S Chand & Co Ltd (NSE: SCHAND) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Feb. 13, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Himanshu Gupta — Managing Director, Executive Director
Saurabh Mittal — Group Chief Financial Officer
Atul Soni — Head-Investor Relations, Strategy Mergers and Acquisitions
Analysts:
T S Vinod — Analyst
Niteen Dharmawat — Analyst
Giriraj Daga — Analyst
Amit Agicha — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and Gentlemen, good day and welcome to the s Chan Co. Q3FY26 investor conference call. As a reminder, all participant clients will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touch tool. I now hand the conference over to the management of the S Chand and Group for their opening remarks. Thank you and over to you sir.
Himanshu Gupta — Managing Director, Executive Director
Thank you. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, I’m Himanshu Gupta, the Managing Director of S Chan Co. Ltd. I would like to welcome you all to our third quarter nine months results conference call for FY26 and thank you all for taking the time out and joining us here today. I’m happy to share that we have completed our first international acquisition in January 26 when we acquired CPD Singapore which gives international curriculum capabilities for the India and Asia market. CPD Singapore is a publisher of supplementary books adhering to the Singapore IGCSE A level and O levels and IB curriculum for the K12 school segment.
This fills a gap in our product portfolio and makes us future ready for this fast growing segment which has over 1000 schools in India. Overall IECST has over 4000 schools across the world, the largest concentration in Middle east and Southeast asia with over 1000 schools. The number of IB schools world over is above 6,000 with a large number of being present in South Asia, Australia and New Zealand. There’s a huge potential for the C20 Singapore business. Our team is doing a great job in AI data content licensing revenues where we look forward to achieving a solid 50% year on year growth during FY26.
We believe that this revenue stream has a huge potential to grow and deliver for our group in the coming years. Saurabh will give you more details around this in his remarks. On the NCF front, we expect 2627 to see maximum adoption of the new syllabus books which should help our growth trajectory in the CBSE and ICSE market. As shared with you earlier as well, the PDF version of the new NCRT books have been released and available for Class 4, 5th, 7th and 8th and and on the NCRT website. We would have to wait and watch for its physical availability in the market.
A multiple partnership for content and licensing including Allied which is five CFC Books, Discovery, Amacha, Money Prep, Liquid Language Labs, Speed Labs for JE and NND foundation and many more will help us in good stead by enhancing our sales momentum and diversifying our portfolio. The Digital initiative Smart K and Test Coach continue to move forward with high adoption and enrollments. We continue our sustained focus in terms of Working Capital matrix, achieving the lowest net working capital and inventory matrix for Q3 in the company’s history. The third quarter is a marketing intensive quarter where we go out all to connect with key decision makers and to our end customers.
In this regard we have events like our Channel Partners Product Briefing, Singapore Study Group of Principals and Leading Schools event like Mathematics Summits, Hindi Diverse knowledge quest quiz etc. With that I would now request our group CFO Mr. Saurabh Bitkan to apprise us all on us the financial performance of S. Thank you.
Saurabh Mittal — Group Chief Financial Officer
Thank you sir. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for taking out your time. I’m Saurabh Mittal Group CFO of S Channel Co. Ltd. We ended CQ with a consolidated revenue of 990 million and a pack loss of 287 million. Revenues of one large segment have been shifted to Q4 due to syllabus revision. Hence the revenue gap will get covered in Q4 and the specific series are being launched in Feb. On the MNA front, we completed our acquisition of CPD Singapore which should hold us in good stead for building our international curriculum products of sale in India and South Asia and Middle east in the coming years.
Do keep in mind that we are actively engaged in MNA opportunities which fill in the gaps in our portfolio. We aim to leverage our good strength in such acquisitions to deliver superior value to our customers and stakeholders during nine months FY26. On a consolidated level, we saw moderation in our reported gross margins versus 9 months FY25. This was largely driven by pricing in the content licensing revenues. While the pricing has rationalized, the volumes have grown exponentially to offset such pricing. I’m happy to share that we did AI Data set content licensing revenues of 171 million during nine months FY26 versus 195 million in nine months FY25.
We are absolutely confident of achieving revenues of more than 300 million during FY26 versus 195 million FY25 in the segment. Going ahead, we would continue to build on the AI Data set content licensing opportunities by adding more clients and higher quality Data to train LLMs. Our focus in Q3 was inventory management where we delivered strong results. Our Q3 inventory days were at 316 days versus 366 days in CQFY 25. That’s a reduction of almost 50 days. This is the lowest Q3 inventory days in the company’s history. Our Q3 networking capital was also 143 days versus 150 in the same period last year.
Our investing companies also need to continue to improve and are profitable during this period. We look forward to their continuous strength for their business. As we enter the main season of FY26, I would like to reiterate our targets for this financial year. Firstly, we are looking to grow operating revenues in excess of 8000 million for the year. Secondly, we are targeting an EBITDA margin band of 18 to 20% for this year. Finally, we look forward to continuing our focus on working capital metrics and cash flows. With this, I would like to open the call for your questions.
Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star N1 on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of T.S. vinod from TVS Family Office. Please go ahead.
T S Vinod
Hello sir. Good afternoon. Am I audible?
Saurabh Mittal
Yes, you’re audible?
T S Vinod
Yes. So my first question was related to the 15 crore of it refund that we were issued out of which 5.5 crore was interest payment. So is that 5.5 crore of interest payment accounted as part of the Q3 FY26 results?
Saurabh Mittal
Yes.
T S Vinod
And the bookings cash as well is accounted at the books.
Saurabh Mittal
No, the cash is not coming yet. Cash came in January the because the order came in December end we accounted for the order and we received the money in mid January. So the cash will come in next quarter.
T S Vinod
Okay sir. Thank you. My next question was. So you were talking about we might go in for a buyback in case of we go in for a acquisition which does not cost a lot of cash out go from the company. So now that we have done the acquisition which is not material in terms of cash out go from a company. So is there any outlook from management on going for a buyback? Since our valuation seems to be very different, the cash flow that we are throwing year on year and the outlook for the company. So how does management look at buyback opportunities? And also the tax related to buyback has been.
Has been revised in a more favorable way. So is that something that management could consider?
Saurabh Mittal
Yeah. So we look at what we end up with by the end of this year we look at the cash flows probably around May when we have our final results that is the time we can take a call based on the liquidity and the discussions that will happen internally at the board level. But currently no discussions as of now that have happened. But we are open to the idea we’ll have that discussion around the May meeting.
T S Vinod
Sure. So if I may ask one more question.
Saurabh Mittal
Yeah, sure.
T S Vinod
So my next question was on the NCERT’s decision to go full fledgedly to focus on in house printing and publication by ramping up the capacity now with this and also they came up with a circular thing that or a direction to the schools to adhere to NCERT books. So how does it impact our sales pipeline in case of schools are being directed by NCERT to go over their books? This is already existing. That doesn’t. It’s not something new. But with the new capacity that they have put up is that something that we need to worry about and how this company positioned to overcome that headwind?
Atul Soni
Can you take that?
Himanshu Gupta
Yeah. Can you hear me? So this basically NCRT is. They are doing this from a long time from 25, 30, 40 years and they are obviously creating books they can print more quantities but normally books we have seen for NCRT books are normally used for government schools and some private schools also use their books. But as per the circular also it is recommended to use the books. It’s not that you have to compulsory use the books. So private schools always have a choice to which books they want to use. And TRD books are good in quality of content but they’re not very comprehensive.
The private books have a lot of comprehensive and lot of other questions and a lot of practice a lot of other material which is in the private books. So schools prefer to use private books and this issue has been coming up again and again but we have been giving good quality content and good service to the schools so that’s why our books are more recommended in the school and we are not seeing any dip in the business as of now as of we are sitting on almost middle of February and we are seeing good response from the market and hopefully that will continue to do so.
T S Vinod
Sure. Thanks a lot sir.
Himanshu Gupta
Thank you.
T S Vinod
Those were the questions. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question a reminder to all the participants that you may press star N1 to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Nitin D. Dharmawat from Aurum Capital. Please go ahead. Nitin, your line is unmuted. Please proceed with your question.
Niteen Dharmawat
Yeah, yeah. Am I audible now?
operator
Yes, you are.
Niteen Dharmawat
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. So just wanted to, you know, clarify since we have retained the, the guidance and the guidance is 800 crores plus in top line and 18 to 30 EBITDA margin. And to achieve that we’ll have to get, you know, 550 crores plus in revenue in the last quarter with an EBITDA margin of around 250, 260 crores. So since we are already in the just the middle of the last quarter now and wanted to, you know, understand the confidence level of the management to get there because this is a uphill task of achieving that number that must be the highest quarterly revenue for us.
So can you please throw some light on that?
Himanshu Gupta
Hi, this is Manshu here. So we are quite confident and we should be able to achieve our numbers as per our data and as per our meeting with the business heads and the sales people. So we are quite confident that we should be able to achieve the number.
Niteen Dharmawat
I’m very glad to hear that sir. My second question is since I missed the initial part of the commentary in case it has already been answered, it will be a repetitive one now which all the classes have gone for NCF now the new curriculum which are coming from, from the next academic year.
Himanshu Gupta
So fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth also has now gone in. Tenth also has gone in now. So mostly all the classes I would say have gone in for the new curriculum. So we would be able to, we would be able to, you know, I would say generate better business because earlier when we were anticipating that the government will issue the new books then they actually took a lot of time in issuing the new syllabus. So that’s why the new syllabus could not be adopted by the schools properly. But in the next academic year and the year after that, we should hope that in two years the full implementation of the new syllabus would be adopted by the schools.
Now.
Niteen Dharmawat
So considering this, because in last quarter when we, you know, last when we spoke in the quarterly call, I. My understanding was that not all the classes are coming for, you know, NCF with new curriculum. So considering the change that have happened. So is there any change in the, in the guidance as well? Will, will there be a revision in the guidance?
Himanshu Gupta
I think guidance will remain the same and. But we will obviously try to do whatever best we can. But the guidance will still remain the Same and we are not changing the guidance best means.
Niteen Dharmawat
So let me, let me be, you know, putting it slightly differently. So will there be an upward possibility of going beyond 800 crores cr revenue or will it remain the same?
Himanshu Gupta
It’s difficult to say because it’s a very seasonal business and most of the business happens in the last quarter. It’s very difficult to say as of now. But we are hoping that we will try to do our best whatever best is possible that we will definitely try.
Niteen Dharmawat
But 800 crore is something we are pretty sure that will be there, right?
Himanshu Gupta
We’re quite confident. We’re quite confident.
Niteen Dharmawat
The next part is about the, the consolidated debt level. So what will the consolidated debt level will be debt free completely in the entire financial year or will there be working capital or any long term debt also during the financial year. So that gives us some room for buyback or you know increasing the dividends. The previous participant also you know asked that question. So just to go over there on the same question.
Himanshu Gupta
Can you answer that?
Saurabh Mittal
Yeah. So Nitin. I think. So. We are largely debt free 3/4. We only have debt net debt at the end of Q3. We’ve done some capex this year of course and we’ve done, we’ve done an acquisition also but I think by the end of this year last year we were sitting on approximately. 103. I think at the end of March we’ll probably be around 120, 125 by the end of. 103 crores last year should be around 120, 125 by the end of March and 150 plus by the end of June. So I think we have headroom there in case some other acquisition does not come up.
Nothing as of now that we are discussing but that’s what is trending at the moment. So there is headroom for setting that buyback.
Niteen Dharmawat
Oh glad to hear that as well. So wishing you all the best sir. Thank you so much for answering my questions.
Himanshu Gupta
Thanks. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants if you wish to ask a question please press star and 1. The next question is from the line of Giri Raj Daga from Visaria Family Trust. Please go ahead.
Giriraj Daga
Yeah, hello. Am I audible?
operator
Yes you are.
Himanshu Gupta
Yes you are.
Giriraj Daga
Yeah. So just taking the Nathan question forward. So, so the idea for that key probably when we were commenting earlier we were thinking that the years when we’ll have a celebration will have about 1520 growth but when you look at last two years it’s about 8 and a half percent. And this year they are guiding about 11%. And half of the syllabus change has already come in now because after 27 means you will be selling this year books. So is this the like 10% is the thinking probably next year probably you may have another 10% is the thought process right.
Or we’ll have some, some kicker coming in in terms of growth when the syllabus change will kick in.
Himanshu Gupta
Hi. So basically see basically the syllabus changes as we expected got delayed somehow by the government. And we expected the syllabus change to happen in over two, three years period. But that is taking four or five years. So that syllabus change impact is happening in the schools but the full impact will happen in the. As I said earlier in the call that next academic year, the academic year after that, the next two years we will should see a complete syllabus change in all the schools in the country hopefully. And that should definitely give the boost to the business.
How much boost it will give and how much impact will have positive impact on the business that we still have to decide maybe after the season is over then we will able to get the clear picture. So as of now it’s very difficult to say how much growth we will do next couple of years. But definitely it will have a bigger boost to the business.
Giriraj Daga
Okay. Okay. So there is still some kicking.
Atul Soni
If I can just add here. I think we had discussed about this in one of the earlier calls as well. See the thing is that earlier when we used to say that you will get 15 to 20% or high teens kind of growth over a two, three year period. That three year or two to three year period has become like a five year, six year period. So if you just think about it, whatever growth you were assuming over a concentrated three year period is now coming over a five to six year period. That’s the reason why that number is different.
Giriraj Daga
Just follow up there. That gives us confidence that let’s say 28 and 29 can be also 10% at least growth.
Atul Soni
So see, we will give the guidance for next year when we come out with our annual number. I don’t think this will be the right time to give a guidance for next year.
Giriraj Daga
Okay, sure. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. I remind you to all the participants, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and 1. The next question is from the line of Amit Agija from HG Hawaiian Company. Please go ahead.
Amit Agicha
Thank you for the opportunity. So the EBITDA margin guidance of 18 to 20% is given. What are the structural or drive the expansion like printing efficiencies or SKU rationalizations or digital mix.
Saurabh Mittal
Yeah, I think it’s a mix of product mix that we are having plus the higher content licensing revenues that we have. And of course with the new correct tool books of course the realizations are a bit better so that it’s a mix of all of that.
Amit Agicha
Who are the counterparties for AI data set licensing.
Saurabh Mittal
Counterparties in terms of
Atul Soni
confidentiality clauses around that. But they are the leading players in the world. That’s all we can say.
Amit Agicha
Okay, can this licensing become 10 to 15% of revenue over the coming three to five years?
Saurabh Mittal
It has the potential. It has the potential. But again we are working on certain projects which will give us more better quality data sets. Plus apart from text, we are looking at videos, we are looking at illustrations. So yes, there are multiple things that we are doing and fortunately for us this year has been better than last year and then hopefully next year should be better soon.
Amit Agicha
And so the investor presentation mentions the total employee count to be 1900 plus. Like is it including the accreditation of fingerprint?
Saurabh Mittal
That’s a very small headcount. That’s a five people account. Yes.
Amit Agicha
Okay. Only fine. And would it be possible for you to share like out of the 1900 people, like how many are in editorial, how many are in sales, how many are in printing?
Saurabh Mittal
650 to 700 in sales?
Atul Soni
About around 200 plus in editorial. Yeah, that’s the number which we normally share in our annual report. So but this is the number that we have written in last year’s
Saurabh Mittal
600 would be in printing and warehousing operations. That should be back end services.
Amit Agicha
And the last question from Isaiah. Any plans for edtech platform?
Atul Soni
What do you mean by plans or enter platform? Do you mean a minority investment? Do you mean something we are starting on our own or.
Amit Agicha
Starting something on your own?
Saurabh Mittal
We’ve taken a couple of small initiatives. We have Test coach, we have launched UEP last year we are getting better traction than last year but again it’s not very material. This year we’re doing something different as we compared to last year. We roped in a few influencers for that. So we’re hoping to get good number of admissions. But again see whatever we want to build in edtech also we want to build for a longer term, we don’t want short term plays in that it should solve a problem, not you know, no gimmick as such. So we’re taking it slow and of course not too much of investment going into it because we’ve done our investments in edtech, we’ve launched apps earlier, things haven’t worked out.
So we only do it where there is a actual need for the platform plus and it generates revenue and traction for a longer period of time. Whatever we do, we do for a longer period.
Amit Agicha
I appreciate you answering my questions in detail sir. Thank you. And all the best.
Saurabh Mittal
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star n1. The next question is from the line of ts vinod from tvs family office. Please go ahead.
T S Vinod
Hi sir. So the NCF is currently giving us a step change over the next several quarters. So post that maybe like you said, the next two years is going to be the step change. Post that. How should we look at the growth trajectory for the company? Should we be able to maintain similar run rate? Is that something that you foresee or how should we look at it?
Himanshu Gupta
Yeah, so we should look at normalized growth after that and normalized growth.
T S Vinod
What will that be? So.
Himanshu Gupta
So percentage terms will be like I would say 8 to 10% would be a normalized growth for the company. And if we are able to do some acquisitions or do some, you know, generate revenue in the AI segment in the other segments, then it’s a different story. I’m talking about the traditional publishing business would remain at 8 to 10% growth level. Less additions happen than they can add on.
T S Vinod
Sure. My next question was on the IB acquisition that you made. So how big is the market and what is the competitive landscape there for. The ib,
Himanshu Gupta
the IB market in India? Sorry, go ahead Saurabh. Sorry, go ahead.
Saurabh Mittal
I think Himanshuji gives the number of schools in his opening remarks. It’s a very large market. You have 4,000 schools for IGCSE and about 6,000 schools for IB all over the world. That’s 10,000 schools and currently our exposure there is nil.
T S Vinod
So that’s competition, like competition from your competitors.
Saurabh Mittal
You have competition from all the global players, Pearson, Cambridge itself and all the various publishers that have been licensed .
Himanshu Gupta
Oxford. And you know, and the big players are there but they’re not local players. So in terms of domestic players, we don’t see any domestic players coming in the international school market because they don’t have the product portfolio to do that. So that’s why we also didn’t have a product portfolio. That’s why we had acquired the Singapore company that we believe that can be taken to the next level. But right now the company is a very small size with a very limited revenue and limited number of people. But we plan to expand it in next two to three years.
We believe that international school market is growing at a much faster pace in India and neighboring countries where a lot of diverse schools even in tier 2 and tier 3 towns are going for international syllabus. And CBS is also growing, no doubt about it. But the higher the growth in these segments of international schools is much higher. So we wanted to fill that gap and that’s why we are here. But the reality will come to the we’ll come to know more about it in next six to eight months of what is happening because right now it is not even a month that we have acquired that company.
So we also gaining knowledge and experience, you know, and trying to understand the operations and everything. So it’s very fairly, fairly new in this segment.
T S Vinod
Sure sir. Thank you. My next question was on the test coach monetizations. You you did touch upon that. So is there something that we can do to monetize the S post? I understand that the earlier conference call you spoke about the YouTube channel that you have and the content that you have over there. The content is very rich. So how can we look at monetization? Is there some kind of outlook that management has on that.
Saurabh Mittal
Channel? Academy is more of a marketing channel. It’s not really a monetization that you can do and we currently not looking at monetizing that. It’s more of marketing test for cs. We launched CUET at the moment and last year and then we’re getting good traction this year also. So once this will be. This is just done for CUET at the moment. Once we are able to successfully do CUET then we look at other exams. So this is something that we are trying to build but it will take time building. It will not happen in one year or two years.
We have a good four, five years to build it up. And this can because this is a B2C so this can scale. Once people have confidence in the kind of content and results that we start giving for the students appearing for the examination, we’ll be able to build. There are about 15 lakh students sitting for CUET. That’s a large market. Currently there is no clear leader in that segment. While they are leaders in your jee and each segment there’s no clear leader in the cut segment. So considering that we thought this is an area where we could make a difference and we are already a known brand for the schools so that’s why we vented into that and hopefully this year and next year we should be able to wrap it up to a decent level and then take it to multiple examinations after that.
T S Vinod
Sure. Thank you, sir. My next question was on the sales returns. So typically you indicate that you try to contain it at 15%. So is. Is that are we trying to tighten it up further for this year or how are we looking at the sales?
Saurabh Mittal
Yes, within that range. It’s within that range. I mean currently we are not crossing that range. Hopefully with the syllabus change being completed, it should trend a bit lower after that because currently with old inventory and new inventory, there’s a bit of a challenge sometimes that comes in a few places. But I think it may trend lower from next year by at least a percentage or so.
T S Vinod
Sure. Thank you, sir. That’s all I have.
operator
Thank you. As there are no questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management of the S. Chan group for their closing comments.
Himanshu Gupta
Thank you everyone. Sorry.
operator
Yes, sir. Yeah, there is one question in the queue. So the question is from Nitin S. Behmawat from Aurum Capital. Please go ahead.
Niteen Dharmawat
Yeah. Am I audible?
Himanshu Gupta
Yes, you are.
Saurabh Mittal
Yes.
Niteen Dharmawat
So going back to, you know, growth numbers for, you know, next couple of years considering the NCF and since we do not want to give any guidance right now for the. For the subsequent years and it’s understandable the right. Also it’s too early but looking at the history, considering the fact that we are a very old organization in this business, one of the earliest one and there were instances when this curriculum got changed, for example in mid 2000, 2005, 6, 7 period or prior to that 98 or prior to that 86, 87 period when the curriculum got changed or NEP was introduced that time.
So what kind of growth has industry growth has come after the introduction of curriculum. Whether it is one time or you know, in staggered manner. But what was the growth in a couple of years, two, three years historically, if you can share some experience from that side, it would help.
Himanshu Gupta
Yeah, it is. Nathan is very old. I was also very young in the business at that time, almost 20 years old when the curriculum change happened in front of me. So we saw because at that time the change happen in very quick succession, not too long period happened in two or three years but this time the succession, the changes happen over five, six years. So that is a big difference that we are seeing the school are, you know, lot of schools are skeptical that they want to use the old curriculum, old books. Some schools are using the new books.
There’s a mixed bag. I would say this time, earlier time. It used to be that all the schools are going, adopting the new book. So there was a much, I would say higher growth in terms of percentages this time. It has been more spread out over a five, six year period. So we are not seeing that high growth happening in one year or two years. But we believe the next couple of years should be giving us decent growth, hopefully and we should be able to maintain that and then have a normalized growth after that.
Niteen Dharmawat
Got it. Got it. Thank you so much and wishing you the best.
Himanshu Gupta
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. There are no more questions from the participant. I would like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Himanshu Gupta
Thank you everyone for taking out your time and be safe with your family. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thank you.
Saurabh Mittal
Thank you. Thank you very much.
operator
Thank you very much. On behalf of S. Chand and company. That concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us today. And you may now disconnect your lines.