LANDMARKNSEMay 29, 2025

Landmark Cars Limited

7,423words
96turns
8analyst exchanges
4executives
Management on call
Sanjay Thakker
CHAIRMAN AND EXECUTIVE
Aryaman Thakker
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – LANDMARK CARS LIMITED
Surendra Agarwal
CHIEF FINANCIAL
Rahul Dani
MONARCH NETWORTH CAPITAL LIMITED
Key numbers — 40 extracted
5%
in India. In Financial Year '25, on a year-on-year basis, the passenger vehicle industry grew at 5%, whereas Landmark grew at about 21%. Our expansion into three fast-growing brands, Kia, MG and
21%
n a year-on-year basis, the passenger vehicle industry grew at 5%, whereas Landmark grew at about 21%. Our expansion into three fast-growing brands, Kia, MG and Mahindra, has bolstered this growth.
100%
auto industry globally. The Indian auto industry, long protected by high tariff barriers of over 100%, is likely to see a drop in import duties over a period of time. India remains a bright spot on
rs,
d to capitalize on these developments. Landmark is also a large partner for BYD as well as MG Motors, leaders in EV space with clear price and product advantage. Rising EV adoption in India will clear
1.5%
times to come. Global benchmarks show that leading auto retailers in U.S. and China hold between 1.5% to 2% market share in passenger vehicle space. Compared to this, our current share in PV market
2%
come. Global benchmarks show that leading auto retailers in U.S. and China hold between 1.5% to 2% market share in passenger vehicle space. Compared to this, our current share in PV market is appr
0.5%
are in passenger vehicle space. Compared to this, our current share in PV market is approximately 0.5% by volume and a little more by value, indicating the significant long- term growth potential that
Rs. 1.5 crore
olumes have returned to their normal growth pace this quarter. The top-end vehicles priced over Rs. 1.5 crores continue to contribute to 25% of the sales volumes. And the brand is expecting double-digit grow
25%
owth pace this quarter. The top-end vehicles priced over Rs. 1.5 crores continue to contribute to 25% of the sales volumes. And the brand is expecting double-digit growth for the rest of the calendar
4.5%
Mahindra and Mahindra are shaping up well. We have already become the top 3 dealers for MG with a 4.5% market share and growing steadily. With new launches planned across all of these brands, we conti
3%
r OEM partners have announced price hikes. Kia and Mahindra & Mahindra implemented an approximate 3% price hike from April 2025, while Mercedes-Benz has announced a price hike of up to 1.5%, effecti
4%
f FY25, we successfully brought down employee cost and other operating expense to approximately 4% and 3.8% of proforma revenue respectively, meeting our sub 4% target. This disciplined approach w
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Guidance — 20 items
Sanjay Thakker
opening
“With stable macroeconomic backdrop and strategic initiatives, we are well poised to capitalize on the long-term growth opportunities and aspire to increase our market share in this growing market.”
Aryaman Thakker
opening
“The volumes are increasing and with the industry expected to go through a replacement cycle, we expect this business to perform over the next few quarters.”
Aryaman Thakker
opening
“Workshops for Kia Hyderabad will get operational in quarter 1 ofFY26 and the impact will be felt in subsequent quarters.”
Aryaman Thakker
opening
“Our efforts on cost rationalization delivered tangible results over the course of FY25.”
Aryaman Thakker
opening
“By H2 of FY25, we successfully brought down employee cost and other operating expense to approximately 4% and 3.8% of proforma revenue respectively, meeting our sub 4% target.”
Aryaman Thakker
opening
“We are aiming to further reduce these costs by 10% in the next year.”
Surendra Agarwal
opening
“Allow me to share some key performance metrics that will represent what we have performed in Quarter 4, FY25.”
Surendra Agarwal
opening
“Now for the corresponding figure for the full year FY25: We achieved total proforma revenue of Rs.”
Sanjay Thakker
qa
“So, that is something which will be operationalized in the next maybe 45 days or so, which is already something that we had said.”
Sanjay Thakker
qa
“And our own workshop of Kia, which was the only project that was delayed in this whole 24 outlets that we are talking, that will get operationalized.”
Risks & concerns — 9 flagged
Mercedes‟ sales were temporarily affected due to a weak customer sentiment driven mainly due to capital market volatility.
— Aryaman Thakker
35.6 crore, reflecting the impact of Ind AS 16 for newly launched outlet.
— Surendra Agarwal
Our profit after tax before the net impact of Ind AS stood at Rs.
— Surendra Agarwal
So, yes, Lokesh, it's difficult to, see, I also read this article as you did in the papers today.
— Sanjay Thakker
There we don't have this kind of pressure.
— Sanjay Thakker
The good news, and I am also drawing this from Pritesh's question, are we on a continuous type of a treadmill that new outlets keep on opening and this margin is under pressure?
— Sanjay Thakker
And one more thing about our business model that I had a bit of concern was that we had opened a lot of outlets this year.
— Dhiraj Kaswan
Yes, sir, but the concern is that, going forward, if we are going to do Greenfield even 50%, 75% of the outlets, but that will be much difficult because if we are going to put an MG outlet or a Kia outlet, or any of the others, most of the top spots where cars are sold, most of the those markets will already have a Kia or many Kia showrooms and MG showrooms.
— Dhiraj Kaswan
So, difficult to stick my neck out and say that this will happen.
— Sanjay Thakker
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Q&A — 8 exchanges
Q
Sir, I couldn't understand the last line that you mentioned about x9 new outlets that you open. So, I think until the last presentation you were saying that they have taken this 24 outlet so we have done all of it. So, if you could also highlight that? And I have a couple of more questions. Maybe first you want to take this.
Sanjay Thakker
Pritesh, there is nothing new over here. We had announced that our Patna Mercedes-Benz would start in June or so. So, that is something which will be operationalized in the next maybe 45 days or so, which is already something that we had said. That was work in progress. We announced some weeks back that we are acquiring a workshop, a ready workshop of our competitor in Hyderabad of Kia. Now that will get operationalized next week or maybe 15 days. And our own workshop of Kia, which was the only project that was delayed in this whole 24 outlets that we are talking, that will get operationalized
Q
Hi. Good evening, Sanjay sir and team. Sir, my first question is on the slides and the presentation slide you said you have nicely shown that any outlet takes about roughly 13 months from start to maturity, profitability. So, given that context, in the first half, we have opened 14 outlets. So, by that logic, can we expect Q3 of this year to have optimum profitability coming in from these 14 outlets which you have shown in the first half that you have started? Would that be a fair assessment?
Sanjay Thakker
Yes, I mean, what we have given is a kind off, it's not a hard coded number. This is our experience that in approximately 12 months‟ time, things turn around. Our experience for the outlets which have completed, 7 outlets I think we reported, which had completed 12 months and which we moved to what we call the existing or old outlets, have turned profitable and we have moved them. So, they are of different shapes and sizes. Our Kia outlet will take a little because the workshops are getting operationalized only next month, so, if the outlet that you are talking about includes a Kia outlet, it
Q
Hi, sir, good evening.
Sanjay Thakker
Good evening Abhisar. Sir, my question is on Slide No. 17 where you have shown the breakup between the existing outlets and new outlets in terms of the key matrix, how they did for Q4 as well as for full year FY „25. So, sir, a two-part question on this. One is that out of the 17 outlets that we are qualifying still as new, which has given a negative Rs. 40 crore PBT for us in FY „25, how is the traction coming up? Because some of them would be three months old, some of them would be six, nine months old. So, out of these 17, how many do you see turning PBT breakeven within the next 6 months?
Q
Hi, thank you, sir, for the opportunity again. Sir, I just needed a clarification that these 25 outlets that we have opened in the Financial Year '25, are they operational or they are expected to be operational now going forward? And if so, then when do you expect complete operationalization of all these outlets?
Sanjay Thakker
They are operational. When we have said operational, that means that they are operational, not like a ready to start business, but in business. And another one. Surendra sir just gave a number for Rs. 100 crores rental expense. This is for new outlets. Just a clarification. No, no, it's a total company. Total company. Okay, total company level, it is Rs. 100 crores. Yes. That‟s it from my side, sir. Thank you again so much.
Q
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Sanjayji, a few questions here. First one, again on the gross margins. Now if I look at the car sales gross margins, you mentioned that this quarter Mercedes-Benz sales were not that great. Missed the target for the first time, not only you, but Mercedes-Benz as a whole. And the second thing probably you mentioned that the other brands had some discounting. Now, I had this opinion or maybe I don't know, I remember discussing with you that whenever a brand gives discounts, I thought we don't have to bear that. But apparently, we had to bear some portion of it in
Sanjay Thakker
In the markets that we are getting into, we need to make our presence felt. The new brands where we were new entrants into the markets with the brands, we had to kind of get the customer buying for our brands. Now, the discounting is completely out of the window as far as Mercedes-Benz is concerned because that is All India One Price. Now, by definition, discounts can happen. The discount is also passed on by the manufacturer as the consumer offers. But for new entrants where we don't have exclusivities, and just to remind you, we have exclusivity for most brands for many geographies. There we
Q
So, my first question would be like this year we have seen that most of our margins have been affected in the business like the material cost has been high because of discounting or variable margin. Yet the employee cost has been higher than 2023 and 2022 numbers. It has been lower than FY „24. Yes, and it's because of up-fronting of cost for the new outlets and also the other expenses cost has been higher. And then if you go beyond EBITDA, we also see that the depreciation and interest cost as a percentage of revenue has gone up. So, we are seeing that all these five major components of our b
Sanjay Thakker
So, I think the important aspect that we haven't yet discussed on this call is the upfronting of the depreciation because of Ind AS also. As the retail outlets open, the depreciation is higher in the initial years and then they start going down. So, the good news is that once the business gets mature and starts delivering, at that time, simultaneously, the depreciation will also start coming down. The component of after sales and this is something which I had mentioned earlier, for new business, for gross margin to click in, we need after sales business which is a 40% gross margin business. Fo
Q
Sir, can you tell me the number of cars sold in total in FY „25 and number of cars sold in FY „24? And then this BYD number that you mentioned of 700 cars for the month of April and May, so now basically it's a clean runway, at least for this kind of volume for the year or how should we look at it?
Sanjay Thakker
Pritesh, just to clarify that 700 BYD cars is not what we sold. That is the sale of BYD in India. Yes. So, just as a clarification, I am saying, and so we believe that the demand is fine. The supply needs to be consistent. We have had some past experiences where some consignments and as somebody, I think Abhisar mentioned, things look okay as of now. But with import model there is always a disruption possibility. So, difficult to stick my neck out and say that this will happen. As of now things look good in the month of April and May, and these are published figures that I am talking to you ab
Q
So, thank you all. Sorry for the glitch in between that we had. So, we are cautiously optimistic and we are looking forward to this being a year where we actually turn things around and many of the questions that you have had get answered by themselves when the numbers get published a few quarters from now. I believe that every quarter is going to be the better quarter and our expansion is behind us. So, we are also, as a team, looking forward to execution and getting the profitability which has been the only reason why we have been doing business. And the Free Trade Agreement that we have bee
Management
Speaking time
Sanjay Thakker
35
Pritesh Chheda
11
Moderator
10
Sabyasachi Mukherjee
10
Lokesh Manik
8
Abhisar Jain
8
Surendra Agarwal
5
Dhiraj Kaswan
5
Rahul Dani
1
Aryaman Thakker
1
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Opening remarks
Rahul Dani
Thank you, Darwin. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Monarch Networth Capital, I would like to welcome you all to the Q4 FY „25 Earnings Call of Landmark Cars. Today we have with us, Mr. Sanjay Thakker – Promoter and Executive Chairman; Mr. Aryaman Thakker – Executive Director; Mr. Surendra Agarwal – CFO and SGA, the IR partners. We will start the call with opening comments from the Management and followed by Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Sanjay Thakker
Thanks, Rahul. On behalf of the company, I extend a sincere welcome to everybody who has joined the call today. The Results and the Presentations are uploaded on the stock exchanges and the company website. I hope everyone had a chance to have a look at it. Financial Year '25 has been a defining year for us, marked by strategic expansion, strong execution, and disciplined growth. On the top line front, we recorded the highest ever proforma revenue for the full year, an outcome of our wide brand bouquet which resonates with every customer aspiring to own a premium or a luxury car in India. In Financial Year '25, on a year-on-year basis, the passenger vehicle industry grew at 5%, whereas Landmark grew at about 21%. Our expansion into three fast-growing brands, Kia, MG and Mahindra, has bolstered this growth. At the start of Financial Year '25, we had set out a goal of opening 24 new outlets. I am proud to share that we have successfully operationalized 23 of them, ahead of timelines and
Aryaman Thakker
Thank you. Our Q4 FY „25 performance was satisfactory. Mercedes‟ sales were temporarily affected due to a weak customer sentiment driven mainly due to capital market volatility. Because of this, we had to forgo our variable earnings which impacted on the margins. However, we are seeing it as an aberration and the volumes have returned to their normal growth pace this quarter. The top-end vehicles priced over Rs. 1.5 crores continue to contribute to 25% of the sales volumes. And the brand is expecting double-digit growth for the rest of the calendar year. BYD is having its best year in India so far and has achieved a sale of over 700 cars in both April as well as May. For context, they sold a total of 3,000 cars in Calendar Year '24. The new launches along with the homologation of the eMax 7 and the Atto 3 is helping to drive this volume growth. Our strategic choice to build a portfolio of multiple OEMs enables us to navigate OEM- specific or market-driven fluctuations. Over the full ye
An update on our operations in Punjab
We have exited the state of Punjab by selling our two remaining showrooms and one workshop for the Jeep brand. This move aligns with our ongoing strategy to consolidate operations where we are not seeing store level profitability and to drive efficiencies. For the coming months, we can look forward to a variety of new models from our partner OEMs. MG is gearing up to introduce the new Majestor along with the M9 and Cyberster under the MG Select brand. Kia has an upcoming launch of the Carens Clavis, which is already getting a very positive response. I will now hand it over to our CFO – Surendra Agarwal, to take us through the financial highlights.
Surendra Agarwal
Thank you, Aryaman. A very good evening, everyone. Allow me to share some key performance metrics that will represent what we have performed in Quarter 4, FY25. Our total proforma revenue for the quarter stands at Rs. 1,526 crore as compared to Rs. 1,300 crore in the same quarter of the previous year with a growth of 17.4% on a year-on-year basis. Of this, our new car proforma sale was around Rs. 1,281 crore across all our OEM partners and the after-sale revenue was booked at Rs. 245 crore. The gross profit for the quarter is Rs. 188 crore with a 17.2% margin on reported revenue as against a gross profit of Rs. 171 crore in Q4 FY 24. This was despite the lower than expected sale of Mercedes-Benz on year-on-year basis. Despite the lower-than-expected sale of Mercedes-Benz on year-on-year basis, all the new workshops are yet to reach their full capacity, thus impacting the gross profit margin. The EBITDA stood at Rs. 60.8 crore with 8.14% year-on-year growth. The EBITDA margin was record
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