you seek, we can follow-up with Madev offline. That’s what I would recommend, Yash, if it’s okay with sir.
Yash Mehta
Thank you very much. All the best. All the best.
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jigar Shah from Elevate Research. Please proceed.
Jigar Shah
Yeah, good afternoon, sir. Sir, so firstly, just wanted to get a sense on the rationale of investing additional capital in Ital asset given that is a segment where we are dependent on external factors for pricing and also there are overcapacities already because even if overcapacities go away, there will be sufficient supply to cater to the demand, right?.
Rajan Venkatesh
So,, thanks for that question. So our thesis has been always the same that whatever we do to win in our essentials basket, we need to look at economies of scale. And what this investment does, it is providing us economies of scale. A 70 single-line technology, we would be the first plant in India providing that economies of scale.
Our markets for ethyl acetate continue to grow. So one needs to get a little more granular into what is that while you talk about supply-demand being at a certain level, I think one needs to also understand what is utilization and where are the other competitors on the cost curve. And that is the granularity that we have done.
Even if you saw it in the course of this year and last year, the fungibility that we are able to bring in into our market-share domestically is, I think also a testimony to the way we are also steering our entire back-end and front-end. So that is what is giving us the comfort. As you have to also Call-IT out in-quarter four, there has been announcement of players like deciding to move-out. And so I think we will see how things evolve, but we remain confident that we are the leader in this portfolio.
And we have reached the bottom of the cycle. So we are well leveraged to sort of — as things move further, we are very well-positioned.
Jigar Shah
Okay, understood. Secondly, sir, when do we expect to commission the Dahej plant? And when do we — when do the revenue start to flow-in?
Rajan Venkatesh
So thus the second-half of this year is what we are looking at, the mechanical completion, chemical charging all happening at our Dahej facility and we will be more granular closer to that commissioning period.
Jigar Shah
Okay. Okay. And lastly, sir, on a consolidated basis, I mean, given all the dynamics coming into play, we should probably get to our FY ’20 targets, right, right?
Rajan Venkatesh
We are very diligently working towards it rigger, but again to — the previous caller called out, obviously, today, we will continue to be in the bottom of the cycle when we talk about our essentials business. So we have always viewed this over the cycle, not at a point in time. And also we are seeing some softening in the feedstock, which is obviously also in our specialty business taking down our revenues, but we are very diligently as also Madev called out, looking at other levers, not just hoping that things will evolve, but playing to our strength and navigating through.
Jigar Shah
Got it, thank you. Thank you very much.
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you, Jigal.
Rohit Nagraj
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from B&K Securities. Please proceed. Thanks for the follow-up. Sir, this year we had exports of about 36%. What would be the composition in terms of specialties and essentials? And in FY ’28, when we are targeting 2x of revenues, how much would be the export contribution? And again, what will be the split between essentials and specialties?
Rajan Venkatesh
Thank you. So Rohit, I think what is important to note is that exports will continue to be one important lever as we are steering our portfolio. So in our essentials part, we have a range of — we’ve been in the range of 70% to 75% domestic and somewhere between 25% to 30% of exports. Obviously, it also depends on the price arbitrage, the way we steer it. For our specialty part of the portfolio on a rule of thumbs, 50% is domestic, 50% is exports.
And also this is driven by the customer mix that we are serving. So I think that remains the key focus rather than talking about it, it has to be specific to the business unit that we are and the portfolio that we are steering. Now that you bought the export questions, you get a great segue to also bring to the people’s attention that we are doubling down on two regions. So we have built-in capability in China.
And I think we have — you see also my leadership team chart, Lydia Wang joins us as the Head of China and we have also built-in capability in Europe with Mustafa coming in as the Head of Essentials and also Head of LOBB. And we have another colleague, Pascal, who then supports our specialty business. So we are also building in competence and capability in these regions to tap those opportunities there.
Jigar Shah
Sure. That’s really helpful. Second question on the numbers. So we have total capex, which is about INR1,100 crores and the large part of that is expected to happen in 1H FY ’26. So first question on that in terms of funding, how are we looking at on the debt-equity front? And second thing, when the entire capex is complete, what is the peak debt that we are looking at?
Rajan Venkatesh
Okay. So, Rohit, I — I look at around INR30 and INR350 crore of term-loan maximum, which I will pay-off by say FY ’27-28 so debt-equity at peak would be around 0.23 or 0.30, not more than that.
Rohit Nagraj
Got it. Thanks and all the best.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, we will take the last question from the line of Chetan Doshi from Tulsi Capital. Please proceed.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you for giving me the opportunity and congratulations for the new tie-up with Vitachi. One question is regarding the plant, you said in the second-half, you plan to commission the plant on phased manner. So in the current year, how much turnover do you expect to-end up in the March ’26?
Unidentified Participant
And are you planning to dilut the equity because again this new tie-up with Hitachi will require a lot of funds. So my question is on this better. Would you like — will be diluting the equity in near-future or we will continue with the internal macro. So, let me answer the second part first. We are not going to dilute equity. We’ve been very prudent. You currently see our debt-to-equity and Madhev just called out what would be at peak. So I think we are very, very cognizant, very prudent and very well-funded in that lens, right?
Rajan Venkatesh
We have not called out specifically normally as you have new investments coming with your experience, I hope you understand it takes a certain period to ramp-up. So that’s why in the second-half of this year is where we will see our Dahej project mechanical completion and chemical charging happening across most of the assets and then the ramp-up would take obviously as a qualification step because for certain of these products, the customers will need to qualify the supply point. So there is a qualification step. So we are really looking at the ramp-up starting into FY ’27 and ’28. Just last question. So you expect that the profits of the company will be on the right because we are not planning to dilute the equity. And I think the main focus will be on the specialties rather than essential. We are basically playing the strengths of our portfolio here, Chetan. So if you see where we closed out FY ’24, we had a good blend between our essential to specialty business. The focus in our Essentials business is to continue to diversify from ethyl acetate and offer a range of products which is today imports — imported into India and support our customers in our specialty vertical is to double-click on our dial downstream and be globally top three in the world, including China and obviously then also leveraging our setup. So that’s the way we are entirely steering the business the plan.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Rajan Venkatesh
So thank you all for your interest and thank you for joining. So let me conclude by saying a few things. One is, and this is captured in my reflections. I think first and foremost, let me start by firstly thanking my entire team. While we talk about numbers, there’s a lot of brain power, manpower and heavy-lifting that goes in the background.
So a big thank you to the entire Laxmi team, our customers who pay our bills, the Board of Directors, our investors and the communities where we operate our other assets and the related stakeholders. So big thank you to all of them. We’ve actually achieved factual 11% volume growth and 9.5% EBITDA growth year-on-year,
While maintaining our profitability in the prevailing environment, which is a testimony to our performance. The growth was driven by the focus on operational excellence; second, talking about the capacity augmentation; third, our customer-centric approach; and fourth, the prudent cost and fund management. Innovation is what keeps our business relevant and dynamic and we are thoroughly excited to inaugurate our Laxmi Innovation Center that happened in the quarter-four of FY ’25.
It is tailored to meet the needs of the dynamic workforce that are part of us and we are proud to have them and support our customers’ ambition. Our side has commenced generating revenues in-quarter four and we are focusing on expanding that into FY ’26 and beyond. I’m also as excited to share the LOI that we have signed with Hitachi and this will pivot us very positively into a new sector with the market-leader in that sector.
At our upcoming Dahej site, we have received environmental clearance and factory licenses and the project remains on-schedule in terms of timeline, scope and cost. As Team Lakshmi, we remain geared to win and gear to growth and we work diligently towards that goal. Now giving you a bit of a lens also into what we are talking about into first-half, as I called out in the specialty portfolio, there has been one-product who — which downstream has undergone a regulatory phase-out, which will certainly have some minor impact as we go into the first-half and we will be more granular as the things progress. Thank you all again and stay safe, stay healthy, stay happy. Thank you all.
Operator
Thank you. On behalf of Lakshmi Organic Industries Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines