Syngene International Ltd (NSE: SYNGENE) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Jul. 24, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Nandini Agarwal — Investor Relations Officer
Peter Bains — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Deepak Jain — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Kunal Randeria — Analyst
Shyam Srinivasan — Analyst
Madhav Marda — Analyst
Surya Narayan Patra — Analyst
Alankar Garude — Analyst
Harsh Bhatia — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
And please wait while you are joined to the conference. The conference is now being recorded ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to-Q1 FY ’26 Financial Results Conference Call of Syngen International Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need resistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star send zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms Agarwal. Thank you and over to you, ma’am.
Nandini Agarwal — Investor Relations Officer
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on this call to discuss first-quarter results for financial year 2026. To discuss the financial and business performance for the period, we have on this call today Mr Peter, Syngene’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer; and Mr Deepak Jain, Chief Financial Officer. After the opening remarks, Peter and Deepak will be happy to answer any questions you might have. Before we begin, I would like to caution you that comments made during this conference call today will contain certain forward-looking statements and must be viewed in relation to the risks or change of the business.
The safe-harbor laws indicated in the investor presentation also applies to this conference call. The replay of the call will be available for the next few days and the transcript will be made available on website. With this, I would now turn the call over to Managing Director and CEO, Mr Bing. Thank you.
Peter Bains — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Nandini. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining the call today. I will start my remarks with an overview of the key financials and market trends before getting into the operational and strategic highlights for the quarter. I’ll then hand over to Deepak to provide a more detailed insight into the financials in his remarks. We are pleased with the performance in the first-quarter, which is both in-line with our expectations and establishes a good trajectory for the rest of the financial year. Reported revenues from operations were INR875 crore, up 11% year-on-year, equating to a 7% increase in constant-currency terms.
This growth was driven by good momentum in research services, which accounted for 67% of sales during the quarter. Our EBITDA was 21% up year-on-year to 206 core. With the growth in revenue and change in business mix, operating EBITDA margin increased to 24% in the quarter compared to 22% in the same quarter last year. The supported profit-after-tax before exceptional items was up 59% year-on-year to call.
This includes a favorable one-time tax adjustment related to Gene’s gratuity fund, which Deepak will explain further in his comments. Turning to our business segments and starting with Research Services. As mentioned in the financial highlights, the successful transition of pilot programs into longer-term contracts within our research services saw continued momentum during the quarter, providing endorsement of our scientific capabilities, quality standards and delivery service. A highlight for the quarter was the inauguration of the state-of-the-art dedicated peptide laborator treat advancing our capability in this high-potential growth area.
Peptides are fast-growing interventional modality witnessed by the rapid of the GLP class for the treatment of diabetes, obesity and a widening range of comorbid disease. Peptides also complement Syngene’s existing capabilities in monoclonal antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, oligon nucleotides and. The new laboratory offers high-efficiency production of complex peptides offering our clients faster scalable and high-quality solutions. On the regulatory front, we successfully completed a US-FDA GCP or good clinical practices inspection of our human pharmacology unit with no observations.
Additionally, our biologics facility at Biocon Park received an Establishment Inspection Report, EIR with a favorable closure. We also concluded over 20 client and regulatory awards during the quarter, ongoing affirmation of our continued commitment to quality and compliance. Our focus on driving innovation by integrating cutting-edge technologies into our operations continued to progress with one example being the integration of automation into our DMPK operations, which has reduced turnaround times compared with industry standards from five days to three days and enhanced our cost-efficiency by 30%.
Taking a step-back and looking at the global CRO market, we see continued uncertainty in the biotech funding environment, which has not yet stabilized or will return to pre-pandemic levels. While the situation — while the situation remains uncertain, we are monitoring it closely and remain agile in our response. We have continued to receive healthy interest from large and mid-sized pharma companies in the form of RFPs, providing the basis for further growth in our research services in the coming quarters.
Turning now to our manufacturing operations. We have delivered a resilient performance this quarter with the highlight being that Unit-3, our biologics facility in Bengaluru has become operational and delivered a GMP clinical batch of drug substance for a US-based client, a key milestone in the — in this facility. Our all-molecule manufacturing facility in Mangalur and here we are continuing to focus on increasing capacity utilization and pipeline development across both drug development and manufacturing. First, we are also making good progress at our Bayview biologics facility in the United States with revalidation and integration efforts on-track and we expect to operationalize the site in the second-half of this fiscal year.
Thank you. Moving on from operations, I’m very pleased to advise that we have strengthened our leadership team with the appointment of three accomplished industry professionals, all of whom bring a wealth of operational and strategic experience and expertise. Dr Patnake, a Syngene alumnus who played a key role in establishing our large molecules discovery capabilities has returned to Syngene to lead and drive the strategic direction of discovery biology. Daurav Kushwaha joins us as Chief Technology Officer to lead our technology strategy and in particular, our accelerating evolution in AI-led digital transformation across all our operating platforms.
Reflecting our ambition as we look-forward to the strategic scale and growth opportunities of the global contract research, development and manufacturing market, Ajay Tanden joins us to take on the new role of Head of Corporate Development and Strategy. I look-forward to working with PP Gaurav and Ajay as we continue to build and accelerate Syngene’s growth journey. I’m also delighted to share that our continuous efforts in sustainability over the years, where we have recently earned a recognition by Time magazine as the number-one sustainable company in the pharma and biotech sector in India and amongst the top 500 most sustainable companies in the world. In conclusion, we are encouraged by a positive start to the financial year.
While we remain mindful and watchful of the ongoing macroeconomic factors and uncertainties, we maintain a confident outlook and sustain our full-year guidance. With that, I will conclude my remarks and hand over to Deepak to provide further details about the financials. Deepak.
Deepak Jain — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Peter. Thank you, and a very good afternoon to everyone. As Peter highlighted, we had a positive start to the year with a year-on-year growth trajectory in Q1 FY ’26, in-line with our expectations. Revenue from operations for the quarter was up 11% versus last year and in constant-currency, up 7%. Research services continued its growth momentum driven both by conversion of pilots and ramp-up by existing clients. We continue to monitor the macro headwinds in the biotech funding, not stabilizing, big pharma’s internal restructuring and the uncertainty around US tariffs. Our CDMO business showed resilient performance, small-molecule development and manufacturing services remained stable, though affected by milestone shifts.
The Biologics business, while having some pilot project spillover into later cycles continues to progress well. We have partially capitalized Unit-3 in Bangalore this quarter with additional sections to be capitalized in the coming quarters. Turning to costs. Raw materials accounted for close to 25% of revenue from operations compared to 30% in the first-quarter last year, benefiting from yield improvements in biologics and business mix changes. We expect the full-year raw-material cost to be around 26%. Employee cost increased by 15% year-on-year, in-line with merit increase and staffing plan.
As highlighted earlier, we also have invested in-building experienced commercial teams in geographies closer to clients to help develop business opportunities. On other direct costs, primarily comprising of power and utility expenses increased by 2% year-on-year. Other expenses increased 22% as we continue to invest in automation, digitization programs to deliver increased speed, productivity and other operating expenses. Our company saw a hedge loss of INR4.8 crores increasing from the hedge loss of INR3.3 crores in the first-quarter of the previous year due to difference between average spot rate and the hedge rate. The increase in revenue combined with the movement in cost I just mentioned, resulted in 21% year-on-year growth in operating EBITDA with margins at around 24% in the first-quarter versus 22% in the same-period last year. EBIT from operations was at INR95 crores, higher year-on-year benefited by high — by higher operating EBITDA, partially offset by increase in depreciation costs. The 4% increase in depreciation is mainly due to additional capacity at Unit-3 facility came operational. We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet, which enables us to effectively navigate through industry cycles. After meeting our capex spending for the quarter, we have a net cash of INR1053 crores, almost $123 million as of June 2025. Reported interest expense declined by 1% as borrowings reduced in Q1 FY ’26 compared to similar quarter last year. Other income declined by 2% compared to similar quarter last year due to interest income on tax refunds leading to higher other income in Q1 2025 reported effective tax-rate for the quarter is at about 14%. However, normalized for tax benefit on transfer of employee gradual fund to the Trust, effective tax-rate for the quarter was at 21%, similar to the quarter last year. We expect the effective tax-rate for the full-year to be around 24%. Overall profit-after-tax before exceptional items stood at INR87 crores, up by about 59%. Taking into account the one-off related to tax benefit on account of Transfer to fund in Q1 FY ’26, normalized PAT before exception items and one-offs was up by about 47% year-on-year. Now moving to capex. As indicated at the start of the year, the long-term market indicators for the CR DMO industry remains positive and our plan is to continue to make strategic investments in capabilities that make us future-ready. We have incurred a capex of around $8 million during the quarter across the businesses. Around 30% was invested in research services, primarily across — across capability builds, including the peptides and the ADC and contractual obligations in dedicated centers. Nearly 55% of the capex in the CDMO business was for new formulation facilities in small molecules and modification of the Unit-3 in biologics. The remaining capex was spent on digitization, automation and towards common infrastructure. Finally, let me say a few words about our guidance. We advised in April about FY ’26 to be a transient year. So adjusting for client inventory rebalancing in our Biologics commercial manufacturing business, we guided for an underlying revenue growth to be in early teens. On a reported basis, we guided for growth in the mid-single digits. Based on the Q1 progress, we are on-track to hit that guidance as we provided in the last quarter. As Unit-3 and Dayview biologics facilities come — become operational in FY ’26, we expect EBITDA margins to be in the mid-20s for the full-year and a degrowth impact due to increased appreciation with the facilities coming online as we had guided in April. These investments are expected to capitalize growth over the medium-term as the utilization increases and strengthen our positions as one of the leading biologics CADMO player for the fast-growing market. With that, I suggest we open up for 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 R&1 on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press R&2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles we’ll take our first question from the line of Kunal Dhamesha from Macquarie. Please go-ahead.
Kunal Randeria
Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on good set of numbers. First question on the guidance bit, while you have reiterated the guidance, but the way I look at it is Q1 top-line growth is well-above that full-year number and I know there could be quarter-on-quarter volatility, but right, but then again, we are much above that mid-single digit kind of guidance in Q1 and the trend seems to be positive based on the conversion of the projects that we are seeing, et-cetera. So what is keeping you know from revising that guidance on the upward side at this moment.
Peter Bains
Kunal, thank you for the question. Let me start and then I’ll ask to add his comments. We framed our guidance at the end of last year and we are encouraged by the positive start and the growth in Q1 and this has underpinned, I think our confidence in reiterating the guidance for the full-year. We’re 12 weeks into the year and I think it’s just too early for us to make adjustments at this stage. Of course, you know, as the quarters unfold, we will revise or refine as we see it, but it’s too early now, after 12 weeks. We want to see more visibility through the year and before we make any comment on adjusting the guidance, but it’s a good and a positive start and the trajectory underpins our confidence for the full-year to maintain guidance.
Deepak, do you want to add anything?
Deepak Jain
Kunal, when we had guided for mid-single-digit growth, there are a couple of things that we had called out. One, we were seeing an inventory adjustment that would come through the year-on account of commercial manufacturing in our biologics plant. That is still to come. There’s some bit of inventory adjustments that are happening, but that’s going to happen through the year. So that’s going to be an impact that we will see that has a trajectory ahead of its own.
We also did highlight the fact that if we were to take this as a one-off, the underlying business is still going to grow in early teens and we’re still holding to that view that there will be an underlying growth, but the overarching growth as we guided would be still in mid-single digits.
Kunal Randeria
What would be the impact? Yes, what would be the impact of, let’s say that inventory adjustment in this quarter or if there is an impact this quarter or is it the future quarter is a very minor inventory adjustment that’s happening this quarter, but it’s supposed to pick-up in the coming quarters. Sure. And then just continuing on the outlook bit. I think if I remember it correctly, we had guided for the material cost to be around 26% to 27% of the revenue. And now we are suggesting around 26% for the full-year. Is that correct understanding?
Deepak Jain
We’ve not changed any guidance on a material cost. What we had said is what we hold tillion
Kunal Randeria
Sure, sure. And one more if I can squeeze in, please on the US accounting office? Can you hear me now?
Deepak Jain
Kunal, you were breaking, yes, much better.
Kunal Randeria
Sure. So one on the Unit-3, since it has been now commissioned, I mean, I know we had suggested that we expect these plants to be some three to five per minutes ramp-up fully by three to five years but how are you seeing given that we have taken a clinical batch and have more RFPs getting converted. So do you see that the three to Five-Year timeline would be much faster at this moment.
Peter Bains
Now, we are very pleased that in this quarter, we’ve become operational and that’s a key milestone as we look to utilize the capacity in Unit-3 and this was a clinical GMP batch for a US customer . I mean, I think we’ve given a frame of guidance. I mean we are working as you can imagine hard to exceed that, but — and we’ll be updating on a quarter-by-quarter basis to see how we can look to meet or will beat that timeline. And a lot of efforts are ongoing there. And in the same vein with our facility, we are on-track as guided to start operations in that facility in the second-half of the year. And we have a healthy interest from potential customers here with the versatility of that facility and being based in the US and again, we’re working hard to make that operational as quickly as we can and then to start to utilize the capacity.
Kunal Randeria
Sure. Thank you and all the best. Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Shyam Srinivasan from Goldman Sachs. Please go-ahead.
Shyam Srinivasan
Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. Just the first one on the quarterly disclosure you have started sharing on CRO versus CDMO split. I appreciate that. I think earlier we used to do full-year. So we only have like a 61%, if I remember right for fiscal ’25. So if you could tell us the 67% equivalent number last year and also, I think in your call — in your readout, you have called it — called out CROs growing faster. So just want to understand some of the drivers of that. So that’s my first question. So what’s the equivalent 1Q number last year CRO as a percentage of total revenue?
Deepak Jain
Hi,. So we started breaking down our CRO and CDMO businesses and that’s why we’ve called out a 67% growth — 67% mix in the CRO business this year. It is driven by the growth that Peter highlighted around pilot projects. And therefore, for the quarter, the mix is 67% to 33%. I am not comparing it to the previous quarters as we’ve always given an annual numbers. In the spirit of the conversation of we’ve been hearing from all the investors and analysts, we started now breaking them down every quarter. You will appreciate there will be an element of volatility between the business mixes.
So we should just probably look at that in a broad sense, right? There is — there is a 67% this quarter. We’ve guided a full-year number as well. So we hope to see how that progresses, but too early to really call-out and take just 1/4 as a marker.
Shyam Srinivasan
Okay, sorry, sorry, Deepak, it’s not helping me, but I’m just saying, is it closer to — I’m not trying to drive a quantitative number out, but has there been a dramatic mix change between this year and last year? I think that’s what I’m trying to see.
Deepak Jain
Not dramatic. That’s the point I’m trying to make. As you look at last year was an average of the full-year and 60%. The way to think about this, Shyam, is 60% 65% is a broad range, but that’s the range that we’ve already operated our CRO businesses. CDMO comes in that broad range and therefore, take it with that, this 1/4 may not be indicative of what’s going to happen all through the year because there will be some bit of puts and curves depending on how you deliver the business, right?
And as and when our CRA no sites become operational, whether it’s at Bay view or Unit-3, we will start seeing some bit of shifts happening as well. So that’s largely how I would take it, right? It’s also how the year pans are.
Shyam Srinivasan
Got it. Helpful. Sorry, I’ll persist on a different form of splitting the revenue now, small and large. I don’t know whether you’re doing it annual or quarterly, but maybe even qualitative color on how those businesses have done. I remember it was 24% or 25% for large molecule full-year last year and I think small was 12%. So just any additional qualitative color on those two-parts of the business as well?
Deepak Jain
Thank you., Peter did call-out that we did have a stable year stable quarter for molecules. Large molecules, as we guided at the beginning of the year will see an impact of inventory correction. So both these aspects are playing out. Small molecules stable. We did also mention that we see some improvement capacity utilization. Is it where we want it to be? I think there is work to be done. But — and in large molecules, we do see the impact of the inventory correction and a lot more of the inventory corrections will come in the coming quarters. That’s why we are holding our guidance for the full-year.
Shyam Srinivasan
Helpful. Thank you. All the best. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we’d like to remind participants to press R and one to ask a question. So the next question is from the line of from Fidelity. Please go-ahead.
Madhav Marda
Good afternoon. Thank you so much for your time once again. So firstly, if you could give some qualitative color in terms of how the pipeline is building up for the Mangalore small-molecule plant. You did mention that pipeline development work is happening here, but some more color in terms of maybe how many projects we have on-board and phase-wise, if you could give some color in terms of how many projects are in which phase that would be useful for us to just understand.
We know you’ve given a three to five-year guidance for ramp-up of some of these units, but just some progress updates would be very helpful. Thank you.,
Peter Bains
Let me start. Thank you for the question you know, in Mangalore the facility has a design of versatility here and that is enabling us to look at opportunities across the value chain here and that will include key starting materials, intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients APIs and eventually into commercial manufacturing. And I don’t think we’re going to give quantitative guidance on that, but in terms of qualitative color, we’re working on all of those across that value chain.
As Vipak has said, we are seeing some pickup on — we’re on-track for the full-year position, but we have more to do here and we’re looking to accelerate that. Deepak, is there anything else to add?
Deepak Jain
And obviously good.,
Peter Bains
I hope that helps.
Madhav Marda
Yeah, no, no, that makes sense. Are there any — some of your peers have spoken about especially in small molecules, you know the ability to win some late-stage projects maybe in Phase-2, Phase-III directly, given there’s some tailwind from China Plus One, etc., which is playing out. Are we seeing any such opportunities as well where you could get some more late projects and pipeline?
Peter Bains
So later size projects is within — within the mix that we’re looking at matter. I mean I think that’s correct and we are going to push on all of those. So key startings, intermediates, APIs and of course, if even if we can get a commercial-stage that will also play into that mix very strongly. And we’ll update on this as we move through the quarters.
Madhav Marda
Understood. Got it. Yeah, that’s it. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Surya Naray and Patra from PhillipCapital. Please go-ahead.
Surya Narayan Patra
Yeah. Thanks for this opportunity. My first question is on the — the biologic service offering that we are giving. So sir, if you can give me some sense that, okay, apart from the, what is the progress that we have been seeing, let’s say, for other biologic service platforms, let’s say like biosimilar ADC originate right all put together, what is the kind of progress that we are seeing there? Thank you.
Peter Bains
Again, I’ll start and Dupak may have comments to add. Let me start by taking the lens back and looking at-the-market itself on a global basis. Large molecule biologics, is around about a 10% to 10% level of the global CRDMO market, but it’s the fastest-growing and it’s growing in the teens. And I think the outlook for biologics which would encompass the monoclonal antibodies, but ADCs and peptides and oligos are exciting fast-emerging modalities in our customer-base and we are evolving and adapting you know, to ensure that we can offer a very strong service propositions to them.
So we have an established monoclonal antibody facility and we’ve spoken about that. And I think I touched in my opening remarks that we’ve inaugurated, for example, a state-of-the-art peptide facility now in our Park — in our singing park facility and that is going to enable us to look at synthesis and purification, characterization, scale-up and strengthen our offering in peptides. That then bridges into linkages as you’ve described with some of the exciting combination modality that are being developed on our customer side and that we are looking to develop in parallel related to capabilities in ADCs and oligonucleotides and in the combination of antibodies and peptides and oligos and further into. So we continue to look at the evolution of modalities and technologies that our customers and collaborators are using to develop novel medicine and we are investing behind some of them to enhance and strengthen our offering. And in the area of monoclonals, peptides, oligos and ADC, that is an area of focus for us and we will continue to invest in what is an exciting and fast-growing area and one that we are receiving an increased sort of input in inquiries and translating that into business opportunities.
Surya Narayan Patra
Yes. Okay. Just my broader point also that I was trying to drive out of this question was that what would be the current mix of research services business within biologic and manufacturing? And since we are now adding multiple capacities within India, outside India. So how the mix is likely to see given the kind of fastest growth visibility that is there for the overall biologic business opportunity?
Peter Bains
Yeah. So let me again start, but I’m going to refer to some of Pak’s comments as well. But as we said in our opening remarks, research services in this quarter is at 67% of revenues, the balance being in manufacturing. I mean, this will be dynamic. It’s not going to stay at one-level and that dynamic and balance will depend on how we make progress in capacity utilization in our large and small-molecule facilities where we’ve seen the pickup in the start this year in Unit-3 and we look-forward to coming online in the second-half and we see improvement in utilization in Mangalore, but more to do there, of course, but also our research services traction is growing as well.
So that balance will adjust according to the flow and growth of businesses that unfolds over the coming quarters and of course, we’ll keep you advised of that on a quarterly basis.
Surya Narayan Patra
Yes, certainly, sir. My second broader question, sir, about the industry, about the half. So yeah? Yes, just a second. Good morning,. Is it fine now, ma’am?
Operator
Yes. Please go-ahead.
Surya Narayan Patra
Yeah. My second question was about the major changes, the trend that we are witnessing now influenced by Trump, that there are many $50 billion of kind of investment commitment by large innovators into US that we are witnessing. See already like four, five odd players have committed that kind of investment into US. So given that, what is the kind of change in the pharma outsourcing environment that you are seeing and how would we be positioned given that major changes that has been happening in the space?
Peter Bains
Yes, so I saw I mean I mean we to monitor the macro geopolitical and geoeconomic trend closely. Now the tariff movement continues to be volatile to some extent, although I think they’ve — I mean, I think that there’s perhaps less volatility now than there and there has been. This is looking as if it might to some degree stabilize. Important point for us to emphasize on tariffs, if I take that first is that Syngene is predominantly a service industry.
And the tariffs exposure on products is not going to have any material effect on us. So we looked at the tariff question through that lens primarily. We keep a watch fly. We obviously see what you’ve described and a number of major pharma companies have committed to significant capital expenditures in the United States. Those capital expenditures can be over quite extensive periods, five and 10 years. Again, I take the lens back. And if I look at the contract manufacturing market globally, it’s 50% of the total market. It’s a very, very big market and Syngene has a relatively very small market-share and we believe we have very substantial headroom to grow into.
We are mindful of the of the geopolitics here and the Bayvu facility acquisition gives us a very nice foothold in the United States. And as I said in my remarks, we’re seeing clear momentum and interest in that facility. So we’ll have to balance that over the short, mid and long-term. In the short-term, we are looking to utilize the capacities we have and we’re beginning to see pickup and line-of-sight there. And we need to fill those up and we’ll monitor a wider global situation and we will plan our investments very carefully and that will be one factor that we take into consideration.
But I think the comment I really want to leave you with here is, is we see what you’ve described, but the wider market opportunity is very, very, very big and they will continue to be strong interest in manufacturing footprint in India and in other geographies. And Syngene is well-placed to capitalize on that and has a lot of market room ahead of it.
Surya Narayan Patra
Okay. Sure, sir. Just with your permission, I will ask one last question and that’s a clarification also. About the small-molecule capacity addition, particularly targeting the animal health that what you have mentioned in the annual report. So here, I just wanted to have some sense that, okay, by this capacity expansion, what target and though that we are trying to drive the business from? That is one.
And secondly, you have just mentioned that the small-molecule capacity in Mangalore, since it is a kind of end-to-end integrated in the sense that it is manufacturing the starting material, the intermediate as well as the kind of potentially the final product. So what utilization it could be there currently?
Peter Bains
Okay. Let me again offset that to start with Surya. And again, Deepak may want to add some comments. I think on your first question, you were really — you were referring to large molecules in animal health. I think, is that correct, Survia?
Surya Narayan Patra
No, no. I was mentioning about the capacity addition on the small-molecule side targeting animal health.
Peter Bains
Right. Okay. So in our small-molecule facility, I think you’ve understood my comment and the versatility of the facility allows us to look across the value chain. And we’re looking at that in-human health. But of course, if we get the right opportunity in animal health, we will look at that also. And so we will look at both. We have no clear definitive quantitative view as to what — where that — where that balance may end. And in terms of quantitative guidance on capacity utilization, again, we’re not giving a number.
We’re looking to increase utilization of Mangalore through this year. The first-quarter, we’ve made a decent start. We’re on-track with where we wanted to be. It’s in-line with expectations and that’s a part of the reinforcement of our full-year guidance.
Surya Narayan Patra
Definitely, sir. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure management is able to answer queries from all participants. Kindly restrict Your questions to two at a time. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Kunal Nanderia from Axis Capital. Please go-ahead.
Kunal Randeria
Hello, everyone. Good afternoon. Sir, I’m Jim Baxter have started to expand their own R&D and other operations in India. So have you seen any impact so-far? And based on the conversations with them do you see them taking some projects in-house
Peter Bains
Kunal, we again and monitoring the sort of global capability centers. I think those global capability centers are very largely supporting sort of back-office operations and are not having any direct impact on our operations. And in some ways, I think they’re a good signal of investment more broadly into India to build a wider biotech ecosyste — ecosystem in India, which still significantly lags the biotech ecosystems in other parts of Asia, in particular, but Europe and the United States.
So widening the biotech ecosystem in India is going to be overall a positive thing. And we kind of look at it through that lens and I don’t think we’re seeing any direct impact on any of our business at this point.
Kunal Randeria
Got it. Got it. Just second question on this — against a follow-up. So this — so these contracts are for a certain finite period of time. So for the dedicated centers, can you tell us when some of these contracts are up for renewal
Deepak Jain
So Kunal, I at the total time that these contracts come up for approvals because for regular renewal cycle. We typically don’t call-out as to the timelines. But as and when they happen, we get into a renewal cycle and renewal conversations. Historically, we’ve maintained long-term relationships with these ident centers, I mean, case in point as an example of BMS, right, that’s over two decades, right? And it just shows the depth of the relationships that we have. These have — these are some strategic relationships that we’ve built over a period of time and at different points of renewals, they have caused conversations with us on how do we really strengthen the relationship.
Kunal Randeria
So to me, I think as and when they happen, we get into a renewal conversation that just helps deepen the relationship. Can I do that, but what I was asking is, is it typical three years, five years, maybe longer than that or this may raise from client to plant?
Peter Bains
It typically varies from client to client, but yes, these are long-term relationships, right? It goes at different stages, right? It goes three years renewals, higher renewals, they can even be longer renewals that can go into it’s client to client, given it’s a client information, we don’t share that much, but — but they are typically long-term relationships and long-term contracts.
Deepak Jain
They’re multi-year, all of them are multi-year and as Deepak has said, some of them go beyond five years. So they’re long-term multi-year contracts and again, we will advise as and when anything changes.
Kunal Randeria
Sure, sir. So reason I was actually pushing on this was, I think in December ’21, when you had renewed some contract with Amgen, it was mentioned it will be 2026. So that’s why I kind of said because some of these contracts, there is some info in the public domain. So that’s the reason I was asking for Amgen and other contracts,
Deepak Jain
Yeah. Just to add-on, right, not necessarily every contract gets renewed on the last day, right? So there are timelines and structures that we get into. Some of the contracts that we speak of with our clients come into conversations even between, let’s suppose there are strategic investments that we need to make with the client.
So different shapes and forms of these contracts, I think you should take that their strategic relationships. We continue to hold with them, we continue to work with them and if there’s any significant change that comes across, we will obviously talk about it.
Kunal Randeria
Thanks. Fair enough. Thank you and all the best. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Alankar Karur from Kotak Institutional Equities. Please go-ahead.
Alankar Garude
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. So in the annual report, you have spoken about conversion of six pilot CRO projects into full-fledged contracts in the fiscal FY ’25 and you did mention about this conversion continuing in the first-quarter as well. So the question is, while the conversion is healthy, given the funding environment has worsened in the first-half CY ’25 versus, say, maybe second-half FY ’24 or whole of FY ’25, has the pace of new pilot project been slowed over the past few months compared to what we are seeing last year?
Peter Bains
Let me start with a response to that. And again, I’m going to take a little bit of a step-back. Biotech funding, which plays into the early-stage biobiotech company represents one of the inputs into our discovery services. And quite clearly during the course of last year, there was a significant reduction in US funding into biotech that created a sort of sector-wide drawback in the biotech community. Important to recognize two things there.
One, there was a drawback and the entire sector experienced that and Syngene was not immune. Important also to say that doesn’t mean it dries up to zero and we do see biotech coming in. But these pilots are one source of input to our discovery services. And as I said in my opening remarks, we continue to have a healthy pipeline from multinational and mid-sized biopharma companies who are looking to externalise some of their discovery services.
So our input to Discovery is not is not disproportionately reliant on biotech. We’re seeing the pilots coming in from other areas and many of the large companies and the mid-sized companies will come and visit the facility here in Bangalore. They’ll come and they’ll look at the laboratories. They want to take a look at the laboratories and we’ve got 2 million square feet of them here and they’ll want to talk to the teams and they come in and they talk to our scientists.
And on the basis of that due-diligence and more, they’ll make a decision as to whether they put a — I know a program with us. They may not go up pilot route in the sense of putting work with other companies into they can be convinced by the service offerings and the due-diligence that they see. So the broad picture is that biotech pilots are only one source of potential revenue growth for our services division and it needs to be seen in that lens the math complex.
Alankar Garude
You got it, Peter. But yeah, I mean, just on that point, even if it’s a relatively smaller portion, I’ll answer
Operator
I’m sorry to interrupt, you are sounding muffled
Alankar Garude
Just give me a minute. Sure. Yeah, sorry, is this better?
Operator
That’s fair
Alankar Garude
Yeah, sorry about this. So sorry, just to harp on that point, Peter, even though it’s one of the components as you mentioned, but just directionally, there has to be some impact of the funding environment on — especially on some of the smaller clients. So is it something which we have seen over the last few months in terms of new project wins from some of these clients?
Peter Bains
I like in your right on an absolute basis, there has to be an impact and we see that in the biotech community. And the amount of capital going-in there isn’t what it was and that we hope will be restored. But in terms of impact to our research services business. I think you can see in the — in this quarter’s results, there’s a healthy 11% growth. You know, biotech is a component of that, Alanca. We’re still getting biotech interest and engagement.
But it’s — as I’m saying, it’s a relatively small proportion of the total input to our research services. It’s an important part and we want to see it improve in itself and we are looking at the biotech funding environment and we’d like to see it restored. But we’re not reliant and dependence on this, as you can see in our first-quarter results. So I hope that adds the additional color you’re looking for.
Alankar Garude
Yeah, that’s Helpful, Peter. Thank you. And the second question is again for you, Peter. See, we have had seen — we have seen some senior accretion over the past couple of years. Now this is something which has happened in the past as well, maybe about seven, eight, nine years back. You spoke about the three senior hires, that’s good to hear. Two questions here. One is, post these hires, are there any senior management gaps left to address? And secondly, how do you plan to address this historical issue of senior-level attrition with the company.
Peter Bains
So let me answer the questions in reverse order,. I mean Syngenes have been and remains a very stable company. I mean, senior management changes every seven years at some level is ordinary course. I mean, there are always going to be senior management changes and has been relatively very, very stable in the long lens. And I was there for six years from 2010 to 2016. Jonathan was here for nearly 10 years. That is stable senior management.
And beneath that, of course, there’s been some additional changes. Nothing to my eye that would represent any degree of instability or when you look at it across industries over that — over that timeline. Now our — our sector is evolving fast and we need to bring in capabilities and expertise to ensure we remain cutting-edge and competitive to provide the service to our customers. One example of that is clearly technology. And Syngene has got an ongoing program that we’re accelerating if I break technology down in automation and digitization, where we’re looking right across our platforms to accelerate automation and digitization, to improve effectiveness and efficiency, to drive down timelines, to drive down costs and to improve quality and reduce risks.
And in AI, we see that as fundamental change agent as the discovery, development and manufacturing platforms evolve over the short — mid and long-term timelines. And certainly, you look outside of our customer-base and that is happening and we need to accelerate that. And that is why we’ve appointed a Chief Technology Officer, where a clear focus is going to be on enhancing and integrating AI into our services. And very, very clearly that strengthening capability here. So PP is returning in biology, that’s terrific for us. And biology remains a very important aspect as witnessed by the market where biologicals are the fastest-growing part of the CRBMO market.
The hand-in strategy and development of Syngen looks to plot its course over the coming years with the evolution of the industry and the shifts in the macros that we’ve discussed, we need to strengthen our abilities there and Ajay has joined the — with the team to strengthen our capabilities as we look strategically over the next five and 10 years. It’s a very exciting period for the industry. There’s a lot of change as everybody identifies, but that also means a lot of opportunity and Syngene is trying to position itself to optimize its position to serve its customers well in these changing times.
Alankar Garude
Fair enough, Peter. That’s helpful. That’s it from my side. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Harsh Bhatia from Bandan AMC. Please go-ahead.
Harsh Bhatia
Thank you. Am I audible?
Operator
Yes, please go-ahead.
Harsh Bhatia
Thank you. Just one is in terms of the capacity.
Peter Bains
Sorry, Harsh, you’re audible,
Operator
But hello, Harsh. I’m sorry, you’re not very clear. Can you use your handset mode, please? Yeah. Please use your handset mode.
Harsh Bhatia
Just give you. Is this better?
Operator
Much better. Go-ahead.
Harsh Bhatia
Sure. Thank you. Just in terms of the — at least from a biologics perspective, I think we would move-in a couple of years north of 50 km capacity with both the facilities. If you can help us understand what kind of step-up or ramp-up can we see from an overall perspective for both these facilities? Again, without getting into the numbers perspective, just directionally, is it going to be more of a gradual step-up in terms of operationalizing the capacities or is it going to be something that we see a large part of the capacity coming in on day-one? Again, I understand it depends on the number of projects, kind of projects that you get, but maybe some more color on that.
Deepak Jain
So, Harsh, we had guided on both the facilities at the point in time when we got into the acquisition of whether it was Unit-3 or even the Bay view site, we said we will get to a 1x asset turnover in three to five years, a little bit to what was also asked earlier to which Peter commented as well that the fact that our endeavor would be to definitely try and do it faster. We just started, as an example, the Unit-3, we capitalized that in this quarter.
We did a GMP preclinical stage trial as well for one of our clients in US and therefore, we will always want to do this faster. But as we guided, three to five years seems to be a reasonable ramp-up time if there are opportunities and ways by which we can do this faster. I think there’s enough and more effort being put there. No timelines that can be committed right now, no problem numbers that I can share at this point in time
Harsh Bhatia
Just one more. In terms of the Bayview facility, what kind of a structure do we have with emergent to that extent? Because I think they also have their particular set of pipeline. So is there any sort of right of first refusal to that extent with the entire capacity or there is something that’s more narrower in nature? Maybe you could help us a little bit on that. Thank you..
Deepak Jain
So, Harsh, when we took the conversation with emergents, right, they have their own relevant pipeline, they have their own structure. We took the plant in March. We said it will take us about eight to 12 months-to operationalize it. That’s why we said it’s going to get operationalized in the second-half of the year. In terms of right to first refusal to the specific question that you have, they are one of the clients that we’ve always spoken of and we have said that right to first refusal on a certain part of the facility if it is there, it will always be good for us to be able to get an early-stage client already hooked on as an anchor client, right?
So it’s a facility available for everybody to be able to help us get the — get the facility operationalized. Emergent has been in that — in that facility earlier. And if there is an element that comes through, we will obviously want to want to explore that as a tie-up. So I’m not giving you an answer very clearly whether the right to first refusal is there or not. It’s a facility that’s available and if there is a way by which when we operationalize it, if there is something that Emergent wants to bring on the table, there’ll be a client we would want to understand what they have to offer.
Harsh Bhatia
Sorry to hop on this, just to clarify. Yeah, just to clarify, there is a certain capacity that is available to them in terms of the rise of force
Deepak Jain
Yes, to an extent, if they come on with a particular project, they can always, but it’s not that facility cannot be earmarked for somebody else as well. As it’s a client-based program structure, right? And if somebody comes to help us operationalize it, we will.
Peter Bains
And Harsh, I’ll add-in here is the part of the attraction of the facility was its versatility. I mean, it is a very nice construct of three discrete suites so it has a high degree of versatility and I think that you know for Emergent they recognize that and for you know a certain part, even though they have an opportunity and time-bound. But I mean as Deepak said we would welcome Emergent as a customer if It does on both sides and that conversation is ongoing.
Harsh Bhatia
Sure. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Ms Nandini Agarwal from International for closing comments. Over to you. Thank you.
Nandini Agarwal
Well, thank you everybody for joining the call. If there are any further questions, you can get-in touch with. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. On behalf of Singen International Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you. Thank you