Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
POLYCAB INDIA LIMITED (NSE: POLYCAB) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 06, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Niyant Maru — Chief Financial Officer
Shashank Yagnick — Head Strategy
Analysts:
Sonali Salgaonkar — Analyst
Puneet Gulati — Analyst
Keyur Pandya — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Akshay Gattani — Analyst
Umang Mehta — Analyst
Achal Lohade — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Polycap India Limited Q4FY26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Niyant Maru, Chief Financial Officer, Polycab India Limited.
Thank you. And over to you, sir. Mayansa, you’re unmuted. Please go ahead.
Niyant Maru — Chief Financial Officer
I’ll start again. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us. I hope all of you are staying healthy and safe. I am Niyant Maru, CFO at Polycap India Limited. On this call, we shall discuss the Q4 26 results which were approved in the board meeting held earlier today. We will be referring to the earnings presentation, financial results and financial statements which are available on the stock exchanges as well as on the investor relations page of our website. Joining me today from the management team will be head Strategy and Investor Relations, Mr.
Shashank Yardnik. First of all, let me just say that despite the current macroeconomic environment, the company has delivered a strong performance, recording the highest quarterly revenue in its history. The demand sentiment to an extent was impacted by geopolitical developments in the Middle east. But our teams executed with agility and resilience, enabling us to sustain an industry leading performance. This outcome reflects the strength of our operating model and disciplined execution. The wires and cables business delivered robust growth supported by healthy demand and execution, while the FABG segment continued to build momentum through improved product mix and expanded market reach.
Across the organization, our focus remains on execution excellence, translating strategy into outcomes and strengthening the foundation for long term growth. Our priorities remain very clear. Our sustaining growth momentum, strengthening our competitive positioning and continuing to invest in innovation, talent and capabilities at the same time. We all know that the global macroeconomic landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation since our last earnings call. The outbreak of the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran towards the end of February 26 has been the single most consequential macro development of the quarter, sending shockwaves across the energy markets, currencies, equity indices and central bank policy frameworks.
Crude oil prices have risen very sharply with Brent now hovering around $100 per barrel, while disruptions in the freight of forward have intensified the supply concern. This has led to renewed inflationary pressures and a sharp repricing in global bond yields. Major central banks which had been on a cautious easing path through much of 2026, have now firmly pivoted towards a caution and in several cases also towards tightening. The U.S. Fed held rates at 3.5 to 3.75% at its March meeting, revising the inflation projections upwards and plaguing significant uncertainty.
The bank of England also held at 3.75%, with markets now pricing two rate hikes this year. The ECB maintained rates at 2% but revised its 2026 inflation projection sharply upward to 2.6% from 1.9% and also cutting the growth forecast. The bank of Japan, which had hiked in December 2025, held in March but faces a 70% market implied probability of a further hike in equity. The era of coordinated global easing has also come to an end. India demonstrated strong underlying momentum through most of the year, though Q4 brought its own set of pressures.
India’s full year FY26 GDP growth is projected at approximately 7.6%, the fastest pace in the recent years and the fourth consecutive year. India holds the position of the world’s fastest growing major economy. The quarterly trajectory through the year has been impressive, Q1 at 7.8%, Q2 accelerating to 8.4%, a sixth quarter high while manufacturing and services both contributing strongly. Even Q3 held at a healthy 7.8%, underscoring the broad based nature of the recovery. High frequency indicators through Q4 however are beginning to signal some moderation.
Air passenger traffic, port cargo volumes and E way generation have shown softness in the January to March period. However, on the opposite side, the consumption environment has been encouraging. Credit growth has sustained double digit momentum with bank credit continuing to expand at healthy level through March 2026. The Government Capital expenditure has largely remained on track, spending about 86% of the revised budget estimates since February 2026 providing a steady demand anchor for infrastructure and allied sectors.
Investment activity has been has seen yadat momentum during the year with rising capacity utilization and improving order. Pipelines signal that the private capex cycle is gradually More broadly, the real estate sector has maintained healthy momentum with launches and sales across major cities tracking well. Encouragingly for most of FY26 this growth was accomplished by strikingly benign inflation. Headline CPI reached an all time low in October 2025 supported by easing food prices and contained energy costs.
March 2026 CPI has come at 3.4% year on year, still comfortably below the rbi target rate of 4%. Core CPI ex food and fuel remains stable, suggesting that underlying price pressures within the domestic economy remain well incurred. This rare combination of strong growth and soft penetration is a genuine macroeconomic achievement for India and reflects the maturity of its policy framework. This favorable backdrop enabled the RBI to deliver a cumulative 125 basis points of rate cuts through the year, its most aggressive easing cycle.
In the recent years, lower borrowing costs have meaningfully supported household consumption, retail credit and investment demand. The transmission of these cuts into lending rates have progressively improved, providing tangible relief to both consumers and businesses. India’s foreign exchange result, while moderating from their peak, remain still robust at approximately 682 billion, equivalent to over 11 months of import cover, providing a substantial buffer against external volatility. Domestic institutional investors have played a critical stabilizing role in the equity market, absorbing the significant FBI outflows and demonstrating the growing depth and maturity of India’s capital market.
That said, Q4 has introduced headwinds that warrant careful monitoring. The sharp rise in crude oil prices and depreciation of the Indian rupee, which hit a record low of 95, will exert upward pressure on inflation in the quarters ahead. CPI is also expected to edge higher and the RBI is likely to remain on an extended pause. High frequency indicators through January to March 2026 reflect some moderation in the momentum, though diesel consumption, manufacturing output and consumer sentiments have continued to hold up.
Overall, India’s structural foundation, a resilient domestic demand base, a maturing policy framework, a deepening financial system and an expanding manufacturing sector remains firmly intact. The external environment is more challenging than it was a couple of years ago, but India’s relative position in the global growth landscape is arguably stronger than ever. We remain confident in the medium term trajectory of the Indian economy and the robust demand environment it continues to provide for our business.
I would now like to hand over to Shashank to take you through the financial performance for the quarter and the financial year.
Shashank Yagnick — Head Strategy
Thank you Nian. For the quarter ended March 31, 2026, we are pleased to report a strong performance with consolidated revenue growing 27% year on year, driven by robust momentum in both cables and wires as well as FMEG segments. EBITDA for the quarter increased by 13% year on year with margins at 13.1%. Despite multiple industry headwinds and softer trade sentiment amid the ongoing Middle east escalation at the profit level, the company delivered its highest ever quarterly PAT of rupees 7.9 billion, reflecting a growth of 7% year on year.
Backed margins for the quarter stood at 8.9%. Finance costs for the quarter were rupees 746 million while other income stood at rupees 604 million. For a more detailed breakdown of these items, I would encourage you to refer to slide number 28 of the presentation. We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet with a net cash position of Rupees 41.9 billion. Our working capital cycle has improved to 25 days in quarter four, primarily due to temporary increase in payable days arising from use of letter of credit for raw material procurement.
On a normalized basis, we expect the working capital cycle to revert to our steady state range of 45 to 50 years. Capital expenditure for the quarter stood at rupees 3.9 billion, taking the total capex for full financial year to approximately 14.8 billion rupees and this is very much in line with our Project Spring guidance. Turning to our full year performance, FY26 has been a landmark year for the company with record high revenue. EBITDA and pattern revenue crossed rupees 285 billion milestones going 29% year on year.
EBITDA grew faster than revenue, increasing by 35% year on year with margins expanding to 13.9%. PAT rose by 32% year on year surpassing rupees 27 billion with PAT margins at 9.4%. This strong performance underscores our financial strength and reinforces our position as the most profitable company in the electrical industry for the fourth consecutive year. Additionally, we have retained our position as the largest company in the Indian electrical industry by revenue for the second consecutive year, an important milestone for the organization.
Moving on to slide number five, we are pleased to report combined market share gains, continued market share gains even on a higher base. Our domestic wires and cable organized market share has now increased to 30 to 31% up from 18 to 19% in financial year 2019 and this is an improvement of approximately 300 to 400 basis points or FY25 levels of market share of 26 or 27%. This consistent gain in market share reflects the strength of our execution under Project Spring and validates our long term strategy of investing in brand distribution and manufacturing scale.
Importantly, these gains are not cyclical but very much structural nature driven by a shift towards organized players, increasing preference for quality and compliance and our ability to serve customers reliably across geographies. Our expanding distribution network, deeper channel engagement and continued focus on premiumization have enabled us to capture incremental demand across both channel and institutional segments. At the same time, our scale advantages and backward integration continue to support competitive positioning allowing us to grow ahead of the industry even in a relatively volatile demand environment.
Our ability to gain market share highlights the resilience of our business model and the trust we have built with our customers and the partners. More broadly. This momentum in market share is a key pillar of our growth strategy and gives us confidence in sustaining industry leading growth over near to medium term. FY26 also marked an important inflection point in capital investment. For the first time in our history, annual capex exceeded rupees 14.5 billion, underscoring our long term commitment to growth.
In line with Project Spring, we remain on track to execute our planned capex program of rupees 60 to 80 billion over the next five years which will further enhance our capabilities, scale and innovation. We have also strengthened our balance sheet with net cash increasing to Rs. 41.9 billion reflecting disciplined cash flow management. In line with our capital allocation strategy, we have proposed a dividend of Rupees 47 per share resulting in a payout ratio of 27.2%. This represents a step forward towards our Project Spring goal of achieving a 30% payout ratio by financial year 2030.
Now let’s move to slide number nine for a quick update on the wires and cables business. The wires and cables segment delivered a strong 30% year on year growth during the quarter. Within this quarter, the domestic cables business recorded an impressive 30% year on year growth supported by resilient execution. Despite a challenging operating environment, volume growth for the quarter remained in the low single digits as the industry faced multiple headwinds including temporary halt in construction activities across parts of west and north due to pollution related restrictions as well as softer demand sentiment impacted by the ongoing MIDI escalation affecting both primary and secondary sales.
Notably, cables outpaced wires in terms of growth for this quarter while institutional sales grew faster than channel sales. From a regional standpoint, the west region led the performance followed by south, north and east underscoring the strength and breadth of our Pan India presence. As highlighted on Slide 11, our products continue to play a critical role in nation building with strong participation across high growth sectors such as renewable energy, Metrorail data centers and manufacturing.
These segments remain key structural drivers for sustained demand in the wireless cables business. Our international business delivered robust performance, growing 18% year on year and contributing 4.4% of consolidated revenue. Even amid the escalation in remedies that impacted sales during the quarter, we remain confident in the long term outlook. With a healthy order book and a supportive demand trend, we expect a strong recovery and a strong growth momentum going forward. I would like to highlight that we have significantly expanded our global footprint to 94 countries, up from 48 countries in financial year 2019, reflecting our increasing global presence.
Additionally, we have reestablished our distribution network in the United States, which we believe will enhance our reach and further strengthen our export business. Over time, EBIT margins for the wires and cables business stood at 13.1%. As mentioned earlier, margins were slightly impacted by a few factors. Firstly, there was an unfavorable mix in business with the international segment, a high margin accretive business being affected by the Middle east situation. Secondly, the higher contribution from institutional sales compared to channel sales had a moderating impact on the margins.
Lastly, softer trade sentiment in March which is a key month for quarter four, sales impacted operating leverage for the quarter. Moving to slide number 13 for an update on the FMEG business the FMEG segment delivered an exceptional performance for this quarter, registering a strong 47% year on year growth with broad based contributions across all product categories. This marks the ninth consecutive quarter of outperformance versus industry benchmarks, reaffirming the strength of our strategy and execution in this high potential segment.
Let me walk you through the key drivers of this growth, starting with sand. Despite the delayed summer onset in certain regions and temporary channel inventory adjustments following changes in bee norms, the segment delivered growth. This performance was driven by our continued focus on premiumization, expanding our energy efficient product range and strengthening channel execution. As a result, premium fans now contribute approximately 25% of financial year 26 segment revenues. In lighting and luminaries.
We sustained growth despite the deflationary pricing environment supported by both volume and value expansion. The momentum was led by our growing premium portfolio which now accounts for 35% of segment revenues. As energy efficient and high quality lighting solutions continue to see strong customer acceptance across markets, our solar products business was a standout performer delivering twofold year on year growth and emerging as the largest category within the SMIG portfolio. This growth is underpinned by strong structural tailwinds including government initiatives, state level subsidy programs and rising consumer adoption of renewable energy solutions.
Other categories including switchgears, conduit pipes and fittings and switches also recorded healthy growth. This was driven by sustained momentum in the real estate and construction sectors along with our continued focus on portfolio expansion and deeper market penetration. Importantly, the SMEG business which turned profitable in quarter four of last year has continued to deliver profitability while we invest in talent, product development and brand building. EBIT margins for the quarter stood at 4.1% in line with our Project Sprint target Tree of achieving 8 to 10% EBITDA margins by financial year 2030 Looking ahead, we remain confident in the long term growth potential of the SMG segment.
We are well aligned with our Project Spring objectives of delivering 1.5x to 2x of industry growth while steadily improving our margins. Our continued investment in distribution expansion, product innovation and brand equity will be key enablers in unlocking sustained value in this business. Moving on to Slide 15 this slide provides an update on our EEPC business. During quarter four FY26, TPC revenues marginally declined by 15% year on year reaching rupees 5098 million. Majorly due to project execution cycle segment Profitability stood at rupees 386 million translating to a margin of 7.6%.
Looking ahead, the annual sustainable operating margin is expected to remain in the mid to high single digits or mid to long term. Moving on to slide 17 which provides an update on our Project Spring Under Sprint, we continue to make steady progress in line with our financial year 2030 strategic objectives. Within the Wires and cables segment growth since the launch of this program has consistently exceeded our guidance tracking at 1.5x to 2x of the industry growth with margins remaining far above the guided range.
While export contribution appears lower on a relative basis, exports on an absolute basis have continued to grow during financial year 26. The relative contribution decline is largely due to a stronger domestic growth which has expanded the overall revenue base. We remain firm on track to achieve our target of greater than 10% contribution from exports by financial year 2030. In FMEG, we are also progressing well, consistently outpacing industry growth in line with our target of growing at 1.5 FQQ s of market rate while maintaining a clear focus on margin expansion and progressing towards our EBITDA margin goal of 8 to 10% by FY 2030.
During FY 26 we incurred capex of rupees 14.8 billion in line with our annual guidance of rupees 12 to 16 billion per annum. We also increased our dividend payout to approximately 27.2% up from 26.3% last year as we move steadily towards our stated objective of exceeding 30% by FY 2030. Overall, we believe we have made a strong start to Project Spring and remain confident in our ability to deliver on our long term strategic and financial goals. Moving on to the next few slides which provide an update on the ESG commitments during the year, we have taken several important steps to strengthen our ESG framework.
These include conducting a climate risk assessment, undertaking a double materiality assessment and aligning our internal policies more closely with ESG metrics and global best practices. Last year we had outlined 10 measurable ESG goals across the three pillars of environment, social and governance. These goals span key areas such as carbon emissions, smart circular, economy, waste management, product stewardship, waste water management, diversity and inclusion, employee well being, community engagement, supply chain responsibility, and corporate governance, including ethics and integrity.
We have made meaningful progress across these areas during the year, as detailed on slide 21. We recognize that this is a long term journey. However, with the right intent, a strong foundation, and a deeply embedded culture of responsibility, we are confident that polycas will not only keep pace with evolving global expectations, but also play a role in shaping them. Thank you for your continued support and confidence in our journey. That concludes our update for the quarter and we will now be open to take your questions.
Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin with a question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press STAR and then one on the deadstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press STAR and then two. Participants, you are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. A reminder to all the participants. You may press STAR and then one to ask a question. We will take the first question from the line of Sonadi Salgonkar from Jetsey.
Please go ahead.
Sonali Salgaonkar
So thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a great set of numbers despite the Middle east disruption. So my first question is of the cables and wire sales growth of 30%. If we could break up on the approximate growth volume growth in cables and wires and also the price hikes that we have taken from Jan till now in different branches.
Shashank Yagnick
So Sonali, thank you for this question. So firstly on the growth. So revenue growth like you rightly mentioned has been 30% for the quarter and if I speak of volumes, it’s been combined volume of low single digit for both cable and wire put together cables has of course outpaced wires in terms of price hikes. We’ve taken approximately 18 to 19% price hike cumulatively from Jan to March.
Sonali Salgaonkar
Understood that’s helpful. So secondly, how is the demand situation now? As we understand it was severely impacted in March. March is a key month for your quarter, but since then there has been some normalization of demand across sectors is what we understand. So how is the demand sit right now domestically?
Shashank Yagnick
So just want to also highlight that Q4 last year for us was very very strong. So at the back of that base we’ve been able to deliver some volume growth and of course revenue growth of 30 odd percent. So we have definitely seen some moderation in demand primarily due to so much volatility and business escalation. But if you look structurally the demand, domestic demand is very robust. If you look at power capacity additions in the last financial year itself has been around 5556 gigawatts which is almost double of what happened in financial year 25.
And this is going to continue. If you look at the union budget which was announced in February, a very strong 12.2 lakh crore budget announced which again if you add private capex to that, we see today around 36, 37 lakh crore to be invested in financial year 27. Now majority of these investments or other 57% of these investments are going into areas which are going to convert into strong demand for cable and wire. Sectors like utilities, metals, semiconductors, oil and gas, manufacturing, logistics, all of this is going to convert strong demand for cable and wire.
Also there are new demand pockets which are yet to completely bloom or we are yet to fully exploit the opportunity there areas like defense, areas like data centers which are yet to pick up in a big way. So I think one comforting thing is that in our industry the demand doesn’t extinguish so it can only differ by one week, two weeks here and there. But if you look at 12 months period going forward, I think not just the next 12 months, but I think 24, 36 months are going to be very promising for our sector.
Sonali Salgaonkar
Understood. Lastly on exports, we do understand that on an absolute basis it’s been increasing and we do understand that Middle east was bit of a hiccup in the export story. But from here on do you see exports resuming over the coming quarters and which sectors would you be the most optimistic in? Exports.
Shashank Yagnick
So exports is actually going to be a big lever of our growth going forward. So Middle East I would just like to call out the split. So in full year last financial year the Middle east contributed around 16% of our exports top line. Now of course that would have been slightly more had we had the normal March but it got impacted going forward also and also in continuing the last few years of our export growth, the power sector, we continue to drive the strong growth. If you look at eu, if you look at us, all of these regions have grid infrastructure which is way beyond the average life.
They are 50, 55 years, 60 years old. So all of these need modifications and considering our scale, our approvals, our deep penetration in These geographies we are at full position to capture the growth and even the tariff situation has more or less settled or we can say now beyond us. So I think now we are at much more competitive and position to leverage this growth. And I’ll just I think add to that in US we’ve started reestablish our distribution network so which again is the largest market for export.
So I think there again along with the tailwinds that we are seeing in the industry, I think all of this put together we should have very sizable business growth in exports plus the Middle east which is currently severely impacted. We believe that it’s a matter of time where that demand will come in a bigger way because a lot of reestablishment will need to be done there
Sonali Salgaonkar
Any outlook you would like to give at this point in time for F27 for the business as a whole.
Shashank Yagnick
So see like I mentioned today in this financial year we are somewhere around 4.5% export contribution to overall top line and we have to get to 10% by FY30. So we are definitely inch tuned towards that figure. And of course we are not limiting our domestic growth. So domestic growth is also growing at a very fast pace. But at the same time I think now that the trade barriers seem to be much more favorable and I think then we should continue to grow beyond 5% and difficult to give a firm number because these are more institutional sales in nature.
But it will definitely be higher than where we are today.
Sonali Salgaonkar
Not just for exports, overall business domestic as well.
Shashank Yagnick
So again so rally, if you refer the Project Spring guidance which also I referred during my speech, is that we’ve committed in cables and wires. We will grow at 1.5x of market growth. Right. So if market is growing say for example 10 12%, we continue to deliver 1.5x of that growth and that I think we’ve consistently been delivering in the last few years as well. So we can definitely account for that kind of growth from us.
Sonali Salgaonkar
All right, thank you so much and all the best to the team.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Puneet Guladi from hsbc. Please go ahead.
Puneet Gulati
Yeah, thank you so much and congratulations on good numbers. First, if you can quantify what sort of impact you had in March on account of these Middle east related disruptions.
Shashank Yagnick
Quantify. See we had low single digit cable and wire volume growth. Typically these quarter four is highest best for the industry, not just for polycap. So obviously looking at higher base of last year we were able to still deliver some growth but we were expecting much better growth. If you look at private manufacturing industries who use gas as a feedstock, they did not have visibility of supply beyond three days, four days, five days. Their supplies, their inputs were completely rationed by government.
That definitely impacted the demand from private sector. If you notice, our business model is such that 90% of our business happens through channel. Now the trade sentiment itself with all the raw material prices going up, even if you look at PVC prices went up by 60 to 80% in the first fortnight of March. So all of this going up plus the trade sentiment of West Asia, there was definitely some impact in terms of lifting from our distributors which are a primary sale primarily because the secondary sale was not moving at the pace at which we anticipate in the month of March.
So broadly that’s the outlook I think and that’s very reflective of the industry also and I think it’s very difficult to quantify that. But definitely our volume growth aspirations were higher in March, typically in line with the industry. Typically March is the best month and best quarter. Q4
Puneet Gulati
Right. And even on the margin side you said you had a higher share of institutional sales than usual and today you said it’s about 90% of business happens to channel. What would that number have been for last quarter?
Shashank Yagnick
So in last quarter, Puneet, what happened was institutional sales were higher by about 2 to 3 percentage points compared to channel. Right. And our margins usually in channel are 3 to 4 basis points, 3 to 4 percentage points higher compared to institutional which is, you know, you have to bid those tenders and you know, win on L1. So our margins are better on channel. And if institutional mix grows then it moderates our margins
Puneet Gulati
Clearly.
Shashank Yagnick
Yes,
Puneet Gulati
Understood. And if you can also talk about what is the status on capacity utilization now?
Shashank Yagnick
So see here is where exactly, you know, you see here a same number every time it’s mid-70s and I think 75, 76% utilization. And why is that? Because we’ve continued to expand our capacity. Right. As soon as we reach 77% utilization considering our AOP, we invest far ahead of time. So if you look at this year again financial year 26, we’ve invested almost 1500 crore massive number and we’ve invested that. So again this capacity will get added. When we discuss next time we’ll possibly again be sitting at somewhere around mid 70, 80.
So I think that’s where we are and we are continuing to expand again in line with our project spring guidance of 6,000 to 8,000 crore capex by franchise year 2030
Puneet Gulati
And what is the peak utilization you can actually reach
Shashank Yagnick
Practically? I think we’ve at times we have reached, you know, 90, 90 early 90s. But the standard percentages always remain around 80, 85. You know we don’t expect plant to operate at 90 plus percent. So 70, 75 is there and we still have capacity. Had there been demand we would have possibly supplied more.
Puneet Gulati
Understood that’s. And lastly if I may, you know you have a significant amount of cash. I know there is a nice capex plan but you can fund it out of your own internal accrual as well. Is there any use of cash that you have in mind acquisition or any new business that you want to enter?
Shashank Yagnick
Currently we are continuing to focus on these two things which you rightly pointed out. One is pumping cash into our capex from internal accruals. Secondly is increasing the dividend payout again which is already laid out in Project Spring guidance. This year again we’ve increased it and reached payout ratio of 27.2%. So these two remain the focus. Of course we keep evaluating certain M and A proposals, opportunities inside India and outside of India. So if something really aligns with our strategy, definitely we would like to invest in that.
But so far there is nothing that we can see in the year to midterm.
Puneet Gulati
Understood, that’s very helpful. Thank you so much and all the best.
Shashank Yagnick
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Kur Pandya from ICC Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Please go ahead.
Keyur Pandya
Thank you. The question is on the EBIT segment margin for the cables or overall EBITDA margin. Basically it is within the guided range but in the backdrop of say lower export mix or primary secondary sales and stocking. Where do you see it settling say in next two, three quarters, how should we think of it? I think last some of the interactions, you know mentioned the channel stocking has happened and since now copper prices are more or less where they are for last three, four months should we see some deceleration in stocking?
So considering all this, how should we think of profitability as well as primary sales growth?
Shashank Yagnick
Okay, so on primary sales growth, right? I mean I’ll again refer you to the guidance we’ve given in Project Spring and why I’m asking you to refer that again because that very calibrated thought through guidance, right? So if market grows we will deliver 1.5x of that growth, right? So with that we should continue to expect, if we are expecting 12% market growth then we should deliver 18% and plus right. So that will continue. In terms of price volatility, we don’t have any guidance on copper price, but whatever is the price, the pattern of the industry that we pass through that price to our customer and so far that is how it has happened.
So again that’s very calibrated guidance which we have given that over long term we should expect 11 to 13% EBITDA margins and in the near to midterm we may expect 12 to 14% EBITDA and we’ll continue to deliver that kind of margins.
Keyur Pandya
But in the near term are you seeing any challenge to primary demand or secondary demand?
Shashank Yagnick
No. I think like I mentioned earlier in our industry if CAPEX is is decided and especially the stage at which India is, you know, if you look at certain announcements by Indian government where they are pushing the pedal in terms of increasing renewable generation capacity, increasing the transmission and distribution sector, a lot of CAPEX is being pumped. So the demand can only differ by 1 week, 2 week, 3 weeks, it cannot extinguish. Right. So if you look at full 12 month period coming ahead, I think the demand forecast is very robust and strong.
And again if you look at real estate sector, if you look at last three years and we’ve seen some data of top eight cities, we’ve seen around three and a half, 3.6 lakh units launched and sold, same amount of amount got sold. Right. So we have seen in the first few months of this calendar year also about 0.8, 0.9 lakh units have been launched. Right. So I think it’s continuing, the growth momentum is continuing. In fact the consumer sentiment also is slightly on the improvement side. We believe that demand not just for this year, but I think next two to three years should be very robust and the time driver will continue to be for the power sector.
There are some new drivers which are yet to fully come to fruition which is data centers, AI driven demand, the defense EV charging, cable infrastructure, all of this is going to further open up.
Keyur Pandya
Understood. And the second question on the export, so you have mentioned the target for FY30 but with current disruptions in the Middle east and opening of new geographies post probably say USA where tariffs have relatively normalized. So how do you see recovery of exports in FY27? I mean increasing as a percentage of sales.
Shashank Yagnick
Right. So difficult to give a number but I will tell you the drivers. So I think just in last three to four months we reestablished our distribution network in United States. United states forms around 15 to 20% of global export market that’s the most key market followed by eu European Union. We’ve sown the seeds of good growth which is about to come. We are anyway US market or North America contributed around 40% of our financial year 26 number export. Right? But there if we have a distribution network then of course we are there to target higher growth.
So US will continue to drive the growth. We’ve done sizable amount of business in South America which has also comprised almost 20% of our sales in financial year 2016. Middle east also contributed around 15 16% but looks like that in the near term we don’t see Middle east contributing big way. But the big demand driver is North America followed by EU South America where we’ve again done significant amount of business. I think we are very good, well poised to deliver higher growth and exports and that should actually be at a more aggressive pace because we have to also reach 10% of our overall top line by 530 and hopefully we should get there sooner.
Keyur Pandya
Okay, thanks a lot. Thank you and all the best.
Operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question, ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address all the questions in the conference call we request you to kindly limit your questions to two per participant. If you have a follow up question, please rejoin the queue. Again we will take the next question from the line of Patanjali from Sundaram Mutual fund. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Good set of numbers. Just a few questions. Firstly in terms of capacity utilization I think you mentioned we were around 70 odd percent. Do we have any capacity coming in anytime soon in FY27 and is there a possibility that we may run out of capacity if that’s the case. If that’s not the case,
Shashank Yagnick
Thank you for asking that question. So I think in terms of capacity utilization we were at full year basis, we were at 70 mid 70, 75% kind of utilization. There is room for growth here. Plus we are adding, if you look at our capex guidance we’ve already pumped in 1500 crore in this financial year. So that will also add to our capacity. And we are continuing to pump 1200-1600 crore every year adding capacity. And this guidance that we’ve given under Project Spring is considering the demand outlook that we foresee in the next four to five years.
Right. So there will be no scenario where we’ll be out of capacity.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. And just another question. I think one of your players were saying that the demand is very strong on ground but they had some capacity constraint which is why they were not able to grow in terms of volumes. We on the other hand have had like a fairly surplus capacity. But why are we also facing challenges in terms of volume growth? Because even on a full year basis I think our volume growth may not be as high. If you can correct me with the number as to what our volume growth for full year was.
Shashank Yagnick
Sure Patanji. So see we will not obviously follow or go by what others are saying. But if you look at our numbers and let me start with Q3, I think Q3 if you notice, I think maybe peers had capacity constraint. But we recorded I think 40% volume growth in both cable and together. Right. So that is an indication of the capacity that we already have in hand. Right. So I think today also if you look at our volume growth for the full year is 18% I think which is again industry leading. If again market has possibly grown at 11 12% we’ve delivered 18% volume growth alone.
So value growth of course revenue growth is coined it at 30%. So firstly we are continuing to be there. And if you look at our base, our base is very, very high. I think the next biggest player is half our size. So at our base we are able to meet those volumes which we delivered last year and also gain some further volume growth over that. So I hope that answers you. Right.
Unidentified Participant
Just a related question to that. So I think your current quarter volume numbers were very less. So any like you mentioned some of the reasons for it. But before going into this quarter what would have been your volume target for this quarter? So that I can understand like how much of it could be attributable to some external factors which are not within your control.
Shashank Yagnick
So Patanjali, firstly there is no, you know, I mean at least from business standpoint I can speak that there is no volume target for quarter. I mean if you can look at 12 month period it’s still understandable. You know, you don’t every day you don’t sell, you know 1.5x or whatever is the volume target. Right. So it’s ultimately an institutional B2B kind of a business, not a FMCG business. So if you look at full year basis like we’ve always guided, we continue to deliver 1.5x of both. Now whatever happened in March, some bit of it, you can attribute it to some kind of a black swan event which impacted our exports to large extent in Middle east.
In domestic market also somewhat sentiments were disturbed. And hence I think the industry also did not grow to that extent. So whatever we’ve Delivered is again in the best side of the industry growth.
Unidentified Participant
Thanks Sushant sir. It was very helpful.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Akshay Gadani from ubs. Please go ahead.
Akshay Gattani
Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. If you can share status update of your EHV K6. When do you see commissioning of this capacity? And how do you expect revenue pickup from this capacity?
Shashank Yagnick
So Akshay, ESV is very much on track. Capacity is expected to come on stream by end of this calendar year. And in FY28 revenues we can see some contribution from ESV capacity. Because it’s a tender based business. And we see a ready market. Because about 50% of domestic consumption today is coming from exports or other imports. So we believe that there’s a ready market available. So as soon as we are on stream and we bid, I think we should be able to get revenue. So in FY28 you’ll be able to see revenues from EHV.
Akshay Gattani
Got it. Thank you, sir. And for FY27 CapEx, what will be the focus areas? And relate a separate question on that is how much the solar business now accounts in FMEG revenue. I think earlier it was more than 50% head. Has it moved up?
Shashank Yagnick
So you had two sets of questions. One is. So let me address the solar one first. So solar. So primarily we don’t give breakup of the inter segment contribution in smeg. But solar of course continues to be the strong driver delivering 2x of growth over last year. And that will continue because of central and state government schemes on solar. So that growth will continue. But besides that. But other SMG segments have also delivered stellar performance and far ahead of industry growth in each of the respective segments.
Akshay Gattani
Other was CAPEX focus area for CAPEX and FY27.
Shashank Yagnick
So again you know, as per again our Project Spring guidance we said that whatever we pump around, 90% of that will go into cable and wire capacity expansion alone. Right. And some 5% will go into some backward integration. And another 3 to 4% may go into SMEG expansion. So I think we are very much aligned with that. And 90% will continue to go into cable and wire expansion. And largely these are all fungible capacities other than ehv. If you look at it, cable and wire are largely fungible capacity.
So we’ll continue to expand our capacity there itself.
Akshay Gattani
Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Oman Mehta from Kotex Securities. Please go ahead.
Umang Mehta
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on a Strong year you mentioned volume growth was around 18% for the full year. Can you split it as how much was the volume growth in wires and how much was it in cables? And in cables what were the key sectors which kind of Contributed to this? 2/4 back you had mentioned that on an annual basis you would have a better picture on demand markets. So that would be helpful. Thanks.
Shashank Yagnick
So overall if you see in the full financial year also the cables growth was slightly better than wires. And overall like I mentioned, 18% volume growth which has resulted in our market share gain of around 3 to 4% in this financial year alone. Right. And secondly on split of demand side, you’re asking in terms of our supply. So I think that largely if you look at 12 month basis, it will always continue to be more or less same. So where power sector alone consumes around 40 to 45% of cables, manufacturing and private industries consume around 35 to 40% of cables.
Mobility which is railways, roadways, highways, seaports, airports, they consume around 10 12% of the cable. And energy exploration, oil and gas, coal mining and all of that they consume around 5, 6%. Balance is a niche space which is depends EV charging infrastructure and all of that.
Umang Mehta
Got it Shashank. So there’s a follow up on this is that you also mentioned that capacity of generation in India doubled last year. And in terms of solar capacities, while I understand that investments will continue, the growth on a Y business may not be as strong as what we’ve seen last year. Right? Even in discoms, the IDSS execution possibly was a big driver. But going ahead on a YY basis may kind of moderate on a high base. In that context, how do you think industry growth will kind of shape up?
Shashank Yagnick
So see I look at, you know, this power, especially T and D industry from a relative scale. If you look at period from 16 to 2016 to 2020, the intensity or the pace at which the actual execution is happening today is far, far better. Okay, if we look at, you know, that period of 15 to 20 or 20 to 25. 2020 2025, we see the transmission line execution on ground was somewhere around 15,000 circuit kilometers average. Right. Today going forward, the anticipation is it should go to 2122 Circuit Kilometer every year.
Now so much of renewable capacity is getting added. All of this has also to connect with the transmission and distribution space. So even if, and also one more point is that in power sector alone, if the 100 rupee is spent on transmission and distribution, the translation to cable requirement is around 15 to 20% which basically indicates that any amount invested in power sector will translate into heavy demand for cable and wire. So we believe that this is definitely going to continue. Even if it moderates, this will still be.
The intensity will be still far higher than how it has been in the past.
Umang Mehta
I will connect offline. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Archal Lohadi from Nuama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Achal Lohade
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. The first question I have, you know in the third quarter call you did mention about, you know, delay in passing on the, you know, price inflation. So that kind of had some impact on the margin. Was there any such thing in the fourth quarter or on the other hand was there any inventory benefit events again during the quarter which you could have realized?
Shashank Yagnick
In the very first fortnight of January alone we were able to pass on everything. So we were completely in tandem with the raw material price throughout the quarter. Right. So first question answered that there is nothing that we are withholding. We are completely in tandem with the raw material prices. They are completely passed on. Right. Secondly, I think you asked on the. Can you repeat your second question?
Achal Lohade
You know there was all three companies have indicated in the recent con calls that there have been some benefit on the inventory, you know, realization front during the quarter. Was that the case for us as well? And if you could quantify
Shashank Yagnick
Atal I mean we have explained in the past also the way we procure our raw material there are never any inventory gains. We don’t buy on spot so we have a hedging mechanism in place. So we don’t have any inventory gain unlike peers. Possibly they might buy in spot market and sell. So when prices go up they have some kind of an advantage. Possibly. But we are always at a position where we are able to manage within a band and thanks to the mechanism that we have built over the years where we hedge our raw material prices.
So hence there is no inventory gain or loss. Never in our case.
Achal Lohade
And when you say we hedge it’s for both aluminum and copper because I presume aluminium is more domestic sourcing then copper. Copper is 100% imports. Right.
Shashank Yagnick
So yes, first answer is yes for both copper and aluminum and second is yabir. I mean largely copper is imported.
Achal Lohade
Understood. You know just a related question on that. You did mention the PVC prices actually kind of doubled in the first portnoy so I wanted to check these insulation material a in terms of the price inflation or cost inflation on account of that has that Been passed on. Is there a challenge in passing on that? And B, you know, in terms of the availability, particularly materials like XLPA, etc. If you could talk a little bit on that
Shashank Yagnick
Achill. First thing, we completely pass on all the raw material price, be it aluminum, copper or be it pvc. So there has been no challenge with respect to passing on the price. Okay. Second is on the availability of XLPE and other compounds. So thanks to the backward integration that we have, we typically purchase only the raw resins and we do compounding in house. So thanks to our heavy inventory, we are well comfortable for possibly in the first quarter of coming year as well. But of course all of that then depends and then there will be far bigger issues to worry than production of cable and wire.
But I think we are very much comfortable. We have good amount of diversified base of vendors for compound resins. So we are not at all concerned about raw material security.
Achal Lohade
Perfect. Just a bookkeeping question. In terms of the institutional mix, if you could Quantify for the fourth quarter as well as FY26
Shashank Yagnick
Overall, I think for full year basis, if you see, I think couple of percentage points higher in institutional for the quarter, maybe 3 to 4 percentage points higher in institution.
Achal Lohade
No, I was keen to know if you could quantify exactly how much would be in traditional sort hours out of the total cable and business.
Shashank Yagnick
The other way to look at it is, and the way we always recite this is our channel to institutional contribution has always been 90 to 10%. Right. 90s channel 10 is institutional. So when we see couple of percentage points higher in institutional, you can add couple of percentage points to maybe make 10, 12, 12% of overall top line. And if I say 3 to 4%, you can make it 13 to 14 for the quarter.
Achal Lohade
Understood. And the second, if you could give us EBITDA number because the guidance is on ebitda, if you could disclose what is the EBITDA margin for cable and wire segment for the fourth quarter and the full year? FY23
Shashank Yagnick
See for the fourth quarter was higher, so definitely around 14, 14 plus percent. And FMEG of course was also mid single digit EBITDA margin.
Achal Lohade
And for the full year, Shashank, if you could quantify
Shashank Yagnick
The full year also we were very, very, very robust. I mean its overall full year EBITDA at company level is 13.9 and cable wire was definitely above that. And SMEBT or sport continues to be, you know, mid single digit.
Achal Lohade
All right, all right, thank you and I’ll fall back in the Q.
Operator
Thank you very much. We will take that as a last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Niyan Maru for closing comments.
Niyant Maru
Thank you everybody. It was nice to have you all on the call. Maybe I think I just wanted to add one last comment. I think you know many times when we look at you know the one phase two part I think the larger part I think which we get sometimes unnoticed is that I think as a company I think in the industry we have been gaining market share and I think we continue to do so in the quarter four. I think once the numbers are announced for everybody then we will have a better idea of what is the real increase in the market share.
But we do believe that we have continued to gain market share in Q4. Thank you everybody.
Operator
Thank you members of the management on behalf of Polycap India Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining with us today and you may now disconnect tonight. Thank you.