Navneet Education Limited (NSE: NAVNETEDUL) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated May. 20, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Jinesh Joshi — Analyst
Gnanesh Gala — Managing Director
Kalpesh Dedhia — Chief Financial Officer
Roomy Mistry — Head of Investor Relations
Unidentified Speaker
Analysts:
Niraj Vijay — Analyst
Himanshu Upadhyay — Analyst
Viraj Kacharia — Analyst
Arihant Baid — Analyst
Ranjan Shah — Analyst
Amit Khetan — Analyst
Shubham Sehgal — Analyst
Madhur Rathi — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Navneet Education Limited Q4 and FY ’25 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by PL Capital. 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 star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Jinesh Joshi from PL Capital. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Jinesh Joshi — Analyst
Yeah. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of PL Capital, I welcome you all to the 4Q and FY25 earnings call of Navneet Education Limited. We have with us the management represented by Mr. Sunil Gala, who is the MD; Mr. Kalpesh Dedhia, CFO; and Mr. Roomy Mistry, Head IR.
I would now like to hand over the call to the management for opening remarks. Over to you, Sunil bhai.
Gnanesh Gala — Managing Director
Thank you, Jinesh and good afternoon to all of you. Thank you, Jinesh also introducing all of us. Now hope you all have received our investor presentation. For those who have not, they can view it on our stock exchanges and also on company’s website. So today I’m pleased to share with you our company’s performance for the recent quarter and full-year ’25. Let me admit, while we have faced some challenges, I’m confident that our strategic initiatives and market trends position us for growth and success in future. In the year FY ’25, our revenue grew marginally by around 2.5%, in which publication segment grew by just 3% and stationery also grew very, very marginally. Let me straight go to each of these businesses. I’ll start with content business. So this segment and within content, I’ll talk about publications.
So our publication segment experienced subdued performance, which of course I have been addressing in my earlier conferences as well. And as you all may recall, it is majorly due to the lack of change in syllabus in both the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat for now the 7th consecutive year. Additionally, second in book market continued to prevail due to this resulting in below average counter sales, it means at the retailers counter and new books, which generally is the trend. Now going forward, the company is confident of growing for the next couple of years on account of change in curriculum cycle announced from FY ’26.
Now moving forward, we remain focused on expanding our reach and strengthening our content portfolio, particularly on CBSE side and additionally leveraging digital platform to enhance distribution and accessibility. I’m specifically referring to digital platforms because in the publishing side or on a content side or on the usage side by the end-users, the importance of digital is increasing day-by day. Therefore the strategic initiative will enable us to build our success and drive for a sustainable growth in publication business. Coming back to stationery business, first, I’ll talk about domestic that is all-India.
Now you all may have noticed that actually we de-grew by 13% in FY25. Let me explain why. First and foremost drop-in paper prices resulted in reduction of product pricing and hence lower realization by around 9%. And of course, there was a volume drop also by around 4%. The reason of volume growth of 4% was mainly on account of competition from unorganized sector. Now as the paper prices have stabilized, the trade is convinced about no further reduction in paper price, and hence, we anticipate that the orders would be placed by them confidently expecting no further drop in the final product prices.
So till March that was the biggest concern in the trade that whether paper prices will further go down, and basis that, the prices of the end-product, product which is stabilized now. So here also we are focused on strengthening our distribution network and exploring opportunities for product innovation to drive sustainable growth in the domestic stationery segment.
Here I should add that earlier, as you may know that our major focus was on paper products. But recently, in last six to eight months, we have started focusing on non-paper stationery products as well. A couple of them already introduced in the market, and regularly, every quarter we’ll be introducing various other products as well. So our focus of strengthening our distribution network and exploring opportunities for product innovation that will drive sustainable growth in the whole market so let me repeat, but while near-term challenges persist, we remain very optimistic about the long-term growth prospects of this segment.
Backed by our strong brand positioning, extensive market reach, new product range and commitment to delivering high-quality products. With — post this, I’ll talk about now stationary business overseas exports. No doubt we were expecting around 15% growth in domestic in the exports of stationery, but we could achieve 12%. This new introduction of newer territories helped not only to expand its top-line, even though now this is very important, even though new rates were negotiated with the clients after reduction in paper prices. So like domestic, even in exports, because of the reduction in paper prices we had to reduce the end-product prices also but even though then we have grew we have grown by around 12% the major topic that everyone of you may have in your mind about the US tariffs effect on since our major exports are to the US, that concern or that question is but necessary.
So I should convey here that the final positive or negative impact of the US tariffs is unknown till final tariffs are decided by the US for each of the countries. Thankfully, the company has not faced any cancellation of orders till now. But when it comes to new seasons or deciding the volumes for each of the product category that we are in all our customers are saying to wait-and-watch they are not ready to comment anything because all of them are waiting for the final tariffs. However, we are very positive on gaining the market-share from our present and future product offerings in the US because when we talk to our customers, most of them wants to favor more-and-more towards India but then also they are remaining non today on a long-term basis the decision on the tariffs but here apart from the tariffs, of course it will be on all the products, but we plan to further expand our product portfolio to include both paper and non-paper stationary items.
Overall, looking ahead, we are optimistic about the future prospects of our company. With the upcoming curriculum change that I mentioned, we expect to see an increase in-demand of our publications and therefore, it means volume growth. Additionally, our focus on exports and new product offering will continue to drive growth and increase our market-share. In terms of our competitive landscape, we believe that our company is well-positioned to take advantage of the changing market trends.
Our focus on quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction has allowed us to build a strong brand and reputation in the industry. I might — I may remind you all and which I have mentioned it earlier that particularly in exports where there are huge opportunities in with most of our clients, is categorized as preferred vendor and therefore, we are very, very hopeful that if the tariffs are in the — in favor of India, I’m sure, Navneet will benefit tremendously.
So in conclusion, while we face some challenges in the recent quarters, we are confident that our strategic initiatives and market trends position us for growth and success in the future. We will continue to focus on delivering high-quality products and services to our customers.
With this, this is what I wanted to convey. I should thank all of you to have shown continued support and trust in our company. Now I open the floor for question-and-answer. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. I may repeat if you wish to ask a question you may press star and 1.
We have our first question from the line of Niraj Vijay from ProsperoTree. Please go ahead.
Niraj Vijay
Thanks for the opportunity, sir. Sir, my question is related to the India Nika. Sir, what is the revenue and profit from the India Nika in the financial year 2025 versus FY ’24?
Gnanesh Gala
Can I request my CFO, Kulpesh, to answer that, please?
Niraj Vijay
Please, please. Anyone, anyone can.
Kalpesh Dedhia
So revenue from operations was about INR55 crore compared to INR59 crore in ’24.
Niraj Vijay
Okay. And what is the profitability from the Indianica? Indiana.
Kalpesh Dedhia
So at PAT level, there was a loss of INR6 crores compared to INR10 crore last year.
Niraj Vijay
And at EBITDA level?
Kalpesh Dedhia
EBITDA level, it is INR1.6 crore loss versus a breakeven last year.
Niraj Vijay
Okay. But if I’m not making mistake and I’m not forgetting in the Q3 con-call also, it was suggested that the India Nika may report the INR60 crores to INR65 crores of the top-line and will achieve the breakeven. See, at the console level, the Q4, the major contribution comes from the — at least at the division, the major contribution comes from the India Nika. And India Nika is not making positive contribution to the final — at the console level. How long we will continue the Indian Nika business, and what is our actual logic to continue and support the India Nika business. I don’t understand because this is the — I think the eight to 10 years has happened the acquisition and still the India Nika is not positively contributing to the India. Can you can you explain something?
Gnanesh Gala
Yeah, sure. And I fully agree with you that for several years, we have not been able to perform in an individual company-level on the positiveness. I fully agree with you. Having said that, as a content provider for last several decades, and as you all know that we were pioneer and we were successful in state-level extracurricular activity books, that is guides workbooks that we have been publishing if you have ever read the recent trend of converting SSE schools to CBS a school is rising at a very, very rapid place.
Now, here the challenge that we are facing, likewise, maybe all the publishers are facing is going to each and every school to recommend for a textbook. In Naomneth, we were always selling supplementary books. Major share sale was coming from the trade. Whereas at India Nika it is the textbook which we have to visit each and every school on regular basis and get them recommended. Here competition, unhealthy competition is frankly coming in our way.
Now I do not know whether it is a short-term issue or a very long-term issue. Books together with digital content providers are very few in the country or the level of digital that we are providing. The major loss that we are still seeing is because continuously we have to invest in digital products also for — together with the textbook. So what I am saying that we are quite concerned ourselves about the financial numbers, but simultaneously keeping CBSE focus away can be the biggest mistake for any publisher now and therefore, we still continue this. And of course, we are learning on a regular basis on how to manage this unhealthy competition.
So I’m sure I don’t want to commit now because I had myself said but it has not come true, but I would say that we will have to improve upon as far as this individual business is concerned.
Niraj Vijay
Thanks, thanks. Sir, but is it not advisory to merge the Indian Nika business with the so we can set-up the loss incurred by the Indian Nika and we have a lower tax liability — otherwise there is at the console level, we cannot set-off the — what we pay tax at the standalone level and we are incurring the loss at the subsidiary level. So is it not advisable to the Indiana with the and with maintaining the Indiana as a separate one, not necessary that the as a brand, but the India Nika is because India Nika is a 100% subsidiary of the Navneet. So is it not advisable…
Gnanesh Gala
So, we are seriously considering that aspect. The reason of keeping it altogether different was the dynamics of selling products, the salaries of the sales team was very, very different than the state-level curriculum sale business. That was the major reason of us keeping it separately. But now we are evaluating very seriously and probably in some time, we will decide on that as well.
Niraj Vijay
Okay. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. That is from my side. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. And all the best sir.
Gnanesh Gala
Thank you, Niraj.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Himanshu Upadhyay, BugleRock PMS. Please go ahead.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Yeah. Hi, good afternoon.
Gnanesh Gala
Hi, Himanshu.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Continuing my question about Indianika, okay. Can you give an idea of how many schools we approved this year versus FY24? And how many titles were subscribed per book or per school year we approached, and what has been the trend in last three years? And why dip because it felt that we have increased our sales force and the number of schools we had approached this year was much larger than in previous year. So, some thoughts on that would be helpful to understand the challenges we are facing in the business.
Gnanesh Gala
So of course, we do not keep count of the number of schools that we visit, but they basis this question, I can roughly say based on the projections that I recall that in the earlier year, we would have approached around 8,500 schools, of which around 5,000 schools would have been converted for one title to 3, 4 titles. Versus this year we may have approached nearly 10 odd 1,000, but we could not increase the conversion. And the reason I already mentioned to the previous person, Mr Niraj, that the unhealthy competition everywhere is coming in the way. But thankfully, in the state of Maharashtra and Gujarat where schools are getting converted from SSE to CBSE, there we are more or less quite successful, the success ratio is more than 80% there to have this recommended.
So, even for us to retain Maharashtra Gujarat intact, this is necessary and therefore, we still continue to do so. But now as far as per school, how many title to that level we really cannot share as well. But overall, the reason of degrowth as well as the losses which I mentioned to earlier person remains the same.
Himanshu Upadhyay
And how is the brand doing? And does it really make sense that Graphalco and Indianika having a two separate brands when they are trying to so each large so the large market.
Gnanesh Gala
Yeah, this is a typical trend in CBSE schools, so the trend is that no school continues with more than for the same title for more than three or four years. They need a different title, different style of product. And therefore, most of the large publisher in the country, they have their minimum two to maximum five brands of the same — coming from the same company. So even if school wants to change from one brand to another, they can do so, but simultaneously it benefits to the same company, and that is the reason we have kept Grafalco.
The other reason, Rafalco that we have kept here is Rafalco focuses only on pre-primary and up to grade 5. It does not publish beyond grade five. These products, apart from selling it into the CBSE schools, we do sell them in SSE English medium schools as well, and for that if we merge Indianika brand with also may create some confusion internally, frankly, and therefore we have kept this separate.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Okay. Okay. And one thing, we had that digital solution, a top-class and top scorer, and all those, which got too much. But we wanted to continue with our digital journey, okay. So what progress has been made in this FY25 and is it really working or we are not working on that space…
Gnanesh Gala
If we were not continuing our digital journey, it would have really dampened our physical sales of books across. So I’m just not talking about CBSE, but for SSC as well. And therefore, we have to consider that as a cost of production now. Of course, we have an individual product called Top Class and top scorer that of course we have that as an offering to the school. But now every book that we come up with has some of the other digital component in it.
So I would say that, of course, our cost has increased there and we have not been able to or we are purposefully not trying to pass on that to the end customer and consuming ourself, and therefore, you saw that our EBITDA margin has come down if we compare it with five years ahead. So we are okay with that to continue for next couple of years. And of course, finally, we will try and pass on the same to the end-customer. But till we successfully get these implemented, the user base increases for this, we would like to consume ourself the cost and offer to the student community.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Okay. And in next FY26, what measures are you thinking about our CBSE business, what can we improve on change and target that business? Any thoughts there will be helpful.
Gnanesh Gala
So here now, the target given to our sales team is instead of focusing more on number of schools, they should focus more titles in the same school. And therefore we are trying to concentrate on major cities and not trying to grow expansion — exponentially in the other cities or smaller cities. That way, there’ll bea reduction in expenses and our focus to increase more titles in the same school would benefit better volumes from each of the school. So this is the action plan that we have designed after the performance of FY ’25.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Okay. Thanks, sir.
Gnanesh Gala
And of course, and of course, I should also mention to all of you that as far as technology is concerned, — you might have read some social media advertisements also and we have come up with a great AI solution for the teacher community, which we are not charging for the current year and are giving it for free-to and we have decided to give to around 1,000 schools. And this is not restricted to CBSE schools, but as well it is offered to SSE schools also.
The way we are seeing the usage of that tool in the schools, we are very encouraged that this type of facility to the teacher really saves huge time effort of the teacher on their day-to-day activities, and that will really make us glued in the school for a very long period. So this is one major initiative that we have taken and have introduced, and I think as we know, we are the only publisher in the country offering this solution for the teachers.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Okay. Thank you from my side. I’ll join back in the queue for further query.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Viraj from SiMPL. Please go ahead.
Viraj Kacharia
Yeah, just a couple of questions. First on the CBSE business segment, can you give some color what is the sales profitability of Nami Drice in ’25? And just going a little deeper into the competitive aspect in CBSE, which you alluded now, if you see post NEP the thinking was that given the kind of digital capability one would require with the content change, then one would say consolidation and competition intensity would be much lesser in CBSE, but your comments say ROI. So can you kind of give a more detail deeper perspective on you know what is driving competitive aspect?
Gnanesh Gala
Now, of course there are more than 6, 800 publishers may not be publishing all the titles in the in their company, but with whatever that they come up with they try to see and that their titles get sale. Now unfortunately, they have very limited sales expenditure or advertisement expenditure. Sales expenditure is one of the biggest in CBSE book business and therefore, they are able to offer higher discounts. Now that higher discounts per se attract schools to recommend those titles. So that is one of our biggest concern that we are facing.
I do not recall having talked about consolidation in the industry. But we — I did recall having said this for our domestic stationery, if paper prices were to further go up, then there was huge possibility of consolidation. So in this, we are not seeing consolidation. What we have now decided that instead of fighting on the discounts with each and every schools, we are trying to see what else can we provide to them, what additional features can we provide to them and that should attract them to buy our product without looking at the discounts only. So that is the way to succeed in this business on a long-term basis, then that we have started implementing rather introducing this particularly what I mentioned about AI.
So with that, the clueness to continue using our products should increase and more and more new customers should get attracted. So that is the endeavor that we are focusing on. And that should bring us a better volume going forward.
Viraj Kacharia
And on rice, can you just give some perspective how the — what…
Gnanesh Gala
So rice, our focus has been always Maharashtra and Gujarat majorly. So our 80%, 85% of the revenue comes from these two states only, whichever schools have caught themselves converted to CBSE, we are offering them RISE Series. So for the year ’25 of the total publication sales, standalone publication sales, the rise sale would have contributed around INR35 and we are sure that as and as and when other schools get converted to CBSE or they grow in number of standards because each converted CBSE may not have all the 10 grades with them.
And therefore, with all this, we should at least we want to retain our two core states with us, and whatever is required by those schools, we would like to offer it to them. So as far as number is concerned, I did mention and the reason of a rise and a special product focus on Maharashtra Gujarat also I mentioned.
Viraj Kacharia
Second question is on the export piece. Can you give some perspective into the contribution of new categories of products, say, in ’25, how much those would have contributed categories of products introduced in last two, three years? And in terms of the tariff part, so if you can just also give some perspective, how does the contracts are arrived at with our customers in US? So typically here the tariff you know whatever is applicable currently, who wills the tariff impact?
Gnanesh Gala
I’ll answer first your last question on the the way contracts are designed. So most of our customers we enter into a yearly contract a yearly contract, meaning starting from January till August, I’m talking about US customers and where our major business is. So there the contract is fixing on a price of a product and tentative volumes that they are expecting.
So with these two, we arrive at our production planning, and for every month, they go on releasing the quantities to us for their requirements. This is the way it is designed. So for one calendar year, practically you can say the price is fixed and the volumes are more or less estimated. Based on this, we start planning ourselves. So now, when we go for the next year season, it will all depend on the final outcome of the tariffs, and based on that, we will come to know what kind of volumes are possible from them.
And your first question was on contribution…
Viraj Kacharia
On new categories…
Gnanesh Gala
Contribution, yeah, new category contribution. So in last not three but four years, we have focused more on file folders made of plastic or a couple of metal products. So happy to say that file folder itself is contributing nearly 17% to 18% of our total revenue of exports. Metal is still a very small, it’s hardly, I should say 1% or so.
Now that they have experienced our product and quality, I’m sure now they will start increasing volume for the products that we are sending as well as new items in the same material that they will start giving us. So it is a journey that we have to be with them and satisfy them, which we are feeling we are very confident and happy that we have fulfilled all their requirements till now.
Viraj Kacharia
Just two questions on this, and I’ll come back in queue. One is, you know you did say that it takes between two to three years for the trial evaluation and the ramp-up to happen. So among the categories which you have introduced you know other than the — are there categories which you think they are now at a mature stage and we should see faster scale-up?
And second, the question is on the capex, how the capex looking at this point for next two years?
Gnanesh Gala
Yeah. So, categories are many that are under pipeline under discussion with the end-customers, rather our customers, and this includes more and more ranges on canvas, which is the cotton as a raw material. So canvas products and some wooden products which are used as a stationary products. So these are two categories that I can mention. I will not be able to discuss more about other categories that we are evaluating.
And secondly, the capex that you asked. So of course, there was some capex made already, but is still shown in working capital because we have not operationalized yet. So that number will be around INR50 crore, which the production facility will start by July. And further, we have decided to invest at least INR100 crore every year in stationery business, which will include buying off a land also, construction, and machinery. So all put together, sometime it may go to INR150 or 150, but it will be on an average INR100 crore will be spent in next three years.
Viraj Kacharia
Okay, I’ll come back in queue. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Arihant from Bowhead. Please go ahead.
Arihant Baid
Hi, sir. Sir, please can you tell regarding Gujarat space specifically which subjects or grade the curriculum is changing this year and what are the expectations for next year?
Gnanesh Gala
One minute, Roomy, by any chance do you recall which all subjects are changing in Gujarat?
Roomy Mistry
So yeah, just a minute. So in Gujarat there are couple of changes of limited subjects in grades 6th and 7th.
Arihant Baid
Okay. And any expectation for next year, like in Maharashtra state, the change is happening grade-wise. So in Gujarat also, like from next year, will it happen curriculum change will happen grade wise will be or will it happen subject wise only?
Roomy Mistry
Yeah. Yeah, so it is grade wise and in the grades also there are specific subjects that are going to change.
Arihant Baid
Okay. And sir, my other question was on paper prices, like since the start of this year, has the price increased or decreased, and what is your outlook for the future for paper prices?
Gnanesh Gala
No, since last February, the prices have stabilized, it has not increased, neither decreased. So at least for next six months, we are not foreseeing any paper price increase.
Arihant Baid
Okay, sir. And I wanted to know, have we introduced the new products paper and non-paper, and in domestic stationary market, when did we introduce that? And how has the response been so far? And what is the growth we are expecting in stationary domestic segment in this year?
Gnanesh Gala
Your voice is a little subdued, but what I understand the growth prospects in non-paper stationery products, right?
Arihant Baid
No, growth in overall stationery, domestic stationery what we are expecting, and the products which we have introduced, paper and non-paper, how has the response been from the market for those products?
Gnanesh Gala
So we introduced most of the new products in the month of March only. And as we are in May, the response has been quite positive. Now the appreciation on quality aspect is seen. The real test for us is the month of June, when the actual users go into the retail trade and buy the products, that will be the real test for us. And we will see then that what is the repeat of each of these items. So — but as far as trade is concerned, they are very happy with the new quality, new designs that we have come up with.
Arihant Baid
Okay, sir. And sir, my last question would be regarding exports in FY ’25, what would be the price decline which we have taken? Can you provide price and volume growth for export stationery?
Gnanesh Gala
You are saying price growth and volume growth.
Arihant Baid
Yeah, in FY ’25.
Gnanesh Gala
What was the price — price I mentioned in my speech, particularly paper products, we had to reduce the prices because of the reduction in paper prices. So, price reduction would be to the extent of around 9%, 8% to 9%, that would be the reduction in paper products, whereas other category, that 20-odd percent that I mentioned, there we did not have to reduce the prices.
Arihant Baid
Okay. Okay, sir. I’ll join the queue.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Ranjan Shah, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead.
Ranjan Shah
Yeah, Sunil bhai by good afternoon. How are you?
Gnanesh Gala
Very fine, Ranjan bhai.
Ranjan Shah
Sunil bhai, I have very straight question actually, couple of them. One is that I think this year you reported a turnover of about INR1,786 crores on a consolidated level.
Gnanesh Gala
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ranjan Shah
And the profit was at about INR174 crores, down by about 5% compared to INR183 crores. Normalized.
Gnanesh Gala
Kalpesh, can you comment on that, please?
Kalpesh Dedhia
Ranjan bhai, can you hear me?
Ranjan Shah
Can you hear me?
Kalpesh Dedhia
Yeah. Yeah.
Ranjan Shah
No, no. I actually basically wanted to ask Sunil bhai one question that this year you reported INR1786 crore top-line and INR174 crore of bottom-line. Now similarly on a consolidated basis, normalized operations, what are your projections for FY ’26 and FY ’27? Internal projections, if you can share those with us, it would be really helpful, you know. Hello?
Gnanesh Gala
Kalpesh, are you answering?
Kalpesh Dedhia
Yeah, so Ranjan, you are asking for the projection of normalized profit…
Gnanesh Gala
First talk about — Kalpesh, first talk about FY ’25 numbers that he is asking.
Kalpesh Dedhia
Yeah, he is correct. He is reading from our investor product presentation.
Ranjan Shah
Investor presentation. Investor presentation shows that you reported INR1,786 crore of top-line and INR174 crore of bottom-line, right, for FY ’25, right? Now my question to you is that what are your similar projections for FY ’26 and FY ’27? If you can share, it would be really helpful to us because understanding exports, stationary, domestic stationary, publication, syllabus change, all these things put together, what are your projections — internal projections for FY ’26 and FY ’27? Basically, how much kind of revenue growth are we foresee in FY ’26 and FY ’27? And similarly, what kind of profit growth are we projecting for FY ’26 and ’27?
And also the last question, what is the current net cash on the books of the company, and what is the total debt?
Gnanesh Gala
So I’ll answer that. So as far as debt is concerned, as we speak, we have hardly a few crore around INR30 odd crore debt on our books. And as far as projections are concerned,, this all depends on how much can we really grow volumes because if we stick to the same volumes without increasing the pricing, the bottom line is like — but obvious will be down. So as far as volume growth is concerned at a company-level, so we are foreseeing that on an average 10% to 11% volume growth we will see. If I talk about publication, around 6%, 7% exports around 20 odd percent, and domestic around 5%, 6% again.
So on an average consol basis, we will see — see a volume growth of 12%. And with that, the bottom line also should grow by around 10%. So this is the expectation for FY ’26. FY ’27, I would like to not like to comment today because it will be — it is too early for me to comment on FY ’27.
Ranjan Shah
Fine. So basically approximately INR200 crores of net profit on a consol basis, we can expect for the next — for the current year, FY ’23, approximately INR200 crores of net profit.
Gnanesh Gala
Yes, yes, yes.
Ranjan Shah
Okay. And sir, what is the total net cash on the books of the company right now as we speak?
Gnanesh Gala
Kalpesh?
Kalpesh Dedhia
So as we — as Sunilva just mentioned, we are in debt at present. So as of now, as on today, we have only debt of INR20 crores. So there are no cash on the balance sheet.
Ranjan Shah
So there is no cash on the balance sheet, okay. Okay, fine.
Gnanesh Gala
This is not a time where we would have a cash. We will have maximum cash in the month of September.
Ranjan Shah
Right. Right. Okay. Fine, sir. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Niraj Vijay from ProsperoTree. Please go ahead.
Niraj Vijay
Thanks for the once more an opportunity. Am I audible, sir?
Gnanesh Gala
Yes, yes.
Niraj Vijay
Yeah, yeah. And my question to Sunil bhai only because sir, I would like to know what are the major likely positives for the company for the next two years? Is it the syllabus change or higher export of stationery or turnaround of the Ingenika, what are the bright spot for the company currently? What you are thinking that these are the bright on which we can — the company can it?
Gnanesh Gala
You yourself answered frankly all of them, which is the curriculum change cycle for next four continuous years we are very sure of that will help publication growth as well as profitability. Exports of stationary growth is quite, quite sure. Just one caveat that if some very, very adverse tariff comes on the country, then I — we may not hold ourselves right. So that is the only risk factor that we see. And thirdly, in domestic market also, instead of just focusing paper-based stationery products and introducing various non-paper stationery products in the market, these are the three areas where we believe rather all the three businesses, we should be better off than FY ’25. And I’m talking about long-term.
Niraj Vijay
Okay. In a reply to one question, you mentioned that the prospective export buyer, our buyer has — have they postponed the decision to place new order or the pipeline is weaker because of the — there is a possibility of the higher tariff will be imposed by the USA. Is that the case or is it the normal business as the last year?
Gnanesh Gala
Till-date, it is normal, whatever orders that we were expecting for the year based on the contracts that we have entered into have come in. So more or less, the final dispatches would be around 15th of June for the US territory, and that would be over. So their back-to-school season, which starts from August every year, for that whatever that they had committed have bought.
Now we are talking about going forward next subsequent year. For that, I think we all will have to wait till the final decision on tariff.
Niraj Vijay
Okay. By the end of this quarter, we may come to know that the — will there be any new fresh order or the tariffs stoppers.
Gnanesh Gala
So when we — when we have a con-call, we would be clear because I believe those 90 days gets over on 9th of July. So by then we should be clear.
Niraj Vijay
But the current orders are in progress.
Gnanesh Gala
Yeah, yeah. Not a single order canceled.
Niraj Vijay
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Amit Khetan from Laburnum Capital. Please go ahead.
Amit Khetan
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question. So in the — in the publication segment, can you just give a rough breakdown of the split between Gujarat and Maharashtra and provide some commentary on the dynamics of both markets? Are they different? Are you facing challenges in any of these states? And do you expect similar growth rates in these two states?
Gnanesh Gala
So the split between Gujarat and Maharashtra this year has been 64%, Maharashtra and 36% around Gujarat, if we just take total of these two states. I’m saying this because we have some sales beyond Maharashtra, Gujarat also, majorly in CBSE titles that we published from Navneet.
Amit Khetan
Sure, sure.
Gnanesh Gala
That’s what I’m saying. This is the split between the two states. And growth, I’m sure it will be the same percentage which I mentioned, 6%, 7% because here one standard all the titles are changing, whereas there it is though couple of subjects, but the higher standard is changing and therefore, we are sure that the growth will be same in both the states.
Amit Khetan
Got it. Got it. And you mentioned a growth of 6%, 7%, that’s in volume terms, right? Are you…
Gnanesh Gala
Only volume terms. Yeah, yeah.
Amit Khetan
Are you planning to…
Gnanesh Gala
No, we are not planning to increase the end-product prices.
Amit Khetan
Okay.
Gnanesh Gala
There is no decision. Yeah.
Amit Khetan
Got it. Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We have a follow-up question from the line of Arihant from Bowhead. Please go ahead.
Arihant Baid
Yeah. Hi, sir. Sir, please can you guide like on margin terms for publication and stationary like for this year FY’26, how much higher or lower in percentage in terms compared to last year because this year we have advantage of low-cost inventory as well. So any rough guidance on how much the margin would be higher this year compared to last year?
Gnanesh Gala
Going forward, you are asking me?
Arihant Baid
Yeah, going forward in FY ’26.
Gnanesh Gala
Yeah. So if we achieve volumes that I just mentioned, then margins should definitely improve by nearly 150 to 200 basis points in publishing business. In stationary, frankly, we do not have that benefit of passing on because as and when the paper prices are changing, we have to change the end-product prices also.
Arihant Baid
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Shubham Sehgal from SiMPL. Please go ahead.
Shubham Sehgal
Hello. Am I audible?
Operator
Yes, Shubham.
Shubham Sehgal
Yeah. I just had one question on our stationary export business. So, like the current product portfolio which we have and the newer products which we are introducing, do we have any products which come under the examination list from the tariffs? And are we like planning to products from that list?
Gnanesh Gala
As far as our knowledge is concerned, all exports from the all stationary exports from India to the US all carry same tariff as of now. So I’m not really known. I do not know any exemption list within stationery. So if you are aware, please let us know which particular stationary product is exempted. And at least we are not aware about that.
Shubham Sehgal
Okay, okay. Got it. And you like on the domestic stationery, like as we mentioned that we saw around 3%, 4% volume drop. So going forward, let’s say for the next two, two, three years, what is our plan for domestic stationary, like how do we grow marginally in domestic market?
Gnanesh Gala
Yeah. By only introducing newer new category of products, we want to then grow our business on top line basis also and little bit improve our bottom-line also. But getting into non-paper stationery products, paper stationery as a category to improve margin is becoming bit difficult now.
Shubham Sehgal
So currently, what would be the mix of paper and non-paper products in domestic non-paper right now or…
Gnanesh Gala
Yeah, our non-paper contribution is hardly 3%, one minute and A3, around 8% in FY ’25. But, these products were — we were selling for many years. Of late, we have redesigned, repackaged these products have brought more variety of products in there, which we have recently introduced from the month of March.
Shubham Sehgal
And so going forward…
Gnanesh Gala
We have percentage — as a percentage to total stationary business in the country, non-paper percentage should rise faster.
Shubham Sehgal
Okay, got it. So apart from product introductions, are we also looking to maybe acquire players in the domestic stationary, because like other competitors have been doing the same?
Gnanesh Gala
At present, we do not have such plans.
Shubham Sehgal
Okay, got it. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Madhur Rathi from Counter Cyclical Investments. Please go ahead.
Madhur Rathi
Sir, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I wanted to understand regarding our stationery business margin. So, if I look at our overall domestic plus exports, sir, you said that it is difficult to improve margins in our paper segment. So, what is the steady-state margin can we expect going forward from FY ’26 in this segment overall?
Gnanesh Gala
One minute. So, steady-state, you can consider 12% to 13% EBITDA margin.
Madhur Rathi
This was much higher when we — like I think last two to two, 3/4 back, we were considering more than 15% in the EPIT margins for our export business and 13% for our domestic business, but combined 12% 13%, so has anything changed particularly for us to or is this a conservative number?
Gnanesh Gala
So in the domestic business, it has further gone little down. Export, it has been 15% to 16%. So therefore, if we combine both the revenues of both the businesses, I mentioned 12% to 13%, and we have been showing the same or we have been achieving the same for last couple of years. Sometime, because of this sudden change in the product raw-material prices and we see variation one of 1%, 1.5% year there, but these are all-time bound decisions that we have to take.
Madhur Rathi
Got it. Sir, what is the tariff for export of stationery from India versus any other — I mean China or any other competitors that would have? And sir, currently tariffs, are we currently paying it for our customers and getting it back or how is the accounting then for that?
Gnanesh Gala
So we are not concerned about tariffs levied onto our customers. So it is their responsibility to pay those tariffs. So we have nothing to do with tariff today. And as far as comparing tariffs between the two countries, I think major exports are from the — from China, where the tariffs — general tariffs are 30%, 30% versus from India, it is 10%.
Madhur Rathi
Okay, sir. Got it. Sir. Thank you so much, and all the best. Sir, just one more question, sir. We mentioned that paper prices will be flat for the next six months. So — and our majority of our business will happen in the next six months. So, is it fair to assume that the volume growth of 10%, 11% should translate to value growth for FY’26?
Gnanesh Gala
Yeah. If it is volume growth, the same percentage you should consider for value growth also.
Madhur Rathi
Okay, sir. Sir, no — no impact of rising paper prices or nothing like that, right?
Gnanesh Gala
No, no, no, no, no.
Madhur Rathi
Okay, sir. So thank you so much, and all the best.
Gnanesh Gala
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Himanshu Upadhyay from BugleRock PMS. Please go ahead.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Yeah, hi. My question was we have some of those investments like SFA play, and where we were very optimistic on, okay. So what happened in FY’25 and how has that business progressed? And also if you can tell about other investments which we have had historically like or.
Gnanesh Gala
So I think both the small investments, even though one of the company is closed, which we have already written-off, that is which one was that?
Unidentified Speaker
Begaileo.
Gnanesh Gala
Begaileo, not Begaileo. Tinkerly. Tinkerly. That we have already written-off. On Begaileo also, we are writing off every year some of the other amounts. Company is still in operation, but we have no hopes, more hopes from that company. As far as SFA is concerned, the good news is that the demand for such companies rising very, very fast. Problem is people spending more on these businesses for their company’s awareness creation.
Since they are not able to get good advertisers or sponsors for the events, the company is still making losses simultaneously various state and central government are continuously offering them for the opportunity of managing the sports or every event. So as far as numbers are concerned, they just did around INR80 odd crore revenue last year and with a loss of around INR25 crores last year.
Himanshu Upadhyay
And the number of events, how would that have scaled-up and…
Gnanesh Gala
So nine — in the nine states in the nine — in nine states, they conducted the event and major losses on account of the — their SFA championship that they conduct in these nine states where the major losses are incurred, where as I said, they are not able to attract yet the advertisers or sponsors. But number of schools participating it or number of children participating in it is increasing.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you for my side.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this would be the last question for today, and I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Gnanesh Gala
Thank you. I take this opportunity to thank everyone for joining the call. I hope we have been able to address most of your queries. If you still are left with any queries kindly get in touch with our Investor Relations department. I also thank Jinesh of Prabhudas Li Lazar to have helped us conduct this con-call. And once again, thank you all.
Operator
Thank you, sir. On behalf of PL Capital, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.