EXIDEINDNSEQ4 FY 2025-26May 06, 2026

Exide Industries Limited

7,907words

137turns

15analyst exchanges

2executives

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Management on call

Pravin Saraf

MD and CEO of Exide Energy Solutions,

Jitendra Kumar And Mr. Prashant Saraswat

Head of Investor Relations.

Key numbers — 40 extracted

92%

astructure development. Coming to the Company's performance during Q4 of FY26: Nearly 92% of the business has grown by 16%, including our entire domestic business ex- Telecom. All key vert

16%

to the Company's performance during Q4 of FY26: Nearly 92% of the business has grown by 16%, including our entire domestic business ex- Telecom. All key verticals grew around double-digits,

9.4%

om and E-Rickshaw continue to see shifts towards lithium-ion technology. This translated to about 9.4% year-on-year overall revenue growth. And in Q4, we generated our highest-ever quarterly revenue.

12.5%

owth. And in Q4, we generated our highest-ever quarterly revenue. Domestic business sales grew by 12.5% year-on-year. For the full year FY26, the Company has delivered 4.1% year-on-year revenue growth.

4.1%

stic business sales grew by 12.5% year-on-year. For the full year FY26, the Company has delivered 4.1% year-on-year revenue growth. Again, nearly 92% of the business grew by double-digits. The domesti

7.5%

wth. Again, nearly 92% of the business grew by double-digits. The domestic business grew by about 7.5% year-on-year. In Quarter 4, the Company continued to ramp up production, leading to higher capa

11.7%

line. The Company was also able to maintain, on a sequential quarter basis, the EBITDA margin of 11.7%, buoyed by strong volume growth, improved product mix, and better realization, which was also hel

50 basis point

ce projects. All the above efforts resulted in expanding the EBITDA margin year-on-year by nearly 50 basis points. The GST 2.0-led demand surge continued in Q4, as auto OEM business recorded its second consec

25%

d demand surge continued in Q4, as auto OEM business recorded its second consecutive quarter of (+25%) year-on-year growth, also hitting its highest-ever quarterly revenue, breaking the mark set in Q

Rs. 1000 crore

bated and nurtured this solar vertical for the last few years and this year they have crossed the Rs. 1000 crore mark for the full year. Two-wheeler and four-wheeler replacement demand remained robust, as it co

Rs. 600 crore

portunities. I will move on to our lithium-ion cell manufacturing project, where we have invested Rs. 600 crores in Q4 and about Rs. 1,500 crores in FY26. With this, the total equity investment made in Exide E

Rs. 1,500 crore

r lithium-ion cell manufacturing project, where we have invested Rs. 600 crores in Q4 and about Rs. 1,500 crores in FY26. With this, the total equity investment made in Exide Energy, our subsidiary till date,

Guidance — 20 items

Avik Roy

opening

“Low inflation rates, low interest rates and the consequence of GST 2.0 Reforms increased end-consumers' affordability, especially in the second half of FY26.”

Avik Roy

opening

“Coming to the Company's performance during Q4 of FY26: Nearly 92% of the business has grown by 16%, including our entire domestic business ex- Telecom.”

Avik Roy

opening

“For the full year FY26, the Company has delivered 4.1% year-on-year revenue growth.”

Avik Roy

opening

“We expect these uncertainties to remain for at least in the first half of this current year.”

Avik Roy

opening

“The Company transformed from a strategic business unit-led model to a ‘One-Exide’ operating model in FY25.”

Avik Roy

opening

“During the last year, FY26, this operating model has enabled the Company to be more agile and customer-focused, while bringing synergies across the organization, reflecting in the overall Company performance.”

Avik Roy

opening

“As we enter the next fiscal year, the outlook for the lead-acid business remains positive across most businesses.”

Avik Roy

opening

“I will move on to our lithium-ion cell manufacturing project, where we have invested Rs.”

Avik Roy

opening

“Our cylindrical lines are expected to start customer sample delivery by around this month onwards, while the prismatic line will be initiating product trials shortly thereafter.”

Vinay Singh

“Fair to say that Exports will be around 5% of top line and Telecom around 3%.”

Risks & concerns — 7 flagged

Remaining business witnessed strong decline in revenues, Exports being one of them, which was subdued by the given geopolitical situation, and Telecom and E-Rickshaw continue to see shifts towards lithium-ion technology.

— Avik Roy

Today, even despite the Telecom decline, domestic, we are 12.5% in the quarter.

— Avik Roy

See, right now, it's difficult to comment.

— Avik Roy

Even if not, even if they don't want to disrupt their import, they would like to have an alternative source, because otherwise it is too expensive and too volatile, too big an exposure to depend on imported complete batteries from China on the long term.

— Avik Roy

What is good is that the customer has realized that lithium is also volatile.

— Avik Roy

Number two is the prices are also indexed to a great extent so that the risk is also a pass-through like lead.

— Avik Roy

We have been pretty confident of the quarter coming by because last consecutive two quarters were pretty satisfying, particularly after a weak Quarter 2.

— Avik Roy

Q&A — 15 exchanges

Hi team, thanks for the opportunity. In the opening remark, we talked about 8% of the business declining, which is Telecom and Exports. Fair to say that Exports will be around 5% of top line and Telecom around 3%. Will that be the breakup?

Avik Roy

Yes, Vinay, you are right in the ballpark. And, you know, which leads me to the question. 3% would also include a bit of E-Rickshaw business. Okay, because that brings me to my next question. When you look at next year on this core business, Exports will have volatility for the first half but will recover. So, then we should be actually quite set for a much better top line growth than this year, next year, right? Because I would like to believe the positive side is, Vinay, the baseline is now low for these businesses because we have declined. And next year, we have a strategy in place given gl

Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity. My first question will be on the commodity cost. Just wanted to get a sense around the extent of impact, what we are seeing in 4th Quarter and what sort of escalation is anticipated in the 1st Quarter of FY27 considering the initial comments. And continuation to the question is that what would be the extent of price hikes taken in the after-market and the expectation on further price hikes going ahead?

Avik Roy

Thank you. Thank you for the question. So, first question on the commodity situation. Our impact on material cost for Quarter 4 was roughly net-net impact was Rs. 150 crores, I would say, a negative impact. So, the gross margin, if you see, has come down by about 90 basis points. Though we have been able to improve our EBITDA but even if you see quarter-on-quarter movement, the gross margin has come down from, let's say, it was in Q3, it was 31.6 and in Q4, in the last quarter, it was 30.1. But despite that, we have been able to maintain our EBITDA sequentially at 11.7% because of our tight co

Yes, thanks for the opportunity, sir. Sir, first question is on this lithium-ion business. We have invested close to Rs. 4800 crores till now. How much investment do you see in the next one or two years going ahead in this business? And second is, I mean, when we have started the trials, when we sort of look at the commercial supplies, do you think the pricing will be at par with the imported or there can be some premium we can derive? And how should we think about the learning curve? Where are the yields? Do you expect that we may be in the normal sort of yield by Quarter 3 when we start or t

Avik Roy

So, let me take the first part of the question and then I will hand over to Pravin Saraf who is on the call to answer about pricing and yields. The first part is, Siddhartha, we have already got a Board approval and this has been announced in the past of investing Rs. 1400 crore in the Fiscal Year ‘27, which is a mix of both CAPEX as well as the OPEX working capital requirement which we have to fund. So, that's the number for FY ‘27. I think that should be sufficient for Phase-I. We will see how it works. Regarding our pricing strategy and yields, I will request Pravin to take over. Pravin. Ye

Thank you for taking my question. On the lithium-ion business, have you seen any revenue commitment over the past few months given the trial supplies have started or are supposed to start? So, when should the companies actually start seeing revenue accrued from the lithium-ion business and versus the plans, say, when you launched in 2022? I remember you had said around 27 to 30 months is the time it takes for operationalization. Where are you in that plan right now in lithium-ion business?

Avik Roy

I think, to bring clarity to the question, first one is what is your status of revenue flow? That's simple. So, far, we have been doing Pack business, which is around, let's say, Rs. 100 crores to Rs. 200 crores of Module and Pack businesses, which we were doing through imported cells. Now, we will be making cells. Now, regarding start of cell revenue rate, I think I already mentioned in the previous question, in the first question itself, that when is likely the revenue to start. And so, it will probably start with the LSP Prismatic Line because that product does not need so much of approvals

Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Sir, a couple of questions I wanted to check in terms of the commodity inflation. How much impact are you seeing currently?

Avik Roy

You have to repeat your question. I am afraid you are not very clear. Can you say that again? So, sir, I wanted to check in terms of commodity inflation?

Yes, there's some background noises coming in.

Vijay Pandey

Is it okay now? Yes, please. Yes, I wanted to check the commodity inflation of 4th Quarter and the 1st Quarter till date. So, what is the level of price increase you are seeing? This question we just answered a little back, I think, to Vinay Singh. If you read the transcript, I think we have mentioned it already. Sir, not about the price hike but the inflation. We have mentioned that as well. We have mentioned that as well. Exactly what was the impact on the material rate impact that we have mentioned. Okay. Yes. Okay. And secondly, the prismatic cell, so the customer validation will take arou

Yes, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I think this commodity question is quite important in the current context. If you can refresh, you know, that if you look at our bill of material, what are the ballpark big commodity, in terms of percentage exposure that we have, the top three-four commodities, whether it is lead, polymer, how much percentage of COGS it represents and for specific commodity, if you can talk about that, what is the near-term outlook that you are looking at?

Avik Roy

Okay. So, if you, let's see how much we can give you. I will give you both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year rises. I would recommend that for FY26 on a full year basis what is the breakup of our bill of material in terms of exposure to key big commodities? I think Aditya, perhaps this is a little not in public domain. All I can say is that our key components is lead, acid and plastic are mainly the bill of material items. This covers about 95%- 96%. Lead as an index has been softer year-on-year. But, in India, lead is sold, even recycled leads and pure leads are sold on import parity prices

So, if you can just help us understand that within the acid consumption, is it only sulfuric acid or other type of acid also that we use?

Avik Roy

No, it's sulfuric acid. Okay. That's it. That's the only question I had. Thank you so much.

Good afternoon. Viren Sameer Deshpande: The results have been quite decent in the current scenario and our dominance in the market share is really helping us. We are getting good results. And another important thing, to become the first Company in India to make this lithium-ion batteries will be a good feather in the cap. But as you rightly said, is the government likely to be significantly supportive to the companies with these benefits or incentives like PLI or any other incentives? Because otherwise, the imports are going to hurt with the Rupee depreciation. So, what is the status on that?

Avik Roy

So, imports are going to be expensive. That's what you meant? Viren Sameer Deshpande: Yes. So, precisely, there are two parts of it. One is, of course, government has to develop this industry and give a value for or give attention to a Make in India cell. And believe me, when I say manufacturing, it's electrode manufacturing. It's not importing complete electrodes and just assembling it as a cell and then supplying it. So, if government wants us to really integrate backward in manufacturing our own electrodes, sourcing our own anode and cathode material from within the country, they have to su

Yes. So, a couple of questions from my side. First, on the core lead-acid battery business, in the earlier comments, during the call, you mentioned that you are expecting mid-to-high single-digit growth to early double-digit growth. This you mentioned with respect to FY27. Do you think over the next three to four years, that should be the medium-term CAGR for your business?

Avik Roy

I think even in the medium-term CAGR, it should be. If you see, the five-year CAGR was 11%. And I don't see any reason for the next five-year CAGR to be different from that, (+/-1%) maybe. Because clearly, if you look at the OEM business today, which is for at least consecutive two quarters, as well as Q1 outlook of this year, the automotive OEM business is growing by, you know, (+20%) to (+25%). These are all going to get reflected in aftermarket after two years. Understood. Okay. And what is the UPS revenue mix for you right now in FY26? The UPS revenue would be, just a minute, it would be m

Sure, sure. It's a follow-up on that. Just last question on this.

Management

Yes, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. So, I just had a clarificatory question. So, if I heard right, you said that sulfuric acid prices have gone up from Rs. 15 per kg to Rs. 75 per kg.

Avik Roy

It's a sulfur price, not sulfuric acid. Sulfur price. Okay. Sorry. So, sulfur prices have gone up from Rs. 15 per kg to Rs. 75 per kg. You said this has happened since the start of the year. So, is this since January or this is since April? No, this is for one year. Gradual increase. Gradual increase, quarter-on-quarter. The baseline is Q1 of 2025. Four quarters. For the last one year? Trailing four quarters. Yes. Okay. And on a sequential basis, what will be the jump? Sequential basis in Q4, sulfur was (+40%) and quarter-on-quarter, sequential basis will be about 20%. April exit is higher tha

Yes. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. We would like to understand your thought process that you have invested Rs. 5,000 crores, will be investing another Rs. 1,000 crores and what sort of return metrics now looking at the raw material price and the demand and the availability. What's your internal projection on the return metrics and the margin metrics?

Avik Roy

So, sir, at the moment, we are completely focused on ramping up the production, as Pravin has mentioned. We do not know what will be the level of commodity prices when we commercialize our production. Today, lithium has again gone up by double digit in the last couple of months due to various supply-demand constraints. So, it's not proper for me to do a math based on assumptions on commodity prices because all those things will depend on that. What is good is that the customer has realized that lithium is also volatile. Today, last one year, lithium was dropping because there was high overcapa

So just, I was confused actually, you said 6 gigawatts, 3 is in NMC and 3 is in LFP cylindrical. NMC cylindrical, 3 in LFP this thing and then you said Hyundai is separate. So, what exactly do you mean by that?

Avik Roy

So, with Hyundai, we have a separate contract, which where there is a co-investment. So, we are delinking it with our own internal investment. So, that will be an incremental capacity over 6 gigawatts when we commission that. So that is not a part of that 6. So, when will that be commissioned? And is that a part of Rs. 4,800 crores that we have invested? No. So, that will make a disclosure when the time comes. Yes. But it's not a part of FY27. I am not commenting on that. This is still not in public. Could be, but I am not commenting on this because this is a material disclosure. Noted.

So, thank you, everybody, for the extremely engaging questions. We have been pretty confident of the quarter coming by because last consecutive two quarters were pretty satisfying, particularly after a weak Quarter 2. I think we have been able to deliver a growth which normally is in line with the expectation, both in top line and bottom line. And our April having gone, I think we also have a similar view on Quarter 1 of this year as well. I hope we have been able to answer all your questions satisfactorily. If you have any further questions, I mean, we would be very happy to be of assistance.

Management

Speaking time

Avik Roy

Moderator

Vijay Pandey

Suraj Chheda

Aditya Jhawar

Vinay Singh

Krupashankar Nj

Karan Kokane

Pravin Saraf

Arvind Sharma

Opening remarks

Aditya Jhawar

Yes, thank you. Good afternoon to you all. From Exide Industries, we have with us MD and CEO – Mr. Avik Roy, Director of Finance and CFO – Mr. Manoj Kumar Agarwal, Mr. Pravin Saraf – MD and CEO of Exide Energy Solutions, President (Legal & Corporate Affairs) and Company Secretary – Mr. Jitendra Kumar and Mr. Prashant Saraswat – Head of Investor Relations. Before we proceed, there is a disclaimer for the call: Few statements made by the Company's Management in the call may be forward-looking in nature and we request you to refer to the disclaimer in the Earnings Presentation for further details. We will start the call with brief opening remarks from the Management and followed by Q&A session. I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Avik Roy for opening remarks. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Avik Roy

Thank you, Aditya. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to you all to the Exide Earnings Call. Before taking you through the key highlights of our performance, I would like to talk about some of the macro and industrial drivers that shaped our operating environment in the last quarter: Globally, the West-Asia conflict continues to be an ongoing threat. With regard to availability and pricing of commodities such as LPG, sulfuric acid and plastics, the situation is quite alarming. Rapidly increasing commodity rates, coupled with rupee depreciation, continue to pressurize our input costs. But in contrast, the Indian demand situation remained favorable. Low inflation rates, low interest rates and the consequence of GST 2.0 Reforms increased end-consumers' affordability, especially in the second half of FY26. Rural India experienced strong broad-based revival as well, driven by rising income, upbeat sentiment and infrastructure development. Coming to the Company's perfor

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