The Chatter: Contours of Change
Edition #8
Welcome to the 8th edition of The Chatter — a newsletter where we dig through what India’s biggest companies are saying and bring you the most interesting bits of insight, whether about the business, its sector, or the wider economy. We read every major Indian earnings call and listen to the interviews so you don’t have to.
In this edition, we have covered 20 companies across 27 industries:
Aviation
Interglobe Aviation
Plastic Pipes
Prince Pipes and Fittings
Logistics
Delhivery
VRL Logistics
Real Estate
DLF Limited
Consumer Durables
Eureka Forbes Ltd
FMCG
Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd
Globus Spirits
Restaurants & QSR(Quick Service Restaurant)
Barbeque-Nation Hospitality Ltd.
Textiles
Rupa & Company Ltd
Engineering & Capital Goods
Ircon International
Retail
KDDL Limited
Financial Services
Geojit Financial Services
One Mobikwik Systems
Energy
Power Grid Corporation of India
Agriculture
Kaveri seeds Limited
Healthcare
Mankind Pharma
Max Health
Fortis Healthcare
Emcure Pharmaceuticals
Software Services
Zen Technologies
Media & Entertainment
Entertainment Network (India)
MPS Ltd
Tiles & Sanitaryware
Acrysil Limited
Chemicals
Solar Industries
Diversified
Grasim Industries
Services
Teamlease Services
Aviation
Interglobe Aviation | Large cap | Aviation
IndiGo is a low-cost Indian airline that operates flights transporting passengers across domestic and international destinations.
Looks like Indigo’s slowly moving outside its low-cost carrier niche, and is testing a wider universe of offerings – from premium offerings to long-haul international travel:
“During financial year 2025, we've launched a series of new initiatives including our business class stretch and our loyalty program Bluechip. We've launched Stretch on five domestic routes so far with 16 aircraft. In addition, we've also launched Stretch on the Delhi-Bangkok route on our damp-lease 787 and going forward as we get more deliveries, we’ll continue to add routes with this stretch product. As part of our broader strategy, we signed an agreement to damp-lease six 787s wide bodies with Norse Atlantic Airways and we've already deployed the first 787 on the Delhi Bangkok route and we have received a positive response from our customers and we will be receiving the other five during the second half of this financial year starting July and it's going to open for sale today itself. We will be further expanding our horizons and will launch Amsterdam and Manchester from Mumbai using damp-lease aircraft. This marks an important milestone in our journey to competing meaningfully on long haul routes and set the foundation of our widebody operations.”
— Gaurav Negi, CFO
The company clarifies its position further — it’s strategy is to operate on low cost, not deficient service:
“I think you should make a difference between ‘low cost’, and ‘low cost operations’ or a ‘low cost basis’ if you wish. And I think IndiGo prides itself — and we remain committed to that — to be an operator with a very low cost basis. That has not meant domestically that we're having a product which is not high quality. On the contrary; courteous, hassle-free, on-time performance and affordable fares. So that has been the basis of success for IndiGo. What we have done, though, with the start of the operation into Europe, we will adjust our product to what is required for Europe. So, we will have meals all across the aircraft as part of the overall price proposition on the flights to Amsterdam and Manchester. And we have our premium product, IndiGo Stretch, being available on those flights as well. That doesn't mean any change in the domestic and regional proposition.”
— Gaurav Negi, CFO
Indigo’s shift to wide-body international aircraft opened an unexpected opportunity — much higher demand for cargo shipments. To the company, this might be a product of ‘Make In India’ catching on.
“...we inaugurated the narrow body freighters some 2 and a half years back and we have a few of them in operation now. When we started our flights into Bangkok with the 787, actually, we saw suddenly cargo loads of 8–9–10 tons per flight — obviously significantly larger than the kilos we carry on the narrow bodies. So the opportunity for cargo really is very very significant in terms of flights operating. I think it nicely coincides with the fact that one made in India is becoming more and more prominent in terms of India as a global production hub.”
— Peter Elbers, CEO
The company points to just how quickly its international operations have grown — and the huge opportunity ahead, given how Indian operators don’t have a major international presence:
“Actually, when I joined IndiGo 3 years ago, we had around 25 international destinations and we closed this financial year 2025 with 40 international destinations. And now last week, we've added Fujairah being our 41st international destination. That's nearly 65% growth within a period of less than 3 years. And we have expanded into newer countries, regions and continents with enhancing connectivity to north and central Asia, to the west with a flight to Nairobi and to the east to Indonesia. However, when it comes to international travel, India remains highly underserved. The further you go, the lower the market share of Indian operators is becoming and this presents us with a huge opportunity to expand into further markets.”
— Peter Elbers, CEO
An airlines business runs a tail risk from events like the Pahalgam terror attack, as the company noted:
“The moment that the geopolitical event kind of transpired we've seen a significant amount of cancellation that has also started to happen so between the period of April 22nd till a few days back the cancellation and the booking trends have taken a sharp decline. What we've started to notice is in the last few days at least that has stabilized and has started to uptick. Now to what extent it's going to bounce back and how quickly is it going to bounce back is something that we are monitoring but at least we from our vantage point we've seen the worst in terms of the peaking of the cancellation.”
— Peter Elbers, CEO
But here’s something interesting: Indigo’s geographical diversification helps it get around challenges like this:
“...in May… our operations from 11 airports in the northern part of India were suspended for a period of eight days, leading to cancellation of around 170 daily flights. Our Indigo teams — and especially the teams in the northwest region — rose to the occasion supporting one another and most importantly caring for our customers with empathy. Operationally, the impact was limited as we continue to operate more than 2,500 daily flights with strong domestic load factors of around 83% on the remainder of the network during that very same period.”
— Peter Elbers, CEO
The same thing also helps the company tide over events like the closure of the Pakistani air space:
“So, to put things in perspective, IndiGo operates 131 destinations. Due to the closure of the Pakistani airspace, we have suspended two — Almaty and Tashkent. So out of the 131, two have been suspended. Then if we look to the other flights, it basically impacts around 19 routes, and a total of around 30 flights... 34, I think, is the precise number, but it depends a bit on winds and directions and all. But looking at that — so, we have 2,200 daily flights, and there we have a total of 34 being affected within the range of 20–to–30 minutes of additional flying time — which, of course, there's an impact financially when it comes to bringing in additional fuel, but if you look to the overall scheme of things at IndiGo and the size of the operation to other geographies, the impact for us is relatively limited.”
— Peter Elbers, CEO
Another thing under question, with this incident, is Indigo’s relationship with Turkish Airlines. Here’s what the company says:
“The flights between India and Turkey are governed, and are within the framework of, the air service agreement between the two nations. I think that's one. Two, the operations which are taking place are fully compliant and in line not only with the regulatory framework, but also by all the rules and regulations from the government. Then, certainly, we had and we still have lots and lots of Indian customers booked on these flights — mostly connecting over Istanbul, and fly to other parts of the world for their travel needs. And then, you know, on the renewal — that's up for the government to decide on that. We have this operation in place for some time now. It has served the Indian customers well. And whether it is compliant and there the government has the view on what is the overall landscape and the overall setting and the holistic pictures, and we operate within the guidance and framework.”
— Peter Elbers, CEO
For many years, now, Indigo has had legacy issues with aircraft groundings — which forced it to pursue costlier options like aircraft leases:
“...we're trying to hold the cost at the similar levels of 2025 — reason being, we had a large part of our AOG (Aircraft on Ground) mitigation strategy, which was damp-leases. We’re scaling down those damp-leases as some of the aircrafts which were AOGs are coming back. So, those offsets will enable the increases that we’re going to have — inflationary increases — that we'll have in all the line items that are there. So we are making an attempt to make sure that the cost levels remain at the same levels that we had in 2025. Because we have seen an uptick in 2025, largely because of the damp-leases that we had introduced to offset the AOG situation that we faced.”
— Peter Elbers, CEO
Plastic Pipes
Prince Pipes and Fittings | Small Cap | Plastic Pipes
Prince Pipes manufactures plastic pipes and fittings used primarily in plumbing, irrigation, drainage, and infrastructure projects, supplying both households and industries across India.
Indicates PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) prices (a key raw material) have likely bottomed, potentially easing margin pressure. ADD (anti-dumping duty) could lead to a 7-14% rise in resin prices.
“Sure. So I think, you're right, we have seen an increase in PVC prices of Rs.1,500 per metric ton a couple of days ago from Reliance. I don't expect... So I'm keeping ADD aside first. Without ADD, I don't expect a very sharp uptick in prices. I think prices will continue to remain stable. But the good part is that the negative sentiment will not be there. There will not be a resistance to stock material as there is no threat of an inventory loss for the channel partners as well. So that is the one positive. I think we will see a stable price environment and affordability in PVC.
As far as ADD is concerned, there has been a lot of talk about ADD since, you know, past two or three quarters. I prefer not to speculate on this things because this is related to the government and the DGTR. Whenever it comes, I think PVC will continue to be range-bound, but you will see a recovery. So whatever PVC today is maybe around Rs.70 per kg, this could move to around Rs.75 to Rs.80 a kg. So you could see a slight uptick, but again, I don't see a major irrational upward movement of PVC. It will continue to be stable and range-bound and affordable.”
– Parag Chheda, Joint Managing Director
Outlines a shift in inventory strategy, aiming for a leaner 60-70 day cycle by increasing domestic raw material sourcing, which could improve working capital.
"So, one is, you have seen a reduction in overall inventory from December to March. There has been a significant reduction. This is a combination of both finished good and raw material. We have built infrastructure to be able to hold higher finished good material. So that is something that we don't want to reduce because again, it's a supply-driven industry. Once you lose a sale, it is lost forever. So we need to have very strong finished good inventory. Raw material inventory is on the higher side where, like I said earlier, we have relooked at our strategy, re-evaluated our strategy. We have increased our domestic contracts and our dependence... as our capacities grow, as we become a larger, more organized player, we have no problem re-evaluating our strategy and we have implemented that as well. And we will, we have already improved our domestic sourcing, which means that we can keep a lower inventory level. [KEY REMARK] So going forward, I believe around 30 days of raw material inventory and 30 to 40 days of finished good inventory. So around 60 to 70 days of inventory is what is a sweet spot for us that we have evaluated and that is one change and we are happy to to to implement that and we have already done that.”
– Parag Chheda, Joint Managing Director
Management sees significant growth potential in CPVC (Chlorinated Polyvinyl Chloride) due to increased supply and affordability, benefiting large, branded players like Prince Pipes.
CPVC is a smaller, fast-growing segment with higher margins due to premium pricing and specialized plumbing applications, whereas PVC is a larger but commoditized segment with relatively lower profitability. CPVC is an advanced form of PVC treated with chlorine, making it suitable for higher temperature and pressure applications.
"Yeah, I think it's an important question. I think CPVC till now in India, we have been deficient in terms of supply. I believe CPVC industry is on a very interesting cusp of growth. The kind of capacities that are being put up, whether it's by MNCs or by local players, there is very aggressive capacity addition. You are going to see very affordable CPVC raw material and as a result finished good pricing over the next 3-4 years. I think this goes back to, you know, decades ago when this happened with PVC as well, which led to a mass consumption of PVC across the country. And today India is one of the largest consumers of PVC. I think we are on that kind of a cusp for CPVC. I think this is just the start in terms of the acceptance of CPVC and the consumption of CPVC across multiple applications, be it plumbing, firefighting, and industrial.
I believe again, this is a very sensitive use case for the builder. It goes in the concealed application for hot and cold water plumbing. So, today, you know, 80% of the market is with top four of us. And I don't see any major shifts. Yes, there will be access to smaller players, but I think this is an extremely brand conscious segment and a very sensitive use case because it goes into concealed application for hot and cold water plumbing. So I think there is net-net, there is more to gain than to lose for a large player like us who already has, let's say more than 10% market share in this segment. You know, we are aggressively adding capacity and we are extremely bullish on the growth of CPVC over the next few years."
– Parag Chheda, Joint Managing Director
Management views new organized entrants positively, expecting them to drive consolidation from the unorganized sector, benefiting larger branded players.
"I have a slightly different view to this. Yes, there are new entrants in the industry, which one signals the kind of long-term profit pools that are available for the industry and the kind of growth that the industry will have over the long term. [...] The good part is any of these players that are coming in are branded players, corporate players, who have, you know, will always have a disciplined approach to pricing, to quality, to credit control. And, you know, we still, you know, around 30-35% of this industry continues to be unorganized. So I am very happy to compete with organized players where there is a level playing field...
I believe this brand consciousness will only increase in this industry and which is why we are aggressively investing in the brand year on year. And I believe this will continue to consolidate. Any addition in capacity, whether it's from incumbents like us or from new entrants, I believe the people losing the market share are the unorganized players."
– Parag Chheda, Joint Managing Director
Signals a positive trend for industry realizations and profitability over the medium term, driven by better pricing and a richer product mix.
“Pricing of course will improve with PVC prices bottoming out and growth of value-added products like CPVC and other polymers. So I think safe to say over the next, if you're talking 3 to 5 years, there will be, value growth should be higher than volume growth at an industry level, given improvement in PVC prices because they have bottomed out and growth of other value-added products."
– Parag Chheda, Joint Managing Director
Logistics
Delhivery | Mid Cap | Logistics
Delhivery is a logistics company that provides delivery, supply chain management, and warehousing services to businesses and consumers.
Delhivery’s acquisition of Ecom Express strengthens its leadership as the only profitable player in a fragmented 3PL market, signaling inevitable consolidation among loss-making competitors. Their clear cost and service advantages further solidify their dominant position.
“Delhivery has always been more than 100% of the profit pool of this industry. That position has only been strengthened over the last financial year. As we mentioned before, at the pricing that currently prevails in the market, Delhivery is the only profitable player in this industry and to the best of our understanding our remaining competitors with model similar to Ecom Express have also seen an expansion in their losses in Q4, which means our competitive positioning continues to be better. I have been public about this. There were too many players in this market in the previous quarter. Our acquisition of Ecom Express has not changed that dynamic. There are still too many players in this market. And in terms of what exactly will happen as I've mentioned, you know, how long can unprofitable players continue to survive in this market is a question that I am not best placed to answer. I think the reality is it depends on how much capital they have left. But I think what this deal has done is it does signal that if you are a loss-making network in Express Parcel with no path to profitability, consolidation or exit is an inevitable outcome. So I think we're very happy. Our position will continue to improve. As you can see from our cost advantages, they are not theoretical, they are material. Our service advantages are material because customers don't reward you merely for having the lowest cost. And at the end of the day, we will continue to grind our way through these advantages and make sure there is very limited, if any breathing room for any competitors in this space.”
— Sahil Barua, MD & Chief Executive Officer
Indicates earlier-than-expected customer volume migration post-Ecom Express acquisition. Unusual seasonal upside hints at growing trust and switching behavior.
“In terms of volumes and retained volumes, our assumptions on retained volumes were fairly conservative to begin with. Our assumption was that we would retain close to about 30% of the volumes of the Ecom Express standalone network. From the time that the deal was under consideration up to now in May, we've already seen an organic uptick in the volumes of Delhivery's standalone Express Parcel network. As you can see, our Jan. Feb. daily average volumes are represented by the black dotted line on the left. From there going into March, we saw an uptick in overall volumes as customers began to shift some of their volumes into the Delhivery network. On formal announcement of the deal, this has continued and has been solidified. The trend in April was marginally higher than the trend in March, which in itself is a new phenomenon. Generally speaking, Q1 volumes are soft, and April volumes tend to come in below March volumes. So this is a positive sign. And May volumes on average have been higher than both April and March volumes as well. So overall, I think from a volume retention standpoint, we remain highly satisfied.”
— Sahil Barua, MD & Chief Executive Officer
Points to a margin normalization trajectory that management is increasingly confident about. It implies scalability without further dilution to margin structure.
“As I've always said before, we expect that PTL margins will be similar to the margins that we see in our Express Parcel business. And while of course, we've had a consecutive, you know, eight consecutive quarters of improvements in our service EBITDA margins, I think the reality is that at 3.8%, there were obviously questions being asked about whether we would ever get to those numbers. Hopefully, as you can see, the Q4 numbers, which have come in at 10.8%, and we brought up several times that as the business gets closer to about 175,000 to 200,000 tons of freight, we hit nearly full potential margins. That's quite visible.”
— Sahil Barua, MD & Chief Executive Officer
Delhivery is managing its finances thoughtfully, planning to lower future spending by making good use of equipment from the Ecom Express deal,showing a practical and efficient use of resources.
“Abhisek, first of all, I think what we have said and Sahil reiterated earlier in the call is that our long-term guidance for the Capex is in the range of 3.5% to 4%. And what we expect is, over the next two years to three years, the Capex on automation equipment should be minimal. Now this, of course, is a bit dependent on how much growth we see organically in the market for us post the acquisition, but to put certain numbers in perspective, when we look at e-comm's DRHP, I think they filed that they have capacity to do about 120 million shipment sorts per month, whereas the volume retention that we have factored in our valuation would basically mean that we are retaining roughly only about 15 million per month. And let's assume there are two sorts. There are 30 million sorts per month. So in a sense, about 35 million shipments per month additional parcel sorting capacity. That's a broad number. Now over a period of two or three years as this growth adds on to the business, we should not require to buy parcel sortation systems, we will require to buy bag sortation systems for our PTL and integrated PTL and B2C bag sorting at that point.”
— Amit Agarwal, CFO
Delhivery acknowledges prior competitive pricing pressures from in-house logistics players. Now sees normalization and attrition of weak players. Likely margin tailwinds and market share gains in FY26–27.
“Given our inherent advantages in our cost structure, this will not happen. And hopefully, what that will mean over time is that customers will choose the right service for themselves, which is the highest quality service, the one with the highest reach and the one with the most efficient pricing. In terms of self logistics, you know, I've said this several times in the past, when looked at purely from a dispassionate lens of cost and service performance, self logistics businesses do not compare favorably with third-party logistics and certainly not with Delhivery's network. I've gone into this in extreme detail over the last two years. The fundamental logic hasn't changed. Wherever these self logistics arms are being run for non-financial reasons, in that situation, I suppose they can continue for any length of time. So nothing is fundamentally altered. I think the worst from a self logistics standpoint is behind us. I think the industry will continue to consolidate. I think Delhivery will get its share and we will solidify our position in this market.”
— Sahil Barua, MD & Chief Executive Officer
VRL Logistics | Small Cap | Logistics
VRL Logistics is a leading logistics and transportation company, specialising in domestic goods transportation and offering a wide range of services, including cargo, courier, and passenger travel.
[Concall]
Fuel costs reduced by 300 basis points as percentage of revenue through bulk procurement scaling and direct refinery purchases, creating competitive advantages that smaller players cannot replicate.
"The fuel procurement cost per liter is reduced from 87 rupees to 84 rupees. On overall basis, the fuel cost as percentage to the revenue has been reduced from 29% to around 26%. We further increase the bulk purchase quantity in the current quarter from 31% to 42% of the total quantity consumed."
– CFO Sil Malawi
Geographic expansion success particularly in eastern markets, with untapped market focus and regional outperformance providing potential growth drivers despite overall weakness.
"Yeah, obviously on the geography front, as you are aware, actually we are most of the cases new branches are opening in the untapped market. There actually, we are expecting some good contribution from the volumes. And even in the current year, if you see wherever the eastern sector has been performed very well.
So, again, that concentration of untapped market is going to be continued. But as you said, the overall economic conditions again, it is not, you know, up to the mark, up to the mark as of now. So, considering those developments, so our tonnage growth will be dependent on the future days."– CFO Sil Malawi
Strategic business model shift to margin-focused growth, deliberately sacrificing volumes to improve profitability - representing a fundamental pivot from volume-led to margin-led strategy in the logistics sector.
"In the current quarter we further analyzed most of the business transactions or contracts with their contribution to the margins and potential addition to the overall tonnage of the company. In this process, we identified certain low margin business and discontinued such businesses which impacted on the tonnage."
— CFO Sil Malawi
Real Estate
DLF Limited | Large Cap | Real Estate
DLF Limited is one of India’s largest real estate developers, engaged in residential, commercial, and retail projects. It follows an end-to-end model, handling everything from land acquisition to construction and leasing. The company also provides leasing, property maintenance, and recreational services, complementing its core real estate development business and enhancing the overall value of its projects.
When asked about FY26 sales guidance, management maintained a ₹20,000–22,000 crore range, but subtly hinted at the potential for outperformance.
“We had said that we would continue to be broadly at this level, what we have achieved last year. I still say that we should be in the 20,000 to 22,000 range for next year. But again, as Aakash has consistently outperformed in the last 3 years, I don't see why he can't again. Right now, our guidance will be 20,000 to 22,000”
— Ashok Kumar Tyagi, Managing Director
Privana projects (Gurgaon) are already trading at ₹2,500–4,000/sq.ft. premium in the resale market,despite no new launch yet.
“2 Privanas that were sold last year are trading at a premium of INR 2,500 to INR 4,000 a square foot at present, as I speak to you, which is also very heartening and good to know. That's the kind of demand that the present set of Privanas have. Therefore, now the next phase. I think as soon as we have our paperwork in terms of RERA and all done, we will be in the market very soon”
—Aakash Ohri, Chief Business Officer and Joint Managing Director
DLF’s Gurgaon residential demand is being driven by end-users and investors alike. Homes are not only appreciating but also seeing high rental yields due to job growth in Cyber City.
“There is housing demand for sale as well as rentals. And therefore, a lot of people are investing in the DLF real estate as an asset class, which they prefer because of the certain quality deliveries and on time, and the escalations that they get. It becomes a very good opportunity to invest also, should they not take it for their own.Our attempt has always been that we go for people, who are buying these for themselves.”
— Aakash Ohri, Chief Business Officer and Joint Managing Director
Management spoke about possible rent increases at older properties and gave a realistic view. They didn’t overpromise but clearly said there’s room for growth.
“Little higher than 10% compared to the weighted average rate that is already there in the portfolio”
—Sriram Khattar, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Rental Business
DLF clarified its intent to stay focused on NCR, despite small forays into Mumbai and Goa
“You could have developers who are doing INR 35,000 crores of sales and generating embedded margins of maybe INR 7,000 crores, while there are developers who are INR 20,000 crores, can generate embedded margins of INR 12,000 crores.While Mumbai is a geography which interests us, because it is the largest real estate play in the country for sure. But having said that, I don't think that we have any doubts in our mind that our center of gravity will overwhelmingly remain NCR. That's for clear even in that sense.I think there's enough to grow in NCR itself ”
—Ashok Kumar Tyagi, Managing Director
Consumer Durables
Eureka Forbes Ltd | Small Cap | Consumer Durables
Eureka Forbes is a consumer durables company focused on health and hygiene products like Aquaguard water purifiers, Forbes vacuum cleaners, and air purifiers. It serves both homes and institutions across India and has a growing international presence. The company is known for its strong brand legacy, wide service network, and is backed by Advent International.
Mentions about strategic move to unlock underserved price-sensitive segments
“As part of our effort to grow penetration and to grow the category size, it is absolutely in our work stream to drive affordability and to make the category grow. You're aware that we've launched a product first online and that has now gone offline as well. The product that was launched online last year was called Aura 2x and what has been rolled out in modern trade and retail is a product called Aquaguard Enhance NXT, both of them have a 2- year filter life, in other words, filters need to be changed only after 2 years”
— Pratik Pota, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Acknowledges rising competition but confidently highlights strong brand and innovation as key advantages
“While we welcome competition because like I said, it helps category growth, we are not worried about competitive threats. We believe that it will allow us to grow and to grow the category overall. Our premium portfolio grew faster overall versus our average growth last year. We talked about our high-teens growth overall and within that, premium grew faster and allowed us to clearly balance our portfolio.”
— Pratik Pota, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
This tells that the company’s profits are improving not just because of higher demand, but also because it’s managing costs well and using its resources more efficiently
“Gross margins were higher by 202 basis points on a sequential basis due to a combination of factors; cost efficiencies, better product mix and lower buyback and other consumer spends, which we have done in Q3 post the festive season and the impact of that was felt in our gross margins. Driven by operating leverage, our expenses, excluding ESOP as percentage of revenue, was lower by 127 basis points versus previous year. Our focus on cost programs will continue to drive further efficiencies.”
— Gaurav Khandelwal, Chief Financial Officer
Highlights first-mover advantage in a high-growth, premium category. Brand investment and leadership here may offer a durable competitive edge.
“Despite fierce competition from other global players, we are now the market leaders in robotics. And you will see us build out the portfolio even further, and increase our investments, both on the go-to market side and on the category creation and awareness creation side.We have signed up Shraddha Kapoor as an ambassador for our cleaning portfolio, and she'll help us grow the category and make it a lot more salient, a lot more relevant for consumers”
— Pratik Pota, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Management kept a steady tone, transparent about lagging service performance, and emphasized long-term thinking, avoiding short-term success.
“We know that we are a growth business, and we will continue to invest in drivers of growth. In the fourth quarter, the margin improvement came despite a 28% YoY increase in A&SP spends. We are clear that our larger bias has to be towards growth.We are a business, as you reminded us with great potential, low penetrations across the categories, huge room for premiumization, growing consumer awareness of health and hygiene. We are absolutely obsessed about growth. And towards that, as you have seen products have been very, very strong. Our margin improvement will come because of 2 reasons. So, our bias, just to repeat, will remain towards sustained profitable growth with a bigger bias on growth.”
— Pratik Pota, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
FMCG
Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd | Large Cap | FMCG
Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd is a leading FMCG company focused on oral and personal care products.
It sells toothpastes, toothbrushes, and soaps under the Colgate and Palmolive brands across India. The company serves both urban and rural markets through a vast distribution network. As a subsidiary of the global Colgate-Palmolive Company, it benefits from international expertise and innovation.
Emphasizes on shifting from improving old products to launching new ones helped them reach more customers and charge higher prices.
“The one big change that we have driven over last year or the big step up that we’ve driven over last year is to use new innovation as opposed to renovation only to drive growth.We’ve seen tremendous success with this. Like I already told you, Visible White Purple is already about 25% of the overall Visible White franchise.We’ve seen a tremendous response to MaxFresh Sensorials, which currently is only available in e-commerce but will now travel across different channels.”
— Prabha Narasimhan,MD & CEO
Suggests that raising prices isn’t an option because customers would stop buying, which limits how much profit the company can make
“You saw the results: ₹1,452 crore top line, 1.9% decline versus last quarter...
And what was different this year was that most of this margin — almost all of it — was driven by efficiencies we’ve found in our cost structure. No pricing-driven margin here.
We call it a ‘Funding the Growth’ program — finding efficiencies in every cost line of the P&L (Profit & Loss).We’ve reinvested a big chunk of it back into delivering superior products... upgrades in Strong Teeth, MaxFresh...”— Jacob Jacob, CFO
This rare admission shows the brand is vulnerable at the point of sale, especially in the mass segment pointing out that what the retailer suggests often matters more than the brand itself.
“Colgate is the strongest oral care brand... However, when consumers go to buy products, not all 100% of them ask for the brand by name. When a consumer goes to buy a ₹10 SKU (Stock Keeping Unit), 85% ask for a specific brand... 15% say 'give me a ₹10 toothpaste.In those 15% of cases, our value proposition at shelf becomes critical.That’s a combination of price and perceived efficacy that wins in trade.”
— Prabha Narasimhan, MD & CEO
Unlike the usual strong urban demand, tells that brand is not doing so well in mass-market urban areas although premium products are doing well; showing a split market
“Our brand equity remains strong... we have adequate science behind our portfolio...Like we’ve said over the last couple of quarters, we have seen soft demand in urban India, particularly the bottom half or the bottom 70% of urban India, while premiumization continues to be very robust.We do see this continuing in the near-term future and recovering towards the back half of this financial year.That’s our projection as we look to market and macro dynamics.”
—Prabha Narasimhan, MD & CEO
Indicates the company plans to expand its product categories soon. They will likely bring in products from Colgate’s global range to offer more options in the Indian market.
“Palmolive continues to grow in e-commerce...Work continues apace on getting into categories outside of the ones we sit in currently.As has been pointed out many times... our global company has an enormous portfolio...We are looking at this very actively... It’s not if, it’s when.”
—Prabha Narasimhan, MD & CEO
Globus Spirits | Small Cap | FMCG
Globus Spirits caters to four important segments of the alcohol industry - Indian Made Indian Liquor (IMIL), Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), IMFL Bottling and Bulk Alcohol.
UK FTA to reduce input costs; cautious optimism balanced by implementation uncertainty.
"What I can certainly say is it's going to save on our input costs. The scotch that we buy is going to become cheaper for sure, and that will aid in profitability. None of that is currently budgeted because we don't know exactly how it's going to get implemented."
– Shekhar Swarup, Joint Managing Director
Swarup signals discipline—he's managing for margin stability, not flashy top-line numbers.
"Our internal targets are at 90-plus percent capacity utilization through the year... Revenue is a function of what ethanol grade we supply... I cannot give you a revenue guidance, but I can give you capacity utilization guidance."
– Shekhar Swarup, Joint Managing Director
Globus is using clever arbitrage between supplier discounts and bank rates to pad profits.
"We have introduced an early pay system where suppliers can discount their bills if they are giving us a higher discount than the bank interest rate. [...] We will earn an additional profit after accounting for interest cost of the bank."
– Shekhar Swarup, Joint Managing Director
Restaurants & QSR(Quick Service Restaurant)
Barbeque-Nation Hospitality Ltd. | Small Cap | Restaurants & QSR(Quick Service Restaurant)
Barbeque Nation is a popular Indian restaurant chain known for its live grills and buffet-style dining. It offers a casual, interactive experience where diners can cook starters right at their table. The brand has expanded rapidly across India and also has outlets abroad. It's well-known for its wide variety of dishes and value-for-money dining.
Long-term visibility on expansion and capital allocation although the gap in growth expectations hints that demand in India may be slowing or reaching its limit.
“Our strategic emphasis on maintaining leadership in casual dining and scaling all three business segments has positioned us to effectively navigate industry challenges and achieve sustainable network growth.We anticipate that our India business network will grow at a rate of 10 to 12% over the medium term, while other segments are expected to grow at 20–30%. This trajectory will enable us to reach our target of operating 300 to 325 restaurants by FY27.”
— Rahul Agrawal,CEO
Reflects ongoing demand challenges. Slow sales in existing stores may offset gains from new openings, putting future profits at risk.
“Frankly, last year, when I say last year, FY24, we were at close to 8% decline. Which currently on a full year basis [FY25] is around 3.5%. Q4 was negative 2%.Have we moved to positive territory? No. This quarter itself, you know, we are pretty much similar to what we were in Q4 of [last year i.e. Q3FY25, as current Q4 was -2% vs flat last quarter]. So the recovery is very slow and gradual.”
— Rahul Agrawal, CEO
Steady profits hide weak sales and slow growth, risking future profits unless same-store sales pick up.
“During the year, we reported a total revenue of ₹1,233 crores.Our top line was marginally lower by around 1.7% compared to last year, primarily led by negative Same-Store Sales Growth.In line with our strategy to focus on profitability, we were able to maintain our profitability despite the challenging business conditions.Our reported EBITDA for the year was relatively flat at ₹211 crores, with a margin of 17.1%.Our adjusted pre-IndAS (Indian Accounting Standards) EBITDA for the year stood at ₹97 crores, with a margin of 7.4%.”
—Kayum Dhanani, Managing Director
Management offers a rare, cautious outlook on future profits,urging investors not to get carried away by one strong quarter
“No, I think these are not.This quarter we delivered 10% Same-Store Sales Growth and faster ramp-up of new stores. That drove margin expansion. But for the full-year normalized basis, 30 will not remain. If we can maintain anywhere between 25–26%, it’s a good number. As we expand new restaurants this year, there may be a marginal dip also. But long-term, this business should deliver us 23–25% ROM.”
— Rahul Agrawal, CEO
Barbeque Nation’s format is feeling outdated in urban markets. To win back younger customers and maintain pricing power, they must innovate the experience.
“Frankly, it’s a very difficult question. The answer varies by market. In some markets, there’s new competition. In some, we need to upgrade our service and product. In others, price points are seen as slightly expensive.But in general, I think consumers in the Casual Dining Restaurant (CDR) space are looking for newer experiences.Whenever we see a new format restaurant open in a trade area, the fad remains for some time and it does impact us.”
— Rahul Agrawal, CEO
Textiles
Rupa & Company Ltd | Small Cap | Textiles
Rupa & Company Ltd is a prominent Indian knitwear brand offering innerwear, casual wear, and thermal wear.It owns well-known labels like Frontline, Softline, and Macroman, catering to men, women, and children.The company operates through a wide distribution network across India and exports to global markets.Known for its affordable and diverse product range, Rupa serves both mass and premium segments.
[Concall]
Prioritizing slower, steady growth with better margins,focused on quality over quick expansion.
“So our focus is largely on exporting or doing in modern trade also our own brands. So where our margins are quite higher than 15% also.Primarily we want to focus on our in-house brands only. Yes, at the same time, we have to use capacity also. So this year probably we'll be utilizing a fair bit of capacity.And our modern trade is Rs.63 crores, export is Rs.31 crores. So, we are using that capacity and we want to utilize it in the best possible manner where we have a higher margins."
—Vikash Agarwal, Whole Time Director
Price discipline comes across as something needed, not a planned strategy.
“Nothing at the moment, ma’am. We’ll monitor yarn prices and all. At the time, for the time being, it’s stable, and the industry is quite competitiveNo forward plan if yarn spikes. No hedge strategy. No elasticity modeling.”
—Vikash Agarwal, Whole Time Director
A cautious yet honest admission reveals execution challenges, scaling retail to 100 stores isn’t guaranteed as it rests fundamentally on the capability of strong leadership.
“We have around 33 EBOs (Exclusive Brand Outlets) now. But even with just 33 EBOs, we are yet to crack a very scalable model as of now.We are in search of a senior EBO head. Probably we have located him and he'll be joining soon.We are focusing more on the FOFO (Franchise-Owned, Franchise-Operated) model which can be scaled up. But we need to have a strong team to scale it up in a viable way.There’s a slight delay with just 33 stores currently because building a viable, scalable model requires a strong leadership team."
—Vikash Agarwal, Whole Time Director
The soft outlook on cutting working capital days makes cash flow improvements next year uncertain.
“The net working capital days for FY25 is 231 days.(Long pause) And we expect that to reduce by 10–20 days in FY26."
—Sumit Khobala, Chief Financial Officer
Engineering & Capital Goods
Ircon International | Small Cap | Engineering & Capital Goods
IRCON is primarily an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) company, meaning it designs projects, purchases materials, and constructs infrastructure. It mostly receives orders from government entities, notably the Indian Railways and various state and central government departments, but it also undertakes projects internationally, given by foreign governments and public agencies.
Provides specific guidance on flat turnover for FY26 and quantifies expected margin compression due to intense competition.
“So, as to answer your overall perspective, in FY26-27, while we are trying to get as many orders as we can, but even after picking up orders, the execution and the conversion into revenue takes some time.
So given our current order book position, we maintain that our turnover should be in similar range going forward in FY25-26 at least. And the margins, as we had mentioned earlier also, yes, there is a strain, slight strain on the margins because of the increased competition and many of the bids being taken up at a very, very competitive rate. So there would be an overall decline. As I had previously mentioned, it would be in the range of about 0.5% to 1% [decline in margins] going forward.”
– Ragini Advani, Director Finance
Competition Intensifies: Up to 24 Bidders per Railway Tender
"Around 24 bids are coming in railway tenders, per tender. 17 number of bidders are there in road projects tenders, and 19 number bidders are there in building bids. So, it's a tough competition."
– Harimohan Gupta, CMD
Assures investors of a commitment to profitable bidding despite intense market competition.
“To add further what my Director Finance, Madam has said, rest assured we are working very hard, bidding aggressively and with full focus what is to be bid.
We will not be bidding under losses at all. And we will be attacking more and more verticals in which we feel very, very confident. We are already working and we would be bidding very, very shortly in some new verticals as well.”
– Harimohan Gupta, CMD
First Kavach tower tender won for Rs.194 Crores and entering other new verticals
KAVACH is an advanced, indigenous safety and collision-prevention technology system being deployed in Indian Railways, that is integrated into the railway system by EPC players like IRCON.
“And also, we have entered into new verticals like Kavach, the train protection warning system, the iconic technology of the country. It's really a proud moment for the company that we have received the first Kavach order for South Western Railway. It's around 253 crores. And we have already bidded in some other Kavach projects tenders as well, and we are very hopeful. [KEY REMARK] Again, I would like to mention that you will all be pleased to note that the first Kavach tower tender, we have won. It is around 194 crores and the work is under execution in Central Railway. There around so many towers are to be provided which will be used for the Kavach. That is the second tender, second contract for the Kavach.”
“Similarly, we have entered into a new vertical of signalling diagnostics, which is the new field, and I am pretty sure that it will be replicated in the entire country in Indian Railways. And what it does is that whatever the signalling and telecommunication gears are available in the railway network, you can remotely monitor their health, that what is the condition, and you can predict their their life just looking at the computer screen. So that is a new revolution which we have brought. We have already got an order from North Western Railway and the Ministry of Railways has appreciated this to a great extent and it will also be replicated in a big way.”
– Harimohan Gupta, CMD
Retail
KDDL Limited | Small Cap | Retail
KDDL manufactures watch components like dials, hands and precision engineering goods.
Reaffirms 15-20% overall growth guidance, linking it to international watch market recovery and strategic diversification into new, less impacted geographies.
“As far as the guidance of 15 to 20% is concerned, a lot of it, not a lot of it, but one part of it, of course, depends on when and how the international watch market revives. I think we are probably close to the bottom, and therefore our anticipation that in the second half of this year, things will start to look up. It's not going to bounce back like very, very strongly, but it's going to be a clear and a definite sort of recovery.
That said, we are already, as I mentioned in my earlier remarks, we are already sort of working on expanding our offering to some geographies that are not as impacted as the Swiss watch market. For example, the German, you know, the emerging watchmaking in Germany, in Scandinavia, and some other interesting geographies.] These will be small compared to the Swiss market, but nevertheless, these are hedges. And you are right, one of our underlying strategies has been to be able to hedge risks.”
– Y. Saboo, Chairman & MD
Highlights robust demand for luxury packaging, driven by both domestic and international watch/jewellery brands, and a shift by international brands to source packaging locally in India.
“So, you know, in the, let's say, packaging or luxury packaging, which is the segment that we are focusing on, there is a robust demand coming from, of course, the main part of it is from the watch segment. There's the jewellery segment, and I don't have to tell you where branded jewellery is going in India and abroad. So we are seeing a very strong demand.
There is also an increasing demand from international brands that are now selling in India. And many of them are still bringing their packaging from, you know, from the Far East or China or wherever. And obviously, it makes a lot of sense when certain volumes have already developed in India, to actually procure the packaging in India.] You save a lot of money and it's cheaper and it's of course a lot less logistics involved. And this is a market that we are getting a great response from. Of course, we have to meet the design, quality, and all their homologation and ESG conditions. So that is happening, but we are seeing the impact of that and we'll see the impact of that in the numbers this year.”
– Y. Saboo, Chairman & MD
Clarifies that KDDL's direct involvement in the jewellery segment is limited to providing packaging solutions, not jewellery manufacturing or significant retail through Ethos currently.
“As far as jewellery is concerned, in our company, KDDL, we are not really manufacturing anything for jewellery except packaging. So, in the packaging division, there is a fair amount of business that we do which goes into jewellery packaging, right? But in our Ethos business, for example, the jewellery share is almost nothing, or very, very small at the moment.] So, KDDL per se, apart from packaging, does not have a jewellery presence.”
– Y. Saboo, Chairman & MD
Financial Services
Geojit Financial Services | Small Cap | Financial Services
Geojit Financial Services Limited offers a complete spectrum of financial services including online broking, financial products distribution, portfolio management services, margin funding, etc.
[Concall]
Extremely ambitious AUM growth target for the private wealth vertical, signaling a major strategic focus and potential revenue uplift. Supporting it with aggressive hiring and timeline to profitability for new relationship managers (RMs) in the expanding private wealth segment.
“Our DIFC entity is also to be seen in this context. So our plan is to increase this business in the current geographies where we are strong and then slowly expand to the new geographies where we have currently lesser presence. So this is the strategy that we are adopting.
Today we have close to Rs.2,500 crore AUM. We intend to grow this AUM to Rs.20,000 crore in the next three years time. This is the plan at the moment. So we are going and expanding slowly but steadily and we have a growing base of investors. We are very confident of growth in the segment.”“Currently we have 54 relationship managers. We intend to grow this to 100 in next one year to 18 months.”
“We do not disclose these numbers to the market. But I can tell you it is around one year to 18 months for an RM to, you know, today break even.”
– CJ George, Chairman & MD
Highlights a conservative stance on derivatives trading, with a clear focus on cash market and delivery-based business, impacting revenue mix and risk profile.
“So, some of you, as would be aware that Geojit has not been very aggressive on the derivative side of business and the share of the derivatives income in the total brokerage has been lower.
If you look at FY 25, of the total brokerage of 296 crores, 16% is the contribution from derivatives, balance 84% is from cash market. And if I give you the comparison of March 24, that is FY 24 , it was 19 and 81. So for us, for our derivatives is a very small business and we have been consciously pushing delivery, delivery business more, even on the cash side. So, so for us, the traction is still remaining the same, push the clients for towards long-term investment rather than short-term trading.”
The existing substantial NRI client base, contributing 20% to revenue, is a core target for the private wealth expansion, especially in the Middle East.
“Even if you look at Geojit's customer base today, a significant number of customers are already NRIs. We have around close to 20% of our revenue directly, indirectly coming from the NRI base. So we will explore the possibility of expanding aggressively in the Middle East. Having said this, we will use this expansion of our existing branch network as well as the increase in the number of RMs for growing this business in India.”
– CJ George, Chairman & MD
One Mobikwik Systems | Small Cap | Financial Services
One Mobikwik Systems is a platform business with a two-sided payments network for consumers and merchants. It offers prepaid payment instruments, payment gateway services, utility bill payments, online shopping, and financial services like loan products in partnership with financing partners.
Company explained why lending margins were compressed due to new DLG models affecting revenue timing.
"We have moved to the DLG model starting September where a larger part of the cost gets booked upfront, pretty much all the cost gets booked upfront and very small revenue comes upfront. So the revenue is back-ended, cost is front-ended and that is causing the overall lending-related expenses to be slightly elevated mathematically."
– Head of Finance, Komal Sharan
Company explained future indirect cost optimization efforts, including leveraging AI.
"Indirect cost... we have optimized. We have in fact come down from about Rs. 119 crores to about Rs. 110 crores this quarter... we will continue to optimize... using AI to reimagine a lot of customer journeys, a lot of cost line items... This would remain at this level if not lower."
– Head of Finance, Komal Sharan
Management discussed implications of anticipated MDR introduction on UPI transactions.
"MDR on PPI, UPI, something that is already in motion from RBI and it is under discussion in the payments ecosystem... From our perspective, it will definitely bring like a new source of revenue... a decent double-digit percentage of our GMV will benefit from this MDR."
– Bipin Preet Singh, CEO
Energy
Power Grid Corporation of India | Large Cap | Energy
Power Grid Corporation of India Limited is a government-owned company responsible for constructing, operating, and maintaining India's nationwide high-voltage electricity transmission infrastructure, ensuring reliable and efficient power supply across regions.
Outlines a substantial long-term project pipeline, indicating sustained growth opportunities for Power Grid over the next decade, primarily in inter-state transmission.
“Global energy integration with the vision of our Honourable Prime Minister, One Sun One World One Grid for international power connectivity. So these are sectoral outlook which will help us Power Grid growth also.
As of now, we have business outlook 2032 about Rs.3,06,600 crores. Out of which about Rs.2,70,000 crores will be in interstate transmission and balance will be in other areas including intrastate transmission system. Other business we have about Rs.7,500 crores including solar generation, smart metering, data center. So put together we have about Rs.3,06,600 crores as of now, which is likely to increase but as of now it is Rs.3,06,000 crores. Today we have about Rs.1,54,680 crores works in hand.”
– R K Tyagi, Chairman & Managing Director
World Record? Sikar 765kV Substation Commissioned in 9-10 Months
“For expediting substation construction, we are using pre-fabricated firewalls for transformers and reactors and also cable trenches are also pre-fabricated. So that execution time at site is minimized.
I am happy to announce that in financial year 24-25, we have commissioned Sikar 765 kV substation in about 9 to 10 months from date of acquisition of land. Which is I think which may be world record that in 9 months or 10 months any 765 kV substation can be commissioned. But our project management has shown that it is possible that we can commission in 9 to 10 months. One more substation which we are targeting to better our performance from Sikar at Dausa. We are expecting, we are trying to commission even less than 9 months.”
– R K Tyagi, Chairman & Managing Director
Independent international validation of Power Grid's operational excellence, low-cost structure, and high reliability, enhancing investor confidence.
“In asset management and operational management, we have been performing excellent always and this is a indication that we are participating in international benchmarking being conducted by UMS US, where leading transmission companies of the world participate.
In recently announced results in ITOMS 2025, Power Grid has been benchmarked as one of the best utility in the world. We have been benchmarked in quadrant one, which means that our cost is low, our performance is high. So our operational efficiency and reliability is one of the best in the world. We have been ranked best performers in transmission lines, transformers, circuit breakers, control and protection.”
– R K Tyagi, Chairman & Managing Director
Acknowledges project delays due to land acquisition and policy shifts but expresses confidence in mitigating financial impact on ROIs (Return on Investments) through "Change of Law" provisions.
In contracts, "Change of Law" refers to a situation where laws, regulations, or policies change after a contract is signed. This usually allows the company executing the contract (like Power Grid) to adjust contract terms, including pricing, timelines, or compensation, ensuring they're not financially harmed by unforeseen regulatory changes like the ones regarding Right of Way (ROW).
The Indian Government introduced new Right-of-Way (ROW) guidelines in June 2024 and March 2025. ROW guidelines determine how land is acquired and used for infrastructure projects.
“Let us accept that there are challenges of ROW and because everyone including land owners and farmers, they are demanding more and more money. Our Government of India has also considerate to their demands and you may be knowing that in June 2024 and March 2025, there was a ROW guideline issued by Government of India.
So there is some delay between adoption of these guidelines from issuance by Government of India to adoption by state government. So that leads to delay in execution or completion of transmission projects. [KEY REMARK] So we are not expecting impact of any delay or our expenditure incurred on these schemes. So we are not expecting much impact. There may be some impact but not much impact.”
– R K Tyagi, Chairman & Managing Director
There are multiple ways Power Grid can win tenders. TBCB (Tariff-Based Competitive Bidding), Regulated ("Cost-Plus") Model or Direct Nomination (Nomination Basis).
Under TCBC, there is competitive bidding, therefore margins and profitability is uncertain. Under Regulated ("Cost-Plus") Model, tariffs (prices for transmission) are set by regulators based on actual costs incurred, plus a guaranteed fixed profit margin (return on equity). Similarly for Direct Nomination, therefore making TCBC unfavorable for certain returns.
“So new projects which are coming are on the TBCB tariff, so it is not a cost plus. So overall the ROE on consolidated basis, it is for FY24-25, it is 16.75%.
So we expect that a similar or better ROE will be coming in the future years also, in spite of this TBCB. And as far as the book value is concerned, the net worth would be, every year there will be an increase.”
– G Ravi Shankar, Director Finance & CFO
Agriculture
Kaveri seeds Limited | Small Cap | Agriculture
Kaveri seeds Limited is India’s largest agriculture company specializing in Hybrid Seeds in Key Indian crops. The company’s diverse portfolio of seeds caters to key crop segments to enable crops for diverse agro - climate and soil conditions.
Cotton acreage decline driven by maize profitability, but company maintains strong focus on cotton.
"As a crop, cotton is not that lucrative when compared to other crops like maize. The MSPs of maize and the current market rate of maize is also pretty good. So people are slightly inclined towards maize this year. And whereas cotton, this crop shift is very natural in terms of agriculture, wherein some crops will do well and some crops will fall. But cotton as a crop, we can't neglect it. And going forward, cotton is also very good focus on it."
– Mithun Chand, Executive Director
Exports to Bangladesh expected to recover significantly in FY26.
"This year itself, we'll see Bangladesh coming back. No, last time, there were a couple of reasons. One was political issue. Second, there was lot of inventory in the market in last year in Bangladesh markets because before that, the season was not that great. Now most of the inventories are down, the issue is also sorted out. And I think we can get back to the earlier sales we had in Bangladesh."
– Mithun Chand, Executive Director
Good, timely monsoon crucial for season’s sales; diversified portfolio mitigates risk.
"Good monsoon in the sense that if you get a rainfall in time and it's a widespread rain across country, then the season will be as anticipated. Otherwise, there might be a chance in the crop shifting that might impact sales to some extent. But as a company, we are there in most of the crops. When compared to other companies, we have a minimal risk in that."
– Mithun Chand, Executive Director
Margins under pressure due to high inventory costs; cotton price increase difficult to pass on.
"This time, we have seen a huge increase in the cost of production. The government has increased only by 4%, but there's a lot of pressure in terms of the cost of production, not only in cotton, but all other crops, we have seen a sharp rise in the production cost. And whereas in the other crops, we might be able to pass it on to the farmer. But in cotton, even though the prices have increased by 4%, it will be really difficult for us to pass it on because there's a lot of inventory in the system."
– Mithun Chand, Executive Director
Healthcare
Mankind Pharma | Large Cap | Healthcare
Mankind Pharma Limited is a company involved in the development, manufacturing, and marketing of pharmaceutical formulations across various therapeutic areas, along with consumer healthcare products in India.
[Concall]
The drivers behind Mankind Pharma's gross margin improvement is primarily attributing it to price increases:
"During the year, our gross margin have increased by 190 basis point to 71.6% from 69.7% in Q4 FY24. This increase is driven by combination of sales price increase effect as well as favorable sales mix for the full year. For the full year, our gross margins have increased by 260 basis point to 71.4% as compared to 68.8% in FI24. This is majorly on account of sales price increase effect which has contributed 120 basis point and the balance 140 basis point is the combination of better sales mix”
— Ashutosh Dhawan, Group CFO
Discussing the widespread presence of trade generics across market segments, noting their impact on pharmaceutical market growth while highlighting their recently slowed growth rate:
"It is not only in smaller cities or bigger cities in metros, everywhere trade generic is there, these kind of challenges are always there. But please understand, whenever somebody buys a trade generic, the chemist gives him the medicine, patient does not get that medicine at economical price. Earlier people used to go to chemist without the prescription, doctor used to give our medicines, now no more.
“Hypothetically, if trade generic would not have been there, the growth of this pharma market would have been more than 16-17%...So even in trade generic side, if you just look at the data, it has slowed down. The growth has come down, the kind of growth it was having in the past is no more now because ultimately doctor's prescription really matters."
— Rajiv Juneja (Vice Chairman & MD)
Max Health | Large Cap | Hospital and Healthcare
Max Healthcare Institute Limited is the second largest healthcare chain in India, offering a wide range of services across multiple specialties from its facilities in Delhi, NCR, Mohali, and Bathinda.
Throwing light on EBITDA margin trends and growth outlook for the next few years, given the company's recent expansion and addition of 1,400-1,500 new beds
[Concall]
“So I think, you know, brownfields normally give you higher EBITDA margins, right, in percentage terms as well as everything else because your fixed cost is already incurred. So primarily, they are brownfields coming which is I think close to 1,000 beds. They should throw out significantly higher EBITDA margins and I'm not going to give you any forward-looking statement but theoretically they should give you higher EBITDA margins compared to your existing business. So I think that is, even if you are sort of occupying those beds with institutional business and whatever else, even then they give you higher EBITDA per bed as well as EBITDA margins below. That's where we are. So I mean, I think we are probably going to be entering, you know, if I was to look at it or make a forward-looking statement, you know, the strongest year in the last five years that we've had.”
– Abhay Soi, Chairman and Managing Director.
Dwarka Hospital: Rapid Breakeven and Further Expansion Planned
“Our newly operationalized asset-light hospital in Dwarka achieved EBITDA breakeven in six months, a new record. The hospital clocked a revenue of Rs 171 crores and an EBITDA loss of Rs 29 crores for the entire year FY24, since becoming operational in July 2023. It exited the year with a revenue of approximately Rs 30 crores per month and 73% occupancy on the 235 beds in March, with balanced 68 beds.”
– Abhay Soi, Chairman and Managing Director.
Margin Expansion of acquired Units (Lucknow, Nagpur, Noida)
“So there is significant room for margin expansion. I mean this is the first year of acquisition. As you, you know, by the time you put your building blocks in place, you must appreciate that takes some time. So I think clearly in terms of bed utilization, in terms of, I mean just to give you an example, although you had in Lucknow, you had a expansion of EBITDA by 106%, yet there is no radiation oncology there. There's no bunker, right? And that bunker is going to come into play at the end of H1 this year. And once that happens, your oncology business which even currently is in, is not anywhere near the oncology business of the rest of the hospital, there's a major move up over there. If you look at Nagpur for example, we're already now approaching very high capacity utilization. The teams are coming in play and so on and so forth. We're already looking at the next phase which is, you know, adding another 160-150 beds over there. So once that happens, it gives you a major fillip because you know you don't have any capacity left over there. As far as Max Noida is concerned, you're operating at, you know, we bought a unit which is operating at less than 50% occupancy. So you have 50% more occupancy, higher sort of ARPOBs, as well as all the clinical programs etc. coming. So typically when you do these acquisitions, right? I mean the first year you'll have less of a sort of improvement curve. You know, in terms of absolute value, maybe in percentage terms you're operating off a smaller base. But the second year is when you're going to have that. And each one of these, whether it's JP, whether it's Nagpur as well as Lucknow, also affords significant further brownfield expansion. So I mean you will have yields coming out of here years to come.”
– Abhay Soi, Chairman and Managing Director.
International Patient Revenue Up 28% YoY Despite Regional Headwinds
“New units reported a gross revenue of Rs 353 crores, while existing units registered a year-on-year growth of 12% in revenue, driven by 6% growth in occupied bed days and 7% growth in average revenue per occupied bed. The international patient revenue stood at Rs 202 crores, registering a growth of 28% year-on-year, despite contraction in patient footfalls from Bangladesh and Yemen due to continuing political unrest. Network operating EBITDA stood at Rs 632 crores, reflecting a growth of 26% year-on-year and 2% quarter-on-quarter. This includes Rs 67 crores EBITDA contribution from new.”
– Abhay Soi, Chairman and Managing Director.
Fortis Healthcare | Mid Cap | Healthcare
The Company is primarily engaged in the business of healthcare services. The Company holds interests in its subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures which manages and operates a network of multi-specialty hospitals and diagnostics centres.
[Concall]
International patient revenue grew 17% last year, but geopolitical challenges may limit similar growth this year:
"So, we have seen about 17% growth on year on year. However, in the current geopolitical situation we expect that there may not be a similar growth this year. But overall to our context, about 8% of our revenue comes from international patients. We expect that to remain stable. However, we are not seeing very huge growth."
— Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD & CEO
Legal and legacy costs are reducing EBITDA margins by 1%, which will continue through this year until court cases are resolved:
“So the legal and other legacy cost is taking away almost 1% of our EBITDA margin and I will say that will continue till we are able to resolve this court cases. Because there is still one court case is pending in Delhi High court where the regular hearing is happening and plus you know the entity structure also the project crystal we called it where we are trying to simplify the organization structure. Although the daily NCLT has given the favorable order, we are also expecting order from the Chandigarh NCLT and then it will be simplified. So this year at least it will continue. I think from next year onward we will we should see some reduction in these cost."
— Vivek Goyal, CFO
Key procedures showed strong volume growth in FY25, with robotic surgeries increasing by 72%, more than expected:
"We also witnessed strong volume growth across key procedures in financial year 25 such as 72% growth in robotic surgeries and 17% in neuro and spine procedures. Most of our key facilities delivered strong performance this year with revenue of large facilities such as Shalimar Bagh FMRI registering a growth in excess of 20% compared to financial year 24."
— Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD & CEO
Emcure Pharmaceuticals | Small Cap | Healthcare
Emcure Pharmaceuticals is an Indian pharmaceutical company specializing in the development, manufacturing, and global marketing of a wide range of pharmaceutical products across various therapeutic areas.
[Concall]
CEO explains the filing and significance of the recombinant asparaginase product for oncology in India:
"We have also filed for approval - R asparaginase in oncology which will be the first time the product will be available in India. Let me take a few seconds to talk about R asparaginase. Our asparaginase as we have currently is imported from China and it is coming from the natural sources but as far as this particular product is concerned, this has been made inhouse it is recombinant. So to that extent batch after batch the quality is guaranteed and it should be extremely useful to patients who are suffering from blood cancer."
“I'm also happy to inform that we are now well on track to be in the first wave of launches for post post expiry for semaglutide. As the semaglutide is concerned, we are absolutely on track and we'll be in the first wave of launches post expiration of this particular product."
— Satish Mehta, Group CEO
Management discusses the reasons for the quarterly decline in gross margins and outlook on future margin improvement:
“The decline in gross margins this quarter was largely due to mix—higher sales from Sanofi and ARV products, which have lower gross margins. But the base business gross margins are actually up slightly year-over-year. We feel good about the margin profile going forward as pipeline products will drive margin improvement.”
— Management
Software Services
Zen Technologies| Small Cap | Software Services
Zen Technologies specializes in designing, developing, and manufacturing cutting-edge Combat Training Solutions for Defense & Security Forces globally. They are at the forefront of providing innovative Counter-Drone Solutions for protecting borders and critical infrastructure. With headquarters in Hyderabad, India, and presence in India, UAE, and USA, Zen Technologies boasts a diverse portfolio of products, including Live Fire, Live Instrumented, Virtual, and Constructive training systems alongside Counter-Drone Solutions
After a cross-border attack, Zen’s anti-drone systems were successfully deployed in real combat—effectively serving as proof of concept and free PR. The resulting urgency from the Indian government has accelerated procurement, which directly benefits Zen.
“Operation Sindoor has been I would say a stroke of luck in the sense for the dastardly act what was committed that was a really really bad act but post that what happened was a stroke of luck for us in the sense we were able to actually go destroy you know 10 times of the what damage they did to us and then we were able to test our equipment and government was able to see what happens in the real war and of course it was also almost like a PR and a marketing plan for the Indian equipment where we proved beyond doubt that our equipment works. I think post the horrific incident what has happened is actually very good in my estimate and now we see that there is absolute sense of urgency to acquire these new age war equipment, the drones and the anti-drone stuff. Yes to your question the short answer is yes, we think the Government has really really appreciated the role of the drones and anti-drone systems and they are accelerating the procurement and we think companies like Zen will benefit from this new sense of urgency that the Government has.”
– Ashok Atluri, Chairman & Managing Director
Despite order inflow expectations by H1 FY26, execution will spill into FY27—so FY26 will likely remain a muted year in terms of topline recognition.
“So Goyal the thing is that while the orders decline, we think the order book position will improve significantly and that may happen by end of H1 and by that time if we get the orders how much of it can be executed during the current year is a question so that we will come to know as we go ahead in the in the couple of months I think we will be in a better position but we are saying that by the end of H1 we should definitely have a very clear picture, possibly a clear picture and as soon as we get we will share this year's thing. Even if lot of orders come the execution will spill into the next financial year so that is the reason we are saying that this year will be muted.”
– Ashok Atluri, Chairman & Managing Director
Media & Entertainment
Entertainment Network (India) | Micro Cap | Media & Entertainment
Entertainment Network (India) Ltd is one of the leading entertainment and media company and is engaged in radio broadcasting under the brand name ‘Radio Mirchi’.They are the only company which has the largest number of licenses.
Gaana operates as a paid-only platform and claims a healthy paid-market share versus global peers, despite industry opacity.
“Market share on digital on Gaana is very difficult to put up because, every platform has a different way of doing business. For example, YouTube is largely available free, and they have a very less paid service. Spotify also does free and a subscriber service while Gaana, we don't offer free music, it's a paid service platform, so you have to pay in order to listen to music. So, if I was to look at a paid share, we are a very healthy share compared to Spotify, but since nobody shares the numbers, it's very difficult to ascertain. So, we have our own internal metrics on Gaana, and we believe we have a very healthy share in the paid market music streaming service.”
– Yatish Mehrishi, CEO
Radio industry struggled this quarter, but ENIL’s market share remains robust at 26%.
“The Radio industry faced significant headwinds during the quarter, and we are not immune to these challenges. Additionally, Quarter 4 of the previous year benefited from the extraordinary government and political ad spending due to the general elections, resulting in a higher base. Despite this, we remain relatively better insulated than our peers and continue to maintain a healthy 26% volume share in the Radio segment.”
– Yatish Mehrishi, CEO
ENIL expects industry-wide paid transition in music streaming, with massive subscriber growth if freemium ends.
“See, it's a very good question if that happens, we will see a hockey stick growth in the subscriber markets. I will just take you back, I am assuming you will be about 35 years, if you just go back to your younger days. People used to buy CDs, people used to buy cassettes, even for pirated music, people would go to a next-door shop and pay Rs.100 to get their own playlist. So, it's not that people have not paid for music earlier days. People have always paid. If you look at you bought a CD of Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham for about Rs.300 or Rs.500 also. And today you are getting almost Rs.700, or Rs.600 for our cost a full library, global library at a click of a button, at a convenience different playlist. So, I don't it's about value, because it has been available for free, people have not been valuing it. As services stop that will be a hockey stick growth for the industry, and that's where music labels also believe in. The future lies in subscription and not doesn't lie in the freemium. You have seen the advertising headwinds across the media are being there. So, there is no way a medium can sustain only on advertising. The subscriber growth will play it, we saw in video OTT in the COVID times, the way the growth happened, and we believe that similar numbers will happen here, also. Now coming to competition, Spotify started putting lot of restrictions on free product, even if you look at YouTube also, when you watch anything on YouTube, there is so much of ads now coming on YouTube that they are also looking at paying more focus on subscription. In fact, YouTube music, if you are not a paid subscriber, will not play music in the background. So that itself is a nudge to grow some subscribers. Even Saavn is looking at that, so it's a very healthy thing there is, as I said, if everybody goes paid, the headroom is because 200 million people does subscribe music free. So, there is no way people may not subscribe to this and, as I said, the last EY report says about only 15 million pay. So, the amount of growth opportunity which is available for all the players is massive. So, I am very, very confident, very optimistic it's great business, a great time to be in. We have developed a great product. It’s the only Bharat product, Gaana means songs. It's very, very close to the Indian consumers. The search optimization is massive. So, we are very confident that this product and platform for us will deliver a lot of great revenues and profitability for us in the coming years.”
– Yatish Mehrishi, CEO
MPS Ltd | Micro Cap | Media & Entertainment
MPS, a global provider of digital platforms and content solutions, has evolved from its captive beginnings to become a strategic partner to leading enterprises, learning companies, publishers, libraries, and content aggregators. With a history of successful acquisitions and consistent reinvestment, MPS now operates with over 2,500 professionals across multiple delivery centers in India and client-servicing offices in the US.
AI is consistently expanding margins and volumes, with almost every client conversation now AI-centric.
"Overall, we have seen AI being an enabler of margin expansion. Already in the Research business for many years now through machine learning, we have been seeing significant improvements, and we always share those benefits with our customers.
You can't implement AI or ML in isolation. You need to collaborate with your customer, which means that they must do certain things on their end for the technology to make sense. And we must then, of course, unlock that for them and configure the technology for them. It ends up happening in deep collaboration. It starts with a conversation, a pitch, and the benefits are communicated. And usually, benefits are shared equally between the customer and us. Within the scientific world and the research world, we have done this time and time again, which has meantT vendor consolidation, increased volumes, higher share of wallet for MPS. So, we end up producing more volumes, and margins also expand. Most conversations that we have around volume expansion and business expansion today are around AI. I can't think of a single customer meeting where we don't talk about AI. That's how focused it's become."
– Rahul Arora, Chairman & CEO
Use of AI in eLearning is boosting productivity, compressing timelines, and improving margins.
"In continuation of the point on AI, we are seeing a lot of productivity gains because of content development or even the delivery process itself. We have started incorporating AI in terms of intelligent automation or adaptive design, and even reuse strategies for that matter. We can pass on these benefits and compress timelines for our customers and reduce manual effort, and maintain consistent quality, and all of this put together has resulted in improved margins overall."
– Archana Jayaraj, COO
Tiles & Sanitaryware
Acrysil Limited | Small Cap | Tiles & Sanitaryware
Acrysil Ltd. (now known as Carysil Ltd.) is a leading Indian manufacturer specializing in premium kitchen and bathroom solutions, including composite quartz and stainless steel sinks, faucets, and built-in appliances.
IKEA global tender win will be a game changer for Quartz Sink exports
“I would like to give some breaking news here. As I mentioned in my last speech, we were going to bid for IKEA's global tender, which is a complete non-US business, to increase our market share with IKEA as a quartz sink supplier from 25% to approximately 75%. [KEY REMARK] Technically, increasing our business with IKEA by three times. I'm proud to announce, in principle, we have awarded this RFQ award, and subject to approval process of the quality standards. Our company had taken preventative actions by already capacity building and ordering the molds required to enhance this capacity. The final audits are on the way, and we expect that this to complete very soon to further sign the final purchase order with IKEA, maybe within the next 60 days.”
– Chirag Parekh, Promoter & MD
[Analyst Take: This is a major win. The key will be successful execution and ramp-up of capacity to meet IKEA's quality standards and timelines. The 25% to 75% market share jump with a global giant like IKEA is a significant scale-up.]
Rapidly increasing utilization from 65% to 85-90% and restarting a plant with 250,000 capacity indicates strong demand but also significant operational execution risk.
“I think the biggest challenge we see is to now build the capacity to from currently, which we are utilizing 65%, and to build and to start manufacturing to 85 to 90% within 90 days of time. As you know, with the downward trend, we had shut the Plant 4, which had an additional 250,000 capacity. [KEY REMARK] We are restarting now immediately. We have started recruiting manpower, the infra, and the raw material required for the same. You shall see the wait for a few quarters, the further additional enhancement of the capacity needs to be done. If it needs to be done further, this we will see after a few quarters.”
– Chirag Parekh, Promoter & MD
[Analyst Take: The aggressive ramp-up timeline highlights management's confidence in sustained demand, likely driven by the new IKEA and US retail deals. Execution on manpower and raw materials will be key to achieving this.]
Entering countertop fabrication and launching a new surface brand "Carystone" marks a significant strategic move towards vertical integration and value-added offerings in the Indian market.
“And not just that, we would be investing in the first kitchen and the bathroom countertop fabrication facility in Delhi and planning other two centers this year, by end of the year, making Carysil the only first organized player in the Indian market, leveraging our UK fabrication technology, which we invested in the companies in UK and US.
For launching incredible seamless technology of the sinks with the countertops and in turn launching our own surface brand, Carystone. Let me provide a brief on our international subsidiaries. Our subsidiaries in UK and UAE have continued to deliver strong performance.”
– Chirag Parekh, Promoter & MD
Tariff shifts are creating a significant opportunity for Carysil's stainless steel sink division, leading to strong demand from IKEA, Kohler, Hafele, and necessitating capex for capacity expansion.
“It is thanks to the tariff war that we have started receiving overwhelming response now for stainless steel sinks also, as there's a big tariff on China and Vietnam. We have always maintained high technology. We have invested in PVD new machines and we have made some significant breakthrough with Kohler India and Hafele to start selling them stainless steel kitchen sinks. We have already commenced our supplies to IKEA significantly over competition in quality tests.
They are seriously now looking stainless steel division to be one of the major source of supply to global IKEA. And not just that, we have also started receiving high level of inquiries from the US and Europe. I'm very positive it's going to work out and we may have a significant expansion in the stainless steel sink division too. The segment continues to witness robust demand. Our current operations are running at a capacity of already 80 plus percent demand of the high qualities of sinks in India and export market. To meet rising demand and better value addition, we have earmarked a capex of more than 7 crores, 7 to 10 crores for expanding our stainless steel capacity with additional 70,000 units.”
– Chirag Parekh, Promoter & MD
Chemicals
Solar Industries | Large Cap | Chemicals
Solar Industries is a manufacturer of industrial and defense explosives, supplying products like bulk explosives, detonators, and propellants for sectors including mining, infrastructure, and defense.
Highlights that over half of the Rs.15,000 crore defence order book is from international markets. Increased EU defence spending is seen as a significant future opportunity.
“So, like we have already shared, the total order book of our defence is around Rs.15,000 crore and out of Rs.15,000, more than half is from international market. So, that gives a glimpse of our current stature in the global markets. And definitely, any, any kind of increase in the defence budget is giving us a big opportunity to expand ourselves, not only in India but outside India also.”
– Manish Nuwal, MD & CEO
[Analyst Take: The strong international defence order book and potential tailwinds from increased global defence spending, particularly in the EU, could provide a significant growth avenue beyond domestic demand.]
Management acknowledges that the current geopolitical environment is likely to accelerate defence procurement programs, potentially leading to faster order inflows.
“So, if you look at the current geopolitical situation, these things are obviously bound to happen. And we always read all these articles from the media. So, based on that information and the interactions we have, we feel that the defence program will be on a fast track now.”
– Manish Nuwal, MD & CEO
Highlights a dual R&D; strategy involving both in-house development and collaboration with DRDO, crucial for continuous product innovation in the defence sector.
“So, if you look at the history of Solar, in the last 10 years or 20 years, we have always been working on developing a variety of products. And those developments were in association with DRDO. At the same time, we were developing many of the products on our own. So, we will continue those efforts for our national security, and that is what will give a reflection of what Solar has been doing as far as research and development is concerned. As far as a particular number or figure which you may be expecting us to give, we don't bifurcate the expenses into R&D or other things. So, all the expenses are part of our regular P&L expenses.”
– Manish Nuwal, MD & CEO
[Analyst Take: The balanced R&D; approach is prudent, leveraging DRDO's expertise while building internal capabilities, which is key for long-term competitiveness in the evolving defence landscape.]
Diversified
Grasim Industries| Large Cap | Diversified
Grasim Industries Limited is a prominent company of Aditya Birla Group in India. It started as a textiles manufacturer and has grown into a diversified player excelling in Viscose, Chemicals, Cement, Financial Services, and more. Its subsidiaries include UltraTech Cement and Aditya Birla Capital.
[Concall]
Highlights Grasim's deep strategic alignment with macroeconomic trends and its aggressive bet on paints due to large-scale underpenetration in India.
"In 2020, at the peak of COVID, when our group chairman asked me to lead Grasim into paints, I wondered, why paints? With a dream in our eyes, we found the answer lay in India's booming infrastructure, particularly the construction sector, poised to command 9% of GDP or approximately $900 billion in the next decade. Grasim’s deep insight into the building materials ecosystem through UltraTech and Birla White gave us a unique advantage."
"Despite being a century-old industry, India's per capita consumption of decorative paints stands at only 3.5 kg, far below the global average of 10 kg and 25 kg in developed nations. This mirrors the telecom story where initially India lagged globally but rapidly transformed after focused investments. Similarly, paints present a massive growth opportunity due to rising per capita income, young demographics, and booming real estate."
– Kapana, Managing Director
Aggressive execution capability signals competitive disruption in the paints sector.
"In less than six months of pan-India operations, Birla Opus by itself has become India's number three decorative paints brand. This early success is driven by the world's fastest capacity ramp-up—five out of six plants operational by March 2025, representing 21% of India’s organized decorative paints capacity. These plants are fully backward-integrated, enhancing innovation, quality, and cost competitiveness.”
– Kapana, Managing Director
Reflects nuanced competitive strategy maintaining profitability without entering price wars.
"Dealers are charging customers the same price as the market leader. Competitors have attempted price cuts in the economy segment, but Grasim is insulated through promotions like 10% free paint on large packs, which targets end-users directly, not dealers."
– Kapana, Managing Director
Services
Teamlease Services| Small Cap | Services
TeamLease Services Limited is a prominent provider of human resource services in India, catering to various industries with a focus on putting people to work. They offer a wide range of services including temporary staffing, permanent recruitment, and compliance consultancy. The company also provides employability solutions through learning and training programs tailored for different sectors. Operating on an asset-light model, TeamLease Services offers comprehensive solutions for employment, employability, and education across the country.
BFSI in-sourcing is done; growth in BFSI should resume, and variable client mix is expected to help sustain PAPMs.
“I think on the BFSI front, basis the RBI guidelines so far, the exposure that we had that had to be in-sourced has been completed. So we don't have anything further in the existing headcount that should move out because of the specific guidelines that had come out. Having said that, I think net of the headwind challenges that BFSI had in the latter part of Q3 and in Q4, we are seeing demand slowly coming back. And I think from that perspective, we are optimistic about driving growth in BFSI sector as things stand as we go forward into the year, coupled with other sectoral plays. I think on the pricing front, on the PAPM, it's an element of a portfolio play. So I think a larger element of logo sign-ups and like Karthik had called out, 60%, 70% of them coming on a variable composition and the element that if the large aren't going to grow larger, the mid and the long tail will give us the growth should enable us to sustain the PAPMs as we go forward. If the demand comes in, in a large way from the large accounts, we would actually be pressurized on the weighted average for the PAPM. But our belief is that some modest element of growth there, coupled with the portfolio of the other clients and the variable mix should enable us to sustain.”
– Ashok Reddy, MD & CEO
Attrition is extremely high (30-40% monthly) for gig-based delivery roles in quick commerce, while it's lower (7-10% monthly) in dark stores, which is TeamLease's focus area.
“so quick commerce, as you know, has 2 parts. One is there are workforces involved in the dark stores and the other aspect is on the gig workforce, which is really your drivers, delivery boys, etc., and all that. So that's the space we don't occupy because that's not really formal workforce. The space we occupy is the dark stores aspect of it. On the -- but I'll throw light on both of them. The gig workforce largely, the attrition is about 30%, 40% a month. On the dark stores part of it, it's anywhere between 7% to 10% a month."
– . Kartik Narayan, CEO
That’s it for now! Your feedback will really help shape how The Chatter evolves. Drop it down in the comments below!
Quotes in this newsletter were curated by Kashish, Krishna, Prerana, Vignesh, Mridula
Disclaimer: We’ve used AI tools in filtering and cleaning up these quotes so there maybe some mistakes. Now, if you are thinking why we are using AI, please remember that we are just a small team of 5 people running everything you see on Zerodha Markets 😬 So, all the good stuff is human and mistakes are AI.
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"What the hell is happening?" is deliberately messy, more permanent draft than polished product. Each edition examines the collision of mega-trends shaping our world: from the stupidity of trade wars and the weaponization of interdependence, to great power competition and planetary-scale challenges we're barely equipped to comprehend.
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Excellent work. Keep this going.
Excellent!. But, if you are able to include the following for the companies covered, that would be much useful and easy to understand the companies' narrative better. To get clear perspective, we have to travers to other apps to get the details.
1. CMP & 52 W high/low
2. Top & bottom line growth YoY & QoQ in figures & %
3. Capex & aquisition
4. Anything important that was not in the narrative.
🙏