Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the ASK Automotive Q1 FY27 Post Results Earnings Conference Call, hosted by Adfactors PR. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-onl y mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rushabh Shah from Adfactors PR. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you. A very good evening to everyone, and welcome to the Q1 FY27 Earnings Call of ASK Automotive Limited. From the senior management, we have with us Mr. Kuldip Singh Rathee, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Prashant Rathee, Joint Managing Director, Mr. Aman Rathee, Joint Managing Director, and Mr. Naresh Kumar, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Manoj Sharma, Chief General Manager Investor Relations. Before we begin the call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made during today's call may be forward-looking in nature, and hence, it may involve risks and uncertainties, including those related to the future financial and operating performance of the company. Please bear with us if there is a call drop during the course of the conference call. We would ensure that the call is reconnected at the earliest. I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Kuldip Singh Rathee, Chairman and Managing Director, for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Rushabh. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It's my great pleasure to welcome you all to our Q1 FY27 Earnings Conference Call. I hope you have had the opportunity to review the detailed presentation submitted to the exchanges and available on our website. FY27 has begun on a strong note for the Indian economy, which continues to be the world's fastest growing major economy. Domestic dema nd remains robust, private consumption is resilient, and the Government of India's structural reforms, particularly GST 2.0, continue to energize the broader economy and, importantly for us the automobile sector, given its deep forward and backward linkages. As you are aware, after 28 th February 2026, the geopolitical c onflict in West Asia had created undue volatility in energy, commodity, and currency markets, and had led to a sharp, phenomenal increase in aluminum alloy prices, which affected our industry. Despite these challenges, we are optimistic that the growth momentum will remain in the coming quarters. Now, let me begin by sharing a quick overview of the broader industry as reported by SIAM. The Indian automobile sector has carried strong momentum into the first quarter of FY27. Overall vehicle production across all segments registered a robust year-on-year growth of 22.1% in Q1 FY27. The two-wheeler segment, which is most relevant to us, recorded production growth of 22.8% on a year-on-year basis, with total two-wheeler production of 72.5 lakh units in Q1 FY27, up from 59.50 lakh units in the same quarter last year.

I would remind you that in Q1 of last year, two-wheeler production had grown by just 0.7%. The turnaround this year is therefore significant, driven by the GST 2.0 rate reduction, the personal income tax rationalization announced in the Unio n Budget, successive rate cuts, and liquidity measures by the Reserve Bank of India, a favorable base, and the introduction of new models. Looking ahead, we believe the industry will continue to benefit from these far-reaching reforms, improving consumer purchasing power, and easier access to vehicle finance. The monsoon deficit witnessed earlier in the season has eased on the back of rainfall in late June and early July, supporting the outlook for rural income and two-wheeler demand in the run-up to the festive season. Before we move on to ASK's business performance, we would like to highlight that on the green energy front, as already shared with you earlier, I am happy to update that our 9.9-megawatt solar power plant at Sirsa, Haryana has been fully operational and is delivering the sustainable operational economies on the expected lines. Our second captive solar plant of 11.55 megawatts at Bikaner, Rajasthan is ready and is expected to be commissioned in Q2FY27. This reflects ASK's special focus on green energy. Moving on to business updates, I am delighted to share with you that we had a strong performance in the first quar ter in both revenue and pr ofitability. This is the 11 th consecutive quarter of robust performance by us since listing of the company. We achieved highest ever quarterly revenue, EBITDA, and PAT. We delivered strong performance in business and recorded consolidated revenue growth of 52.1%. Excluding pass- through impact of significant increase in alloy prices on revenue, that is 33.4%, and wheel assembly business strategic reduction, which reduced by 6.6%, overall net revenue has grown by 25.3% on year-on-year basis. We continue to outperform the two-wheeler industry vehicle production growth. We achieved EBITDA of Rs. 164 crore with 32.7% year-on-year growth. EBITDA margin stood at 12%. However, EBITDA percentage was impacted due to abrupt and phenomenal pass- through alloy price. We achieved PAT of Rs. 85 crore with 28.8% year-on-year growth. This reflects the result of our continued focus on expanding value-added businesses, improving utilization of production capacities, and bringing cost e fficiencies. We have outperform ed the industry growth and our aim is to continue on this growth path on a sustainable basis with clear focus on the bottom line to enhance the shareholder’s value. Volatility in alloy prices may affect margin percentages due to the denominator effect. However, with aluminum prices expected to remain beni gn in the coming quarters, we anticipate an improvement in our EBITDA margins. With strong performance, our earnings per share has increased to Rs. 4.32 per share against Rs. 3.35 per share in the last year same period. Our all three product segments performed well in terms of revenue growth. We have sustained our market leadership position in the advanced braking system. Our advanced braking system revenue grew by 48% in Q1 on year-on-year basis.

The aluminum lightweighting precision solution s revenue grew by 75% in Q1 on year-on-year basis. The safety control cable revenue also recorded growth of 20% in Q1 year-on-year basis. Our revenue from exports were at Rs. 39 crore in Q1 FY27 against Rs. 33 crore last year. Key updates. We are happy to share that the technical collaboration with Kyushu Yanagawa Japan has been successfully implemented at our Karoli plant, and first supply of high-pressure die cast alloy wheel has started to our esteemed Japanese customer. Strategic closure in low- margin wheel assembly business is complete, and from 1 st April 2026, wheel assembly revenues are nil. We also remain optimistic on the medium-term industry outlook, supported by improving consumer sentiment, expected benefits from the 8 th Pay Commission, and continued policy support for manufacturing and formalization through labor reforms. These structural developments provide greater confidence in India's long-term consumption and manufacturing growth trajectory. We are confident that we will continue to grow not only in mid-teens, but we will be now growing for the full year in high teens. Thank you very much for your patient hearing. With this, we leave the floor open for Q&A.

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. The first question is from the line of Raghunandhan from Nuvama Research. Please proceed.

Congratulations, sir, on extremely strong numb ers once again. Firstly, alloy price inflation impact is 33% in total revenue. Approximately how much would be the same alloy wheel inflation impact for the braking systems division?

We have not calculated in that way, but we will let you know separately.

Sure, sir. Thank you.

I will put it like that, that if it is increased approximately by 48%, then the alloy impact will be around 28% or something. But we have not calculated as the CFO is saying.

Noted, sir. Second question on the new orders. Can you indicate how much can be the revenue for alloy wheel in FY27 and FY28 and also for the Ford order for the current year and next year? And if you can throw some colors if there have been any more order wins?

We have confirmed orders of about Rs. 70 cror e to Rs. 90 crore depending on how the customer gear up for this financial year. However, for next financial year, we have confirmed orders of about Rs. 250 crore. As regards your second question of Ford Motors, we will be doing exports of about Rs. 40 to Rs. 45 crore this year, and next year, it is likely to go up to Rs. 60 crore.

Yes, we are getting new orders in the existing with one of the customers, which I would not like to name, and then happy to share that, though it wa s not in our plans, but we'll have to set up a new plant immediately in South.

Noted, sir. Congratulations on that. Before I fall back to the queue, one question. Can you remind us on the utilization at Karoli and Bangalore facility, and also the capex plan for FY27 given that you are setting up this new plant in South?

Our Bangalore plant, which was our 18 th plant, is running at near optimum capacity utilization and happy to share that against the installed capacity in Karoli plant, from 60% to 65% that we were in the last quarter, we have now gone up to about 75%, and we are confident that in the last Q4, we will be around 80% of the capacity utilization, because we see the visibility for the Q4. That is the need that we have to urgently set up for the new orders that have come. We have to set up a new plant in South, that will be in Bangalore at a war foo ting, and we hope to operationalize it before March in this financial year. We had given guidance about around Rs. 450 crore to Rs. 500 crore, but the way we are going and receiving the orders, as I today revised the guidance to high-teens, I think our capex may go to something like Rs. 700 crore this year.

That's wonderful to hear, sir. Wishing you all the best. I will fall back to the queue. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ronak Mehta from ICICI Securities. Please proceed.

Yes, thank you for giving this opportunity, and congratulations, sir, for very good set of numbers. My first question is on the AISIN JV. Can you throw some light on or can you give us an update on the JV, where are we in terms of revenue, margin, etcetera., product portfolio expansion, number of dealers, any color on the JV? And by when can we see the profitability of JV improving, because I believe it is still making losses. So, yes, that would be my first question.

AISIN JV is ramping up and we are introducing more products into the pipeline. We are also expecting that by the end of this year quarter, we'll see some profitability there. However, it will not be significant because it's mainly trading.

Understood. But any color on the revenue that you expect from this JV maybe say by the end of next year or this year end or next year?

I think this year, there is not much significant revenue we are expecting, but maybe in the last quarter call, we will be able to give you some good guidance for the next financial year.

FY28.

Thank you, my second question is on the commodity prices. So, like you indicated during your opening remarks that commodity prices have started to cool off and you may see improvement

in the margins going ahead. But I just wanted to clarify one thing, is there any pass-through of last quarter which is still pending or everything is fully passed so far?

Actually, Mr. Ronak, there is a complete confusion on the margins. In our this casting line, we have to see the absolute EBITDA, which as I have always explained, because there is 100% pass-through with the customer, back-to-back, we are fully hedged. The absolute margins remain the same, only thin g when we talk of the margin, it is only the percentage that looks like low, which is looking 12%, when the prices are coming down, the same percentage will look 13% or 13.4% like that.

No, sir, I completely understand that. So, my question was more from a pass-through which happens with a lag, with a three-month or six-month lag. So is there any pass-through which is pending?

N o lag pending, we have received everything. Our customers are very, very esteemed customers and they have passed it on.

Perfect. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Joseph George from IIFL. Please proceed.

Hello, sir. Just one question that I have. So, y ou mentioned that in the first quarter, growth is inflated by about 33% because of aluminum, or the pass-throughs. Now if I look at this quarter's revenue, which is about Rs. 1,358 crore, and if I divide that by 1.33 to remove the element of price hikes for aluminum, I get to about Rs. 1,020 crore. There is no impact on EBITDA because of th e pass-through, and if I use the EBITDA number and divide it by this modified revenue, I get a margin of some 15.7%. So, what I want to check is, one, is the math correct? And second, is this kind of a margin sustainable adjusted for the effect of price hikes in revenue?

Your calculation is right, but some part of opening inventory may be there in the revenue. Margin of 15% is not sustainable in our industry. Our margins remain in the same line.

The overall margins you will be finding at around 13.5% to 14% in between that.

Understood, sir. And the back working that I did, that is logical, right, where I got more than 15%?

That’s nearly logical, yes.

Okay. Understood, sir. Thank you. That's all I had.

Yes, thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations, sir, on a great set of numbers. Just one question from my side, like how do you plan to fund the new capex which you are targeting?

We are actually keeping in mind our high mid-teen growth, our internal accruals will be sufficient; but yes, for cash flow management, we will have to take some external financing.

So external will be borrowings, Sir?

We will be taking te rm loan for machines.

Understood. Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mrunmayee Jogalekar from Asit C Mehta Investment. Please proceed.

Sir, congratulations on a great set of numbers. I had a couple of questions. You mentioned that you have received some new orders based on which there's a new capacity that you're putting up. So, can you give some more color on these orders? Are these more on the EV side because we are seeing improving penetration or is it broad-based across ICE and EV?

This is broad-based, ICE and EV, but yes EV al so is substantial because, the EV share is now increasing and it's mainly in the ALPS segment.

Okay, sir. Got it. And any updates on the alloy wheel with the Taiwanese partner?

That is under testing. As I told in the last many calls that it's in the final stages of testing. Whenever the approval comes, being a safety item, we don't pursue it that the customer should take their own sweet time. We are very confident that even that will pass. For both the collaborations, I had given the guidance of H2, but we have been lucky that at least one of them has fructified one quarter before.

Right, sir. Anything on the sunroof cables business?

That is also going as per plan, and in fact, we have received very good orders in that, and next year, it will be shaping up very well. Initial supplies will start from H2, but next year, you will see substantial growth there.

Okay, so will start in H2 of this year and then ramp up next year?

Yes, yes.

Perfect, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vaibhav Mehta from Axis Mutual Fund. Please proceed.

We can't quantify that number exactly, but we know very well that our payback of the investment is in five and a half years.

Okay. Thanks.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Naveen Kumar Dubey from Narnolia Financial Services. Please proceed.

Yes, thanks for the opportunity, sir. Congratulations to the team on robust performance, and you guys are really setting up new benchmark of growing at 30%. Sir, my question is related to the industry performance. As we see that second half of FY26 had seen growth of close to 25%, so how do we see that the growth should be in FY27 second half?

We expect a high-teens growth. I have revised my forecast, you can see that this quarter is going very well and we expect this momentum to continue in the whole of the financial year.

Okay. What would be the growth drivers be in second half, because the base was high in second half last year?

See, base was high, but the industry is growing, and I think the way economy is growing at about 6.7%, I believe lot of money is percolating down the line. After this GST reduction from 28% to 18%, the prices have become rather reasonable and customers are buying the product, especially 2-wheeler, there is a lot of tailwinds. The only negative possible factor was the El Niño effect, which it seems now that that has diluted to quite some extent, because the water tables are almost 90% level even in Bombay.

Right, sir and the second question related to the margin, sir. We have seen some 300-basis point of gross margin contraction in recent quarters. So, do we expect that the gross margin to 34% levels in next 2-3 quarters?

Yes, it will certainly come. The prices have already started coming down because the supplies have become near normal at one time, the raw material was just not available, so the prices had shot up by more than Rs. 100. So, the aluminum prices that had shot up to Rs. 365 have already come down by more than 10%.

Okay. So, we can safely assume that 13.5% to 14% EBITDA margin is easily achievable as of now?

Should come. Sir, its all depends on the geopoli tical situation. If tomorrow Hormuz gets clear, then certainly it will come, but suppose there is no agreement and signing off and again they block it, I can't say anything on that.

But more important is the absolute value of EBITDA.

Yes.

Okay, sure. Yes. Sir, my third question is related to, sir, in our investor presentation, we have mentioned in the February investor presentation the workforce numbers were 7,000 plus, and in May, it was 9,000 plus. So, I think it's roughly 25% kind of.?

It is the 2,000 people added in the last 2 plants, in Karoli and Bangalore, I think that was added. Because they are very big plants and in that more than 1,500 people got recruited in Karoli only.

That's a huge number, Sir.

Sir, that's a huge plant. We have already invested Rs. 750 crore there. It's a plant in 23 acres, so that kind of workforce will be there. I think 500 more at least will be recruited soon. This number will keep on changing next year, you will find more than 10,000.

Great to hear. Sir, one related question. Is the land fully utilized or we have some more scope to set up more capacity?

Karoli, there is a little more scope, about 20% or so. The good part is the revenues have really shot up in Karoli, and from Rs. 60 crore monthly, we have touched Rs. 110 crore in the last month, which is an appreciable jump. Next year, it should give us Rs. 1,500 crore turnover.

Great. Two last questions, sir. One is, we have invested in the captive solar plant. So, what kind of saving we do expect in those plants, from the first plant and the second one is coming, because I think the power cost is close to 3.5% for us?

Sir, we have explained that we have estimated that we'll get our payback of the investment in 5 to 5.5 years.

Okay, 5 years.

If there is more sun, we'll get it in 5 years. If it remains cloudy, then maybe 6 years.

Okay, sir. And the last question, sir, related to you have mentioned that Rs. 700 crore of capex we will be doing this year. So, have we increased our debt from March FY26 levels?

Yes, it will certainly increase.

Actually, this is a recent development, it's not even a 15 days development. The board has decided that we'll go for the next plant very, very fast. It is only the revision from Rs. 500 to Rs. 700, because if the need arises. So, let's see where we end up in this financial year. There are such good internal acc ruals we'll be utilizing. The phi losophy of the company is to completely plow back the internal accruals. We'll be plowing that back, and wherever whether working capital, term loan need arises, we'll take the loan. We are still very confident that our debt equity will remain under control and it will be not exceed 0.5.

Yes, it has increased, because due to sudden increase in working capital requirement due to commodity price increase, so there is an increase in debt.

Okay.

Aluminum is Rs. 100 the price, so working capital, it impacts.

Okay. So, can you specify the debt numbers, sir, current debt levels?

We will update in the Q2 results, because at that time, we will provide you statement of assets and liabilities.

Okay, Thank you so much, Sir, and all the best for future.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yash Agarwal from Nirmal Bang Securities. Please proceed.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and first of all, congratulations on the great set of results. My first question is basically like one of our client Honda is expanding capacity and they plan to launch 10 new models. So how is the content per vehicle there versus overall content per vehicle?

That is our most prestigious and largest customer . So, content per vehicle is also highest, and that will continue in the new models also.

Okay. What's our export outlook for FY27?

Last year, we could not go near the target anywhere, but this time, we have given a guidance of 20% increase in the exports, and at the moment, we are still very confident we'll achieve it.

Any update on that Ford order execution timeline and any new export order win recently?

We are in negotiations with 2-3 players, and I th ink a big export order, I'll tell you when it materializes, not before that.

Now the alloy wheel ramp-up is started, so the revenue guidance that you gave in the last earnings call, does it remain same or like, you have improved from that, like you have adjusted it?

Today also, I have given a revenue guidance, so it will remain the same, what I have given today.

Okay. One last question on the ABS mandate implementation. So, any update on that?

I don't know. We read in the newspapers that you also must have gone through. Nothing has come so far. It only remains a draft. I believe there was a news item that some revised draft is also coming. I have told last time, we'll not discuss on the draft things. Whenever a final thing comes, we'll discuss.

Okay. And, sir, one last question on the segmental revenue growth. Like 2-wheeler ICE growth is close to two-wheeler EV growth, but overall, in the market, we have seen that EV is growing at much, much faster pace and the penetration is reached close to 10% to 11%. So why our growth is kind of similar and not higher in the two-wheeler EVs?

We also are growing in the EV with all the top customers, but one of the major customers, which we had a very large revenue, that is not performin g for the last some time. Because of that, the percentage looks little distorted.

Okay, sir. Thank you. Best of luck.

Thank you. That was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Kuldip Singh Rathee from ASK Automotive Limited for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for very, very patient hearing, and I feel and I think we could answer to many of your queries quite satisfactorily. However, if something is left, we'll further always happy to clarify because we are a very transparent company. And I would like to assure that now we'll be working hard to achieve the revised guidance for this year, which I said that we'll be growing at high teens. So, give us all your best wishes so that we can achieve that target. Thank you very much once again.

Thank you. On behalf of Adfactors PR, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. This is a transcript and may contain transcription errors. The Co mpany or the sender takes no responsibility for such errors, although an effort has been made to ensure high level of accuracy