POLYCABNSEQ2 FY 2026October 28, 2025

Polycab India Limited

8,109words

86turns

13analyst exchanges

4executives

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Management on call

Inder Jaisinghani

CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR

Gandharv Tongia

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CHIEF

Niyant Maru

EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT, FINANCE – POLYCAB INDIA LIMITED

Chirayu Upadhyaya

HEAD OF INVESTOR RELATIONS – POLYCAB INDIA LIMITED

Key numbers — 40 extracted

₹ 700 crore

ur execution capability. Our profitability also reached new highs with PAT touching approximately ₹ 700 crores for the first time in the second quarter, contributing to a record half-yearly performance. I

₹ 8,000 crore

ed companies in India today. When we went public in FY 2019, our market capitalization was around ₹ 8,000 crores. Today, it stands at over ₹ 1.1 lakh crores, a testament to our strong execution, disciplined

₹ 1.1 lakh crore

public in FY 2019, our market capitalization was around ₹ 8,000 crores. Today, it stands at over ₹ 1.1 lakh crores, a testament to our strong execution, disciplined growth and the trust of our shareholders, cust

rs,

kh crores, a testament to our strong execution, disciplined growth and the trust of our shareholders, customers and partners. Over the years, we have delivered consistent growth across every key metri

₹ 525.63 million

Y 2014-2015 to AY 2023-2024 were issued during FY 2024-2025, resulting into a total tax demand of ₹ 525.63 million and interest of ₹ 175.58 million. The Company appealed these orders. During the quarter ended 3

₹ 175.58 million

issued during FY 2024-2025, resulting into a total tax demand of ₹ 525.63 million and interest of ₹ 175.58 million. The Company appealed these orders. During the quarter ended 30th September 2025, the CIT(A) al

40%

weaker currency, India's inflation outlook remains benign. Gold prices have risen sharply by over 40% this year, pushing headline inflation slightly higher, but core inflation remains moderate at 4.4

4.4%

40% this year, pushing headline inflation slightly higher, but core inflation remains moderate at 4.4% in September and even lower at 3.1%, excluding gold. With GST reductions likely to ease gold infl

3.1%

ation slightly higher, but core inflation remains moderate at 4.4% in September and even lower at 3.1%, excluding gold. With GST reductions likely to ease gold inflation further, it is expected that t

43%

healthy, though with some sign of moderation. Meanwhile, government capex remains strong, growing 43% YoY till August '25 with ~38% of the FY 2026 outlay already spent. This provides confidence that

38%

of moderation. Meanwhile, government capex remains strong, growing 43% YoY till August '25 with ~38% of the FY 2026 outlay already spent. This provides confidence that full year targets should be me

18%

nded 30th September 2025, we are pleased to report that our consolidated revenue grew by a strong 18% YoY, driven primarily by robust performance in our Wires & Cables business, supported by healthy

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Guidance — 20 items

Gandharv Tongia

opening

“These achievements reflect the collective effort of our teams, the guidance of our Board and the spirit of collaboration that defines this organization.”

Chirayu Upadhyaya

opening

“We expect this to normalize to our long-term steady range of 50 to 55 days over the coming quarters.”

Chirayu Upadhyaya

opening

“Capital expenditure for the quarter was at ₹ 3.3 billion, taking the H1 FY 2026 expenditure to around ₹ 7.5 billion, in line with our Project Spring guidance of investing ₹ 12 billion - ₹ 16 billion annually through to FY 2030.”

Chirayu Upadhyaya

opening

“This performance was driven by higher government spending, improved project execution and a favourable commodity environment.”

Chirayu Upadhyaya

opening

“With a healthy order book in place, we expect this growth momentum to continue.”

Chirayu Upadhyaya

opening

“With continued policy support and encouraging demand visibility, we expect this demand to continue.”

Chirayu Upadhyaya

opening

“During Q2 FY 2026, EPC revenues declined 19% YoY to ₹ 4,024 million, primarily due to project execution cycle, same as was the case in Q1 FY 2026.”

Chirayu Upadhyaya

opening

“This includes a one-time gain of approximately ₹ 300 million, excluding which margins would be at around 10%, consistent with our mid- to long-term guidance.”

Chirayu Upadhyaya

opening

“Moving on to Slide 12, which provides an update on our Project Spring.”

Chirayu Upadhyaya

opening

“Under Project Spring, we continue to make steady progress in line with our FY 2030 strategic guidance.”

Risks & concerns — 13 flagged

Major global economies are beginning to show signs of a slowdown in economic activity.

— Gandharv Tongia

In China, manufacturing activity improved slightly in September 2025, but remains in contraction territory constrained by weak export orders.

— Gandharv Tongia

While export contribution appears lower, exports have actually grown 25% YoY in H1 FY 2026, and the relative decline is due to stronger domestic growth, expanding the consolidated base.

— Chirayu Upadhyaya

So, it will be very difficult for us to comment at this point of time what we can expect perhaps by the end of this quarter, or maybe in the next quarter or so.

— Chirayu Upadhyaya

It is very difficult to comment as of now as far as the U.S.

— Chirayu Upadhyaya

Are you seeing any stress emerging in terms of the pricing, etcetera?

— Achal

Do you expect any margin pressure in coming quarters for new entrants?

— Aadipta Ghosh

Rahul very difficult to quantify the market size for a specific type of cable.

— Chirayu Upadhyaya

So, are you expecting any kind of pressure in terms of pushing volumes and therefore, at the risk of margins for fans in third quarter?

— Natasha Jain

So, we didn't see any such pressure when the previous BEE change happened around 1 year, 9 months back.

— Chirayu Upadhyaya

So, perhaps we wouldn't see a similar pressure this time either.

— Chirayu Upadhyaya

We'll see how the next quarter pans out to know if there is any competitive intensity or higher pressure on the margins to perhaps liquidate the inventory.

— Chirayu Upadhyaya

But again, it is very difficult to quantify the contribution that we will generate from the SPC vertical for us five years down the line.

— Chirayu Upadhyaya

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Q&A — 13 exchanges

Congratulations on a great set of numbers. Sir, my first question would be in this 21% YoY sales growth in cables and wires, approximately how much would be volume? And if you could further categorize them between cables and wires, that would be great.

Chirayu Upadhyaya

Thank you so much, Sonali. As far as the growth is concerned, the 21% revenue growth is on the base of high teens volume growth, and the remaining is the value contribution. Both cables and wires have registered strong growth. As far as the revenue growth in both cables and wires are concerned, they are pretty much equal. Again, on the volume terms, the growth will be a bit higher on the cable side, and a bit lower on the wire side, but that is because of very high base of wires in Q2 of previous year. If you would recall, in September of last year, we had seen an upward trend in copper prices

So Chirayu, my first question is on the growth in cable and wire, like this year also, we have seen a fairly sharp rally in copper prices, right? And some of our channel checks are indicating a similar stock up and all by the dealers. What is our sense on that? Does this volume growth reflect that?

Chirayu Upadhyaya

So, Ashish, as on date or in the first half of this year, definitely, we have seen better traction as far as the volume growth is concerned. But all of this is largely linked to the fundamental demand. We don't see a lot of inventory buildup into the channel right now. To a certain extent, maybe in wires, we would have seen that buildup happening towards the end of September. But same was the case towards the end of June and all that inventory got liquidated because the fundamental demand remains strong. So, we don't believe that the high-volume growth that we are witnessing this year has anyt

My first question is on wires and cables. If I see your top-line growth, this has historically, growth has been much larger than 19%, with margins lower than 15%. So, this time, it's at a lower top-line growth, a higher margin. I want to understand, does exports have anything to do with this given that there was a period of 20 days when a lot of players front-loaded US exports. So, has that also come into our margins? And having said that, what about exports from quarter 3 onwards to US given it's a high-margin business? First question, sir.

Chirayu Upadhyaya

So, Natasha, on the top-line of the wires and cables business, we've actually grown 21% in this quarter YoY. And that, too, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, is on a very high base. Last year, we had seen 23% growth in wires and cables and the domestic business has actually grown 28% YoY in Q2. On that, we have registered a 21% YoY growth. So definitely, nothing amiss as far as the top line growth is concerned. The percentages, maybe, you might be comparing it with 25%+ kind of growth, but you also have to consider the base when you are looking at the percentage growth. As far as margin in

The first question I have with respect to the demand. I understand basically what you're seeing is very strong domestic and export outlook. So how do we see in terms of volume sustaining? Do you think the volume growth of high teens can continue in the remaining part of the year, particularly when you are talking about the inventories? What kind of growth are we building when we are building the inventories, if you could clarify on the same?

Chirayu Upadhyaya

Achal, as you are aware, we don't give out yearly or quarterly guidance. So perhaps I would refrain from giving specific numbers on the volume growth expectation. We are, on the ground, witnessing a lot of traction in execution. Q2 in that way generally is hampered because of monsoon season. And this time around, we actually had an extended monsoon season. But in spite of that, you've seen the numbers that are being delivered. We believe that once, the monsoon season is over, the execution will actually pick up pace. And looking at what the government has done in the first half of this year in

So, my question is on the FMEG segment. With solar products now being the largest category, could you elaborate on the margin profile of the solar business and versus the rest of the FMEG portfolio? And looking ahead, what are the key strategic levers beyond solar that will drive segment margin from the current low towards the ambition of 8% to 10% under the Project Spring?

Chirayu Upadhyaya

So, Jai, we don't particularly give out product-wise margins, neither the breakup of our FMEG. Having said that, solar is a profitable business for us, and that will continue to be the case. The other products that we have in the FMEG segment, which are switches, switchgears, conduits, all of them are profitable. Perhaps one of the segment that we would want to be profitable in the near to midterm is the Fans segment. Over there, the utilization rates continue to be at a bit lower and which is what is hampering our operating leverage and hence, the bottom line. As and when we scale up that bus

Congrats on a good set of numbers. Chirayu, the question was on gross margin in wires and cables on a YoY basis. Now if you compare this quarter to the base quarter, if you can just highlight, I mean, what helps us to show this strong expansion? Because I believe in base quarter, you had highlighted heightened competition in wires. But I believe even this quarter, we've seen copper price inflation and some stocking up in wires. So, what has exactly changed if we were to compare both the quarters like-for-like?

Chirayu Upadhyaya

So, similar to Q1, we had seen the expansion on the gross margin level, pretty much the same continues in Q2. We didn't see a similar heightened competitive intensity on the wires this time around. Last year in September, the upside that happened in copper was within a very short time frame of 3 to 4 days and towards the end of the quarter, which led to the higher competitive intensity. This time around, the increase in copper prices was over a longer period, and perhaps that is why we might not have seen a similar behaviour from the competitors this time around. So that is why the margins eve

First of all, congratulations for your great numbers. My question is major players like Adani Group and Birla Group entering the market. How do you see the competition evolving? Do you expect any margin pressure in coming quarters for new entrants?

Chirayu Upadhyaya

So, Aditya, the announcements of entry by both these large conglomerates happened somewhere around the beginning of this year. It will obviously take some time for those players to enter in the industry. One of the players has given specific plans and timelines by which time they expect their plant to get commissioned and them to enter in this particular industry, while the other player has not given any clear plans of what they wish to do as far as this business is concerned. Even for the player which has given the plans, this is something which will happen after 1-1.5 years. At that point of

Congratulations for the superior quarter. My question was on Etira, Maxima and, the Suprema wires, how they are doing in Tier 2, Tier 3 cities, just wanted to get some insight on that.

Chirayu Upadhyaya

Prathamesh for Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 5 cities, we have the Etira brand, which we introduced around 3-3.5 years back. This is a wire range which competes very actively and very competitively with the unorganized players and their offerings in this market. Suprema, Primma and the other ranges that we have are more premium in nature, and they are largely used in metro and Tier 1 cities. As I had mentioned in one of the earlier questions, we are seeing very good traction in sales of our Class 2 wires. That has been one of our focus areas, and we have seen very good traction on that front, which is

Just one question from my end. We are hearing a lot of HVDC as an opportunity, which is till 2035. For my clarification, HVDC as an opportunity is similar to what EHV cable would be coming or it's completely different? Or Polycab is looking for such opportunity going ahead?

Chirayu Upadhyaya

Thanks, Rahul. So, the EHV plant that we are putting up will be largely utilized for only the EHV opportunity. As of now, we are not looking at the HVDC opportunity. Perhaps, yes, as you rightly mentioned, it is an opportunity which will perhaps be there in the longer term. If you take more of a decade or two decades kind of view, there may be more demand for those kind of cables. But as of now, there are very limited projects in the country that requires HVDC cables. None of the players in the country have the tech to manufacture them, and whatever cables are being utilized or will be supplie

Chirayu, just two questions. One is that you said that you have already taken a price hike in October. Is it possible to say what kind of price hike you have taken?

Chirayu Upadhyaya

Sanjaya, you can look at the movement of copper and aluminum along with the USD-INR movement in the previous month to this month and take the average and perhaps that is the increase that we would have taken. Okay. So that essentially tells me that you are protecting your margin despite this volatility. Thanks for clarifying that. My second question is that this capex, which we have done like ₹ 750 crores odd and you're planning to do somewhere around ₹ 1,500 crores, ₹ 1,600 crores this year. Can you spell it out for us like what all exact capacities that has gone up? Sanjaya, this is a capex

Two questions. One, Chirayu, can you give us the breakdown in terms of order book for RDSS and BharatNet as of today?

Chirayu Upadhyaya

So, Natasha, the order book for RDSS currently stands at ₹ 33.5 billion. And for BharatNet, since the execution will only begin from next quarter onwards, the order book is similar as it was at the end of previous quarter, which excluding the GST part stands at about ₹ 80 billion. Understood. And one last question. In terms of fans, there is a BEE rating change in the offing, right? So, are you expecting any kind of pressure in terms of pushing volumes and therefore, at the risk of margins for fans in third quarter? So, we didn't see any such pressure when the previous BEE change happened arou

Just that question, can you quantify the special purpose opportunity and currently, how much it contributes without going into details sector to sector, but for next capex, which in upcoming 2, 3 years, which you are planning, what quantum can go towards a special purpose kind of structure?

Chirayu Upadhyaya

Within the special purpose cables (SPC) vertical, we cater to 3 types of opportunities — defense, automobiles, and railways, specifically railway coaches. These three put together form part of our SPC vertical. As of now, the contribution of SPC vertical to our overall cables and wires would be in low single digits. However, looking at the kind of investments which are happening in those sectors, it can be one of the fastest-growing vertical for us. As far as the opportunity size is concerned, you can track the announcements of government related to defense. Similarly, on the automobile side,

Thank you, everyone, for taking out time and attending the call. Thank you for your trust and support over the period. We take this opportunity to wish you, your family members and each and every member of your family a very happy Diwali. Thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.

Management

Speaking time

Chirayu Upadhyaya

Moderator

Natasha Jain

Rahul Maheshwary

Sonali

Achal

Sanjaya Satapathy

Gandharv Tongia

Ashish Jain

Jai Chauhan

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Opening remarks

Gandharv Tongia

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I hope all of you are staying healthy and safe. I'm Gandharv Tongia, Executive Director and CFO at Polycab India Limited. On this call, we shall discuss the second quarter results, which were approved in the Board meeting held today. We will be referring to the earnings presentation, financial results and condensed financial statements, which are available on the stock exchanges as well as on the Investor Relations page of our website. Joining me today from the management team, we have our Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Inder Jaisinghani; our Executive President, Finance, Mr. Niyant Maru; and our Head, Investor Relations, Mr. Chirayu Upadhyaya. Let me now hand over the call to Inder Bhai for his comments.

Inder Jaisinghani

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm happy to share that we had a strong Q2 FY 2026, marking yet another milestone in our growth journey. This quarter, we saw our highest ever second quarter and half yearly revenue, reflecting the strength in demand and that of our execution capability. Our profitability also reached new highs with PAT touching approximately ₹ 700 crores for the first time in the second quarter, contributing to a record half-yearly performance. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Mr. Niyant Maru, who will join us as the Chief Financial Officer from October 28, 2025, following Gandharv's resignation. He will serve in this role for an interim period of 9 months, until a suitable successor is appointed. With over four decades of financial leadership experience, I'm confident he will further strengthen our financial strategy and support the Company’s next phase of the growth. With that, I would now like to hand over to Niyant for his initial address.

Niyant Maru

Thank you, Inder Bhai, for this warm welcome. I'm truly honoured to join the leadership team of Polycab at such a very exciting time in the Company's journey and look forward to contribute meaningfully to Polycab's continued growth and value creation. The Company’s strong fundamentals, consistent performance, and commitment to excellence, are truly inspiring. I'm excited to work very closely with the leadership team to further strengthen the financial strategy and continue delivering sustainable long-term value to all our stakeholders. With that, I would like to hand over to Gandharv, to take the call ahead.

Gandharv Tongia

Thank you, Niyant. Before we move forward, I would like to make a moment to acknowledge an important transition within our leadership team. This will be my final earnings call as the Executive Director and CFO, and I wanted to briefly reflect on what has been a truly remarkable journey. I joined the organization as Deputy CFO in 2018, and it has been a privilege to contribute to its transformation, from a privately held Company to one of the top 100 listed companies in India today. When we went public in FY 2019, our market capitalization was around ₹ 8,000 crores. Today, it stands at over ₹ 1.1 lakh crores, a testament to our strong execution, disciplined growth and the trust of our shareholders, customers and partners. Over the years, we have delivered consistent growth across every key metric, becoming the largest Company by revenue and profitability in the electrical industry and a sector leader in margins, driven by our focus on efficiency and excellence. These achievements reflec

Chirayu Upadhyaya

Thank you, Gandharv. Let me now take you through Slide 4 of the earnings presentation. For the quarter ended 30th September 2025, we are pleased to report that our consolidated revenue grew by a strong 18% YoY, driven primarily by robust performance in our Wires & Cables business, supported by healthy growth in the FMEG business. Our EBITDA for the quarter grew by 62% YoY, significantly outpacing revenue growth. This translated into a ~430 bps YoY and ~130 bps QoQ improvement in EBITDA margin, which stood at 15.8%. The margin expansion was supported by strong profitability in the larger Wires & Cables business. At the PAT level, the Company delivered its highest ever second quarter PAT at ~₹ 7.0 billion, reflecting 56% YoY growth. PAT margins improved by ~260 bps YoY, to stand at 10.7% for the quarter. Finance costs came in at ₹ 484 million, while other income stood at ₹ 454 million. A detailed breakdown of the line items is available on Slide 19 of the presentation. We continue to mai

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Polycab India Limited

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