PI Industries Ltd (NSE: PIIND) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Feb. 13, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Mayank Singhal — Vice Chairman and Managing Director
Sanjay Agarwal — Group Chief Financial Officer
Jagresh Rana — Global Chief Executive Officer
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Saurabh Jain — Analyst
Vivek Rajamani — Analyst
Abhijit Akella — Analyst
Rohit Nagraj — Analyst
Tejas Pradhan — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the PI Industries Limited Q3FY26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will remain 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 the operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone telephone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now hand the conference over to Mr. Siddharth Raghnekar from CDR India for opening remarks. Thank you. And over to you, Siddharth.
Unidentified Speaker
Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us on PI Industries Q3FY26 earnings conference call. Today we are joined by senior members of the management team including Mr. Mayan Singhal, Executive Vice Chairperson and Managing Director. Mr. Rajni Sarna, Joint Managing Director, Mr. Sanjay Agarwal, Group Chief Financial Officer. Dr. Atul Gupta, CEO, CSM AG Chem. Mr. Jagresh Rana, Global CEO, PI AG Sciences and Dr. Ramesh Subramanian, Global CEO, PI Health Sciences. We shall begin the call with key perspectives from Mr. Singhal. Following that, Mr. Agarwal will share his views on the company’s financial performance. Thereafter the forum will be open for question and answer session.
Before we begin, I would like to underline that statements made on today’s conference call could be forward looking in nature. A disclaimer to this effect has been included in the investor presentation that is available on the stock exchange website and which has been shared with you earlier. I would now like to request Mr. Singhal to share his perspectives with you. Thank you. And over to you.
Mayank Singhal — Vice Chairman and Managing Director
Yeah, thank you and thank you. Good morning. And again a little apology for a little sore throat. But I shall try and make my best effort. So I shall commence today’s brief perspectives of the global ADCAM industry environment and touch upon the PI’s performance and the strategic progress. The global crop protection market is approaching a latter phase. A prolonged down cycle driven by the distribution, adverse weather conditions in certain regions, soft commodity prices and elevated interest rates. Channel inventories are gradually normalizing and in season buying has begun to improve. Although product pricing continues to remain soft.
Particularly for the generic category. The farmer buying behavior is expected to remain cautious and sensitive to the commodity realization and the liquidity conditions. At the same time, global innovators continue to optimize supply chains and recalibrate inventory levels. We are seeing early signs of civilization and gradual pavement expected to come over the quarters coming to India. In India, the rug is sowing progress and is ahead of late last year supported by healthy soil moisture, high reservoir storage levels above long term average. However, the demand for key agrochemicals during the quarter remained muted due to elevated channel inventories, adverse weather conditions, lower crop prices, price realization state under pressure and volumes have been primarily driven of revenue performance.
Looking ahead of the structural demand remains intact. Sustained innovation in advanced crop protection, crop enhancement solutions are central to the global agricultural productivity. Structural economic challenges, environmental conditions and considerations and economic realities are shaping the farmer’s expectation. Growers are increasingly seeing solutions that are safer for the ecosystem, effective against evolving pests and diseases resistance and capable of delivering high productivity to meet rising demands of food, fiber and bioenergy. Now moving to Our Business Highlights Q3 26 Academic Sports Moderate in line with the overall demand softening inventory levels of many key products Based on the already higher base of PI’s extraordinary performance over the last couple of years resulting in customer supply scheduling, we are now on track to commercialize 8 to 10 new molecules with 5 molecules already commercialized in the yard.
The strategic initiative to a technology announcement Portfolio diversification strengthening the reality pipeline and adding new clients progressing well. Our domestic business are mainly impacted by lower farmer demand of high value products now coming to pharma. We have delivered a 50% year on year growth during the period we’ve added new clients to our portfolio and continue to expand the opportunity to Pharma support by dedicated business development building capabilities operations in the US to Europe and expanding to the east markets. Near term momentum however has been moderate due to global biotech funding going on during uncertainties while in the early stage of development, it has its cycle time and a slow conversion of selected opportunities in biologicals.
We are very excited as we are progressing steadily towards building a scalable global franchise. Apeptite based unique platforms enabling differentiated solutions across the geographies. Regulatory milestones which is the approval of half an Alpha beta in India, an ongoing filing in the US and Latin America. On a long term ambition, we continue to allocate capital towards product innovation, market development and strategic partnerships in the region and including the us, Brazil and Europe, Mexico and India. To support the long term scalable growth, PI boosts its SMP Global Corporate sustainability ranking at 98 percentile. I’m pleased to share PI has been featured in the S and P Global Sustainability Yearbook.
This is again a distribution marking ranking among the top ESG related companies globally. Despite the near term softening, our underlying fundamentals remain strong development at scale of.
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, we have lost the line of the management Please stay connected while I reconnect the management. Thank you. Sam. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management line reconnected. Sir, please. Please proceed.
Mayank Singhal — Vice Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, hi. Sorry. So, despite the near sharpness, our underlying fundamentals remain strong. Development and scale up and strategic platforms are progressing as per plan. A robust balance sheet and innovative pipeline remains healthy. We are continuous drives a fully integrated research setup one of its kind out of a sensitive label critical to our growth aspirations of different solutions. Our teams are developing technology platforms that are giving opportunities across new verticals such as biologicals, special and electronic chemicals. Now the first NC from India Pioxinary probe is under registration in India. The extensive on field demonstration have been launched.
We have seen and we are very excited about the performance of the product. On the other hand, unique peptide technology platform for biologicals another equally exciting opportunity which is reflecting globally and we respond of this expansion has been seen by huge demand. By expanding channels and efforts and creating a new play in the industry. The pace of commercialized advanced molecules are increased in alignment with our investments in research in differentiated technologies. From flow to vapor to biotechnology. Our long term growth outlook remains intact with a focus on margin discipline, high quality of growth and scaling platforms.
With this now, I’d like to hand the discussion over to our group CFO Sanjay and thank you everyone. And over to you, Sanjay. Go ahead please.
Sanjay Agarwal — Group Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Mr. Singhal. Good morning everyone. So guys, I’ll summarize the company’s financial highlights for the quarter ended December 31, 2025. Q3 performance reflects the continued impact of global industry headwinds that we have been discussing with you in our previous calls. However, we believe the sector is nearing stabilization now and expect sequential improvement beginning quarter four. For quarter three FY26 we reported revenue of 13,757 million which comes on the back of a high base of the same period last year. Despite global challenges, we know we have still delivered a growth of over 3 year CAGR for the 9 month period.
The moderation in Akim Export is primarily volume led driven by slow demand and customer delivery schedules. Also to Note that the nine month period FY24 for the Ekchem export business we grew by 22%. Similarly, we grew in FY25 nine months period by 9%. So going forward, we remain fully confident of the future of our Eckchem export business. We have commercialized five new molecules in Akim exports and four in domestic agri brands. The 10% growth in new products in Ekam Export demonstrates our de risking strategy and focused approach to gaining new business in this tough environment, domestic agrochemical demand remains subdued due to high channel inventory, low commodity prices, delay in normalization of biological portfolio, post regulatory headwind and specific impact from lower demand in a few target crops for PI.
Our domestic business is supported by strong product portfolio and new product launches which have offset the challenges faced on the ground. We have launched three new herbicides, Alcor, Comet, Fix it and one insecticide Uranus this year with two more expected to be launched by close of FY26. We expect the domestic growth to be back on track from FY27 onwards. We also launched our direct to farmer mobile app PM Mitra Kisan, a one stop farmer engagement solution offering crop advisory, product guidance and loyalty benefits. This digital platform strengthens our connection with growers and drives scalable tech enabled growth.
Moving on to our pharma platform, it has been on a very strong foundation. Increased revenue by over nine months of the previous year driven by deepening relationship with the biotech and the big pharma innovators. We have onboarded several new customers over the last 12 months including several strategic accounts and Big Pharma. Global biologicals continue to progress in line with a long term roadmap with ongoing investments in registrations, product development and global market expansion. On other financial metrics, gross margin expanded to 59% during the quarter supported by a favorable product mix and cost discipline. Further, at EBITDA level we’ve delivered a margin of 27% for a nine month period which remains resilient despite industry headwinds during the quarter.
Net profit includes an exceptional income in a pharma business on account of a writeback of contingent consideration of INR 1,260 million which has been partly offset by additional provisioning of retirement benefits as per new labor code to the tune of INR 209 million. Our trade working capital in terms of days of sales has increased to 139 days and reflects current market conditions. We expect to improve this as market scenario normalizes in the coming quarters. Our debt free balance sheet position, supported with net cash of rupees 35 billion, provides strong resilience and flexibility for strategic investments.
While the operating environment remains cautious, we expect gradual recovery beginning quarter four FY26 with growth momentum building into FY27 as industry conditions stabilize and our new products ramp up. With this, I conclude my opening remarks. I will now request the moderator to open the forum for Q and A. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. 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 their handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We take the first question from the line of Saurabh Jain from hsbc. Please go ahead.
Saurabh Jain
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. So first question is on the guidance.
operator
When you say Saurabh. I do apologize to interrupt you there but your audio is not coming in clear. Could you please use your handset?
Saurabh Jain
Better now?
operator
Yes, better. Please go ahead.
Saurabh Jain
Okay, yeah. Thank you. So first question is on the guidance. When you say growth resuming in fourth quarter, is it only a sequential growth that you’re talking about or you even expect a YY growth? And you know what this growth is really? Is it like a volume growth that you are alluding to or you even expect a revenue growth or a value growth in the fourth quarter?
Mayank Singhal
So yes, there will be a volume growth from beginning quarter four, FY26 and yes there will be a sequential growth in quarter four over what we have seen in quarter three. And as we build in into FY27 we believe with all the efforts we have been put in we should be on a growth momentum picking up.
Saurabh Jain
So volume growth in 4Q is it also a YY volume growth?
Mayank Singhal
See well you know sitting now we would target to have volume growth but as I said the momentum will start picking up from FY27 onwards.
Sanjay Agarwal
But just to clarify, we already see the great news. We see a good momentum of uptick started in the quarter four and clearly as we get into the year the momentum is the positive part is there’s a positive moment already seen and witnessed and I think we should be in a good shape coming in this quarter.
Saurabh Jain
Understood. And then when you say FY27 you are expecting the revenue growth returning to the company in that year and if possible can you also give more contours to it whether you expect a gradual recovery in growth or you expect the growth to open up in a big way?
Mayank Singhal
Yeah. So I think we see the positivity of growth and as I mentioned in my talk earlier that you know the industry is still having an extended cycle of growth but given the scenarios and as you must have seen in this year there have been many headwinds, the geopolitical uncertainties, commodity prices also given the challenge of India’s regulatory framework and biologicals and some of these areas have created certain challenges including the weather conditions. But I think what we see that given that the bottoming of the pit and the positive shoots are already there. So we are positive to say, yes, we will start seeing this in 2017.
Saurabh Jain
Okay. So, you know, just to kind of continue on that point, because the kind of robust business that we have, right, we have visibility, a lot more visibility compared to the other kinds of businesses, you know, in the sector. So are you noticing already a great enough visibility from the customer side that you are getting optimistic in terms of a recovery in FY27, or is it mainly coming from some optimism that you have?
Mayank Singhal
No, no. I think as you know, some part of the business is more about what we have from the customer set. But at the same time, if there are adverse headwinds, liveship and you know, the PI philosophy of partnership, that goes strong and even while we have what we’ve committed to with them. But we have to sit and optimize to handle the market situation because, you know, you have to partner up to create value. So we see the uptick in demand. But clearly, as I said, there’s been a reset in the way the customers are thinking, the way they look at agile supply chains, given the challenges of these prolonged challenges that they’ve been seeing.
But clearly given where we are looking at what they feel, the operational aspects of these issues in the industry are getting cleaned up, but the external factors still will have a role to play. And we don’t know how reactions happen in geopolitical scenarios which could change. But clearly there’s a positivity from all quarters in terms of how they see it going forward.
Saurabh Jain
Understood, thank you, that is helpful. The second question is, we notice that the gross margins continue to improve every quarter for you, and I think we delivered a 59% kind of a gross margins. Would you also give out a guidance on what kind of gross margin do you expect on a sustainable basis?
Mayank Singhal
So as you’ve seen, as always, you guys, I think we continue to manage the grit margin on a quarter to quarter basis. It will be difficult to put that out as Europe very clearly would understand that there are product mixes, there’s value mixes which come together, but as we give them the guidance, between 50 to 50 odd plus 50 to 52 or 50%, we continue to keep that and we continue to move with that.
Saurabh Jain
So we have been delivering quite good. Kind of gross margins for last few quarters. What is this gap between what is your expectations on a sustainable basis and what we’re delivering? What is this gap attributed to? I really don’t understand that.
Mayank Singhal
Gross margin.
Sanjay Agarwal
Understood a question. See the thing is, first of all, while we will aim to deliver more, but it is better to be because there will be a product mix gap between quarter on quarter. So on a yearly basis is when we can talk more with clarity with you. And at the end of the day, whatever gross margin benefits we get, it helps us in investing the planned investment that we have in the new businesses and therefore it is better to track the EBITDA margin again for the nine months we are at a healthy 26, 27% and we would still hold ourselves for the year what we started the year with 25 to 26% and we believe that is where we should exit target to exit in this financial year and most of these things.
Once we have our budgeting exercise completed for FY27, we can give you more guidance for the next year thereafter.
Saurabh Jain
Sure. Thank you so much and all the best. I’ll get back in the queue.
Sanjay Agarwal
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time and fairness to others, we request you to restrict to two questions per participant and rejoin the question queue. We take the next question from the line of Vivek Rajamani from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Vivek Rajamani
Hi sir, thank you for the opportunity. The first question I had was an extension to the earlier guidance question just going to fiscal 27. I know it’s a bit early, but would it be possible to give some sense if you’re expecting more like mid single digit or high single digit, any range if that’s possible and also whether it would be broad based across the portfolio or you expect certain parts of the portfolio contributing more towards that fiscal 27 recovery. That’s the first question.
Mayank Singhal
So let me put it as we said, there is still the softness. I think we definitely see recovery now, different pockets, different place. Clearly be too early to give a guidance which what numbers and stocks we see. But I think coming into the next quarter, as we always do over the decades, is whether we give a guidance for the next financial year post the end of the year. Yeah.
Vivek Rajamani
Sure sir, understood. The second question with respect to the new products that you’ve been disclosing, I think for the nine months you’ve mentioned that the new products have grown at about 10% which given the first two quarters of the year which saw a very, very strong growth, it seems to suggest that 3Q that growth of the new portfolio seems to have slowed down. I just wanted to get some color with respect to were there any specific reasons around that and if there was some impact of the US Tariffs and how should we think about that going Forward into fiscal 27? Thank you.
Mayank Singhal
So at a fundamental level, as I highlighted in my speech, that the key challenge is the commodity prices and the demand cycle, which is creating challenges and the headwinds of weather. Obviously the US policies have impacted the growers, which in turn has a consumption differentiation. It is not the trade policy per se. So I think that’s creating one of the key challenges. But going forward, I definitely see that could move into the positive direction. That is one the second important issue. As we see for the new products, it takes a little time for development. As you can understand from the ag business and I’m sure you know that well, it takes typically a decade plus to keep products.
And the beauty about ag is products continue to grow for life. And I think that’s what the time cycle is. But the positivity is a mix of the new product portfolio, the percentage growth coming from that with time, if the industry stretches, this could accelerate the growth rate. So these infrastructs.
Vivek Rajamani
Sure, sir, that’s helpful. I’ll rejoin the queue. And all the very best.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Abhijit Akela from Kotak Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Abhijit Akella
Good morning. Thank you so much. Could you please just update us on the contract assets number on the balance sheet at the end of December, please?
Sanjay Agarwal
Yeah, so this particular quarter the contract assets are in the range of around 1,065 crores and. Yeah.
Abhijit Akella
Okay, got it. So compared to basically about little under 900 crores last quarter. And in terms of the liquidation timeline for this line, I think we’ve said in the past that we expect it to come down towards the end of this financial year. So any sense you could help us with regarding how we should expect the trajectory to shape up over here?
Mayank Singhal
Yes, as you know. Yes. That we’ve given a guidance. As you know, if you look at the past history, this is a typical cyclical approach and no invention beyond three to six months. So clearly, yes, at the end of the year this will be coming down and I think over the next couple of quarters it may further go lower. There is a mix of how asset utilization, capacity utilization, customer contracts, mechanisms work.
Abhijit Akella
So by year end, where should we expect this number to be, sir?
Mayank Singhal
Well, I can only give you guidance to say it will be reduced and it will get there. But to give a specific number will depend on how we shape things up in terms of customers, shipments, timelines, asset mixes which are going up. So that’s really how it is. So it’s not a specific number that I can come to today.
Abhijit Akella
All right. And then just on the gross margin guidance, you know, the. So just, you know, trying to understand, I mean in terms of this 50 to 52% trajectory that we expect, is that something we should expect in the relatively near future itself, say in fiscal 27 or for fiscal 27, what’s the line of sight we have? Can we maintain the gross margins around these levels of 58, 59%.
Mayank Singhal
So as we mentioned, we’ve given that guidance. The intention is to continue to obviously manage and maintain the gross margin and clearly as we will give a better guidance at the post of the year end.
Abhijit Akella
Yeah, I think I’m done. Thank you so much. All the best.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Rohit Nagaraj from 361 Capital. Please go ahead.
Rohit Nagraj
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir. Any update on the plant healthcare? When we had acquired this almost one and a half years back, we were expecting some cross selling of products from India, our own products to the other geographies like where PHC has its presence in us, Brazil, Mexico. So where are we in that process and where can we see some tangible benefits from the same? Thank you.
Mayank Singhal
So maybe Jagdish, you can take this?
Jagresh Rana
Yes, no, absolutely. And thank you for asking. So on plant healthcare part of the business, we have made tremendous progress this year. We are expanding our business in Brazil, us, Mexico and European countries. In Brazil this year we have gone from last year 2 distributors to 33 distributors. We have more than 400 farmers who are right now using our product in their own field, testing the product in case of. Similarly in Mexico, we have more than 28 distributors right now who are working with us. In US we are setting up a distribution network for the entire Midwest and the world’s largest farmers from Brazil and Mexico, they are basically right now testing our product.
They have been working with us. We have also got some new product under registration. We launched two new products in Brazil, two in Mexico. We just got our disease control product approval in California. That makes the entire US And California is the largest market for that product. We are awaiting an approval for one of our nematode management product in US which is expanded sometime this month. And all the trials which we are doing in the farmer’s field in Brazil, the harvesting is just getting started and what we are seeing is almost more than 80% win rate.
So we are basically making good progress. In India we got that product, Plant healthcare product got approved and we are looking at launching this product in this next quarter.
Rohit Nagraj
Sure, that’s helpful. Second question on Pioxanoleprole. Now that we have filed for the registration in Indian market, what are the timelines that we are looking at from commercialization in Indian market and any progress on probably having registrations in the global market? Thank you.
Mayank Singhal
For sure. Thank you. I think the progress is within this financial year we should be achieving the registration so that with the landmark in the Indian history of a new innovation of perhaps in a referral in the next coming financial. On the other hand, yes there are works of regulatory works which are going in other couple of geographies. So we’ll be filing for regulatory registrations in the coming year and hoping as soon as you get regulatory approval to launch the product at the global platform.
Rohit Nagraj
Sure. Thanks a lot for answering all the questions and all the best sir.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Siddharth Garikar from Equerria Securities. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
So just on the pharma and the biologic business now if you look at the numbers we are heavily investing in these businesses and we are roughly at a 7580 crore quarterly EBITDA loss in these segments. So how should we think about these investments from a medium to longer term and are we at the peak of the investments in these businesses and going ahead the investment should move in line with our overall opec.
Mayank Singhal
That’s a very good question. See look first we need to understand why we are doing it. If we understand that these are good cost, you know, the investments, what we are doing is going to be a long term value creation for the organization. That is where we are at now. Initially we have bought, I mean we got these businesses, we have incubated them, we have got the people now and we have to make the right investments and unfortunately all of it gets charge off to the pnl. So yes it will take some time. Like Pharma is now getting onto a right strong foundation.
Biologicals. Jagrej just spoke. So yes currently they are having P and L charge and we’ll have to bear it for some few quarters but thereafter we think as an organization this will be future growth engines for us. Yeah, that’s it.
Sanjay Agarwal
So they were put in one line. Look at these as investments of the future not as losses of present.
Unidentified Participant
So secondly just on the capex side we were working on two multi purpose plants and now we have expanded that to three multi purpose plants and we have also spoken about a non GMP plant in India on The pharmacy. So the third plant is largely for the pharma business. Is that a fair understanding?
Mayank Singhal
No, as you know we’re looking at certain other verticals as I mentioned earlier. So the third plant will be servicing those verticals within the specialty electronic chemicals. That’s really where we are putting our footprint.
Unidentified Participant
So any capex on the pharma intermediate plant that we are setting up in India?
Mayank Singhal
Yes, we’re coming up with the plans and announcing that in the next quarter.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so got it. Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and 1. We take the next question from the line of Tejas Pradhan from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Tejas Pradhan
Yeah, hi sir, I know it’s early but could you provide any guidance on. The Capex plan for FY27 so broadly?
Mayank Singhal
Let me give it in line. Is around 5, 600 crores. I mean and obviously once we get to the whole process procedures after board approval we give proper guidance and expense quarter.
Tejas Pradhan
Okay, you mentioned 500 to 600 crores, right?
Mayank Singhal
I think that’s where we are today.
Tejas Pradhan
Okay, okay, understood. And on the domestic biological registration process, any update where we are, what percentage. Of portfolio would be already registered?
Mayank Singhal
So if you look at the domestic biological portfolio, as you know at the beginning of the year we’ve had certain turmoil in the industry. So those are getting sorted. I believe in this quarter those should be in the past. Clearly certain other new products as we already mentioned that products like a new peptide of our, the HYPN is already registered and we are looking and evaluating about two to three new products in this segment and I think today we have a very robust large scale portfolio in biologicals. We are making those investments to scale them out.
Tejas Pradhan
Okay, okay. And just lastly any sort of thought process on the use of cash on balance sheet if there are any opportunities. Domestically or elsewhere, what how are you thinking about it?
Mayank Singhal
So if you look at the cash in the balance sheet there’ll be an address, there will be investments. We’re also looking as we mentioned on our new entities and technology platforms that we’re investing. Clearly the company has a resource and a team which is all on the lookout to look at what could be the synergistic in align to our strategies which are knowledge led capabilities of building a differentiated play. So that’s really where we are focusing and we continue to do so.
Tejas Pradhan
Okay, and just to if I can add, I mean would this largely be in AC chem or largely looking at outside of ackem?
Mayank Singhal
So In a lighter way, let me put it, if you have three children, we have to decide which suits the best opportunity, which school fits what skill. Right. So once you look at the opportunity, we’re looking to grow in every sector that you’re playing in. So whichever opportunity comes and fits in well, we’re going to put it there.
Tejas Pradhan
Sure. Understood. Thanks a lot sir.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Vivek Rajamani from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Vivek Rajamani
Hi sir. Thank you so much for the follow up. This is an extension of the previous participants question. On the biological side, did you mention that the regulatory issues are now behind and Q4 will potentially be a normal quarter?
Mayank Singhal
No. Yes. In the Indian market, if you remember they are now getting into approval systems. So that’s why I’m saying behind. So maybe next year we’ll see those behind has come up. Q4 is when they expect industry has taken up front and the government has taken initiatives to resolve that.
Vivek Rajamani
Sure sir, understood. And would it just be possible to share, you know, what is the biological contribution in fiscal 26 so far we.
Mayank Singhal
Should be around 21%.
Vivek Rajamani
Okay sir. Thank you. Thank you very much.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Ranjit Sirumala from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hi sir. Thank you for taking my question. My question is on the write back of the contingent consideration that we have taken of the PI health science. How should one view this? Is it? Does the original performance thesis of this particular equation remains intact or there is going to be any change in the expectations?
Mayank Singhal
Absolutely. There is no change in the strategy, there is no impact of it. And that is why we renegotiated contingent consideration which was lying in our books. So the business is on a strong footing. We have now experienced in house global business development team. So we look forward for our pharma business to scale up and build one of the best global CRDMO platform.
Unidentified Participant
Sure. Thank you sir.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Siddharth Karrikar from Equator Securities. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
My question is on the plant healthcare business. Can you just say some broader thoughts on how should one think about the overall opportunity and the trajectory of the segment? Specifically on Sanozi and Eco. Given that we have been looking to ramp up these products, any indicative timelines and peak sales number that we could look at from these products?
Mayank Singhal
Yeah. No, absolutely. So see you. To look at it overall in the industry, biological business globally has been growing in double digits. So globally the biological business is in the range of around $10 billion today this has been continuously growing over 10% and that’s the segment basically we are participating, we are bringing in some of our key product. The difference what we see is overall biological business globally is a fairly crowded space but we have some unique product and these technologies no one has. We are the first company in the world who has commercialized peptides in agriculture.
Peptides have been used in pharma etc. In the past. But we are the first company who has commercialized in agriculture and we see this differentiation driving significant growth products like Saori Teko. These are the plant production products within biologicals. The fastest growing segment today is a biocontrol segment. Because of the challenges which are coming in like society is looking at how can they basically bring in the product which have a lesser impact overall and that’s what is driving the growth. Also farmers are looking at those kind of options in which can help their crop to grow better.
So we actually see a significant growth opportunities as we expand this portfolio.
operator
Okay. Secondly we have made a comment in the presentation that we aim at becoming among the top five CRDMOs on the pharma side. Any timelines or how should one think about the investment in this segment going ahead?
Mayank Singhal
As you know this is long gestation based business capable of building and I can just give you a parallel example. It took over a decade to build PI contract manufacturing and then you have the hockey stick effect. So I think we are right now phase of the hockey and we expect yes, the scale will take time if you want to differentiate and have sustainability. So I think we should look at the next couple of years where we put the right basis and the numbers will start ticking.
Unidentified Participant
Oh, thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question please press star and one we take the next question from the line of Krishan Parvani from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, hi sir, thank you for taking my question. Just firstly wanted to understand the CSM business that has struck this quarter. So you know when do you expect the CSM business to kind of show a yoy growth? Maybe it is six months down the line or nine months down the line. When do you expect it?
Mayank Singhal
So let me first calibrate. We’re not struggling. Number one, it was line in expectation of what we see. But clearly as I we’ve indicated that coming the quarter we already see the positive rate coming from and the fourth quarter itself started showing certain regions so we’re pretty confident that will work well.
Unidentified Participant
So did you Mention that the fourth quarter onwards will you will have CSM growth again. Is that what you. Okay, okay. Okay. Okay. And you know with when do we expect this pharma contribution to be fairly positive for the company? Because I think our targets to go EBITDA positive have been pushed out. I know you’ve been trying a lot but what’s the sense there?
Mayank Singhal
So let me put it. Definitely we put in all the efforts. The idea is EBITDA positivity is something dependent on the market and the opportunity. And clearly we don’t want to lose the focus on what the strategic differentiator will be just because the markets are twinkling. But I think we are holding in the building capability so we are taking more aggressive calls and investing. Hence you may see the EBITDA challenges. But I do believe that now when the foundations are set it takes a lot longer gestation to turn this business up. And clearly I see in the next couple of years it should start moving once we hit the top for 500 crore top lines.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. And lastly if I may, you know it’s been quite. It’s been some quarters since we have stopped giving out our order book number. So has it, has the order book declined or what is it? What’s the status of it? Can you just help us with that?
Mayank Singhal
No, no. We have been sharing order book. I think last time also we did mention that. And as of this quarter the way we look at it we are in the range of $1.2 billion of order book.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you for patiently answering my question. Wish you all the best. Thank you so much.
Mayank Singhal
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Naushat Chaudhary from Aditya Birla Mutual fund. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hi, just one question sir. If you can you know touch upon on the electronics chemical. What exactly are we doing here from our end user point of view and how big this platform can be for you in next five years and beyond.
Mayank Singhal
Yeah. So in terms of electronic chemicals I think there is a good traction. New customers have been added and the couple of products have gone to the commercialization. And we expect that four to five molecules will be going for commercialization. So there is a good amount of you know the projects with the new customers getting required and I see a good amount of forward in the coming years.
Unidentified Participant
Can you touch upon the end user which specific area and space this these molecules are targeting?
Mayank Singhal
Then the more the semiconductor and the high end application electronics to keep that.
Unidentified Participant
Are these only for domestic market or for export as well?
Mayank Singhal
They only work in a global innovator market.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you so much. All the best.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Amit Kadda from Canada, Rebecca Mutual fund. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hi sir, good morning. Thanks for giving this opportunity. So my first question is have you seen some kind of a price realization impact in some of our key products? I just wanted to understand how the pricing or the realization is also behaving when you are anticipating revival in.
Mayank Singhal
Well let me put it this way. Price realization has overall in the industry shrunk as you can see and clearly because also the costs of raw material have come down. The company’s strategic focus is to continue to manage its gross margins. And while we continue to look at optimizing to be competitive on the price front to capture value and volume both as a balance sheet at a balance level. So that’s really the approach and that’s a part of the cyclical industry like ag.
Unidentified Participant
So is it fair to assume that what the price some kind of impact is also seen in our portfolio in terms of some compression in the price realization?
Mayank Singhal
Portfolio mixes always have a challenge very clearly and that’s a cycle, life cycle, different product, different prices. The point of the management focus of the company is to see how we continue to manage across margins. So portfolio is one strategy, technology is the other bit of strategy. The third is the market to create value and those are the three strategies and that’s what creates gross margins.
Unidentified Participant
And just to extend this particular thing, the, the things what we like when we, when there is a price compression the thing what we can discuss, you often discuss with the married client is like some pass through or some. Hello, Am I audible? So I am saying that. What are you. Am I audible? Sir? Sorry.
Mayank Singhal
Yeah.
Unidentified Participant
Hello. Yes, my extension to the question was like what’s the recourse in this particular thing is that only request is that we try to do lot of some backward integration and. And that’s how I try to be better in that particular product when there is a price compression happening for that particular product or is there a way of finding out.
Mayank Singhal
Is too much. Secondly, I didn’t get your question so I don’t know how we can we get that.
Unidentified Participant
Maybe, maybe I’ll just come back. I’ll just fix something and I’ll come back with my second question.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Aditya Jawar from Investec. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. So my first question is I hope you guys can hear me.
Mayank Singhal
Yeah, we can Hear you Aditya.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know if you can give me some sense that how has been our penetration in some of the new clients? So clearly over the last four, five years we would have added multiple client in different geographies. So is there a line of sight where we can see that in the next couple of years we should see a meaningful ramp up in some of the new relationships we have started.
Mayank Singhal
So which business area are we talking this about?
Unidentified Participant
So csm, this is I think the elephant in the room.
Mayank Singhal
So in the AG business we cover all the players already. So it’s expanding new businesses. But if you’re talking about the electronic and the new verticals, that’s where we are basically focusing on companies. We’ve got five new customers in the areas of electronic chemicals, primarily Japan and certain European customers for high end specialty technology development products.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. So you know, continuing with this Mayanke, you know, in the AG chem business as we, you know, had a strong relationship with Japanese innovators, is there a line of sight where we can say that we are having meaningful contribution coming from the European American innovators in the next couple of years based on our existing business, you know, discussions with them.
Mayank Singhal
So one, I’m not sure because we worked with the European customers, the three big boys for at least last 20 years and we have been also the pioneering partners. So those have continued our dialogue. New pipeline is coming, new evaluations happening, be developing them. So and also the American companies which you would know of.
Unidentified Participant
Sure, sure. Fair enough, fair enough. So my second question, you know Sanjay, if you can, you know, throw some light. There has been a increase in the working capital quite sharply almost from 68 days to 139 days. Y O y so could you please explain and how we should expect, you know, the intensity of the working capital coming down.
Mayank Singhal
So ritual. This is a reflection of the global scenario. We had one of the lowest working capital days across the industry. Now we have to accommodate the needs of our partners. And in those lines is where our networking capital days have gone up. Still much better than the industry benchmark norms. But having said that we would not, we would definitely want these. I will not be able to give you exact numbers Aditya, right now but we expect to improve this as the market scenarios normalize in the coming quarters.
Unidentified Participant
That’s it for my side. I’ll call back in queue. Thank you.
Mayank Singhal
Thanks.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Archit Joshi from Nuama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. Good morning and thanks for the opportunity. So I have only one question. I would like to understand your thoughts on the evolving landscape amongst global agri majors. We have seen some bit of corporate actions happening in some some of the large MNC agro innovators. Given this scenario, how do you see the development on new technologies and patented products coming up especially regards to their R and D spend and what would be our stance and capability to have a personal advantage within these patented technologies going ahead so that we can garner a good amount of product portfolio and scalability is going ahead.
So if you would have a three to five year view on this developing and evolving scenario, I’d like to hear more from you sir. Thank you.
Mayank Singhal
Thanks. I think that’s a very good question and let me put this across very well. Every challenge has an opportunity and I think PI is the only company which is geared with its philosophy of partnership and technology as an innovator which creates an opportunity just not in manufacturing but also in building new entities together. That’s the PI value proposition. If you look at the history of PI starting as partners of intelligence, licensing, domestic business and scaling that up as partnership for innovation the PI way the next was partnership for Innovation manufacturing. Now we will the company will lead the path in the ADCAP sector for partnering for innovation for new product development.
Not only product development, but we opened a few more engines. We’ve taken the engines of biologicals where we’re creating innovative platforms and partnerships. So the partnership platform and BI innovation are going to be the drivers of which the opportunity in challenging environments gives us a differentiator to partner even deeper in the relationship from market to research.
Unidentified Participant
Yes sir. Thank you. Thanks and all the best.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question and we conclude the question and answer session. I now hand the conference over to the management for their closing comments.
Mayank Singhal
So thank you everybody for joining us on this call and also I would like to highlight today we sandisk to celebrate our Founders Day, an exciting time and day for all of us. So thank you for being here.
operator
Thank you on behalf of PI Industries limited that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.