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Subiect: Transcript

- of Mahindra CIE Automotive Ltd 02CY19 Results Conference Call

Dear Sir/Madam,

Pursuant to Regulation 30 read with Para A of Schedule I11 and Regulation 46(2) the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations ancl Disclosure Require~nents) Regulations, 2015 and our letter dated 16th July, 2019 in respect of Mahindra CIE Automotive Ltd Q2CY19 Results Conference Call on 22nd July, 2019, please find enclosed herewith transcript of the same.

The same is being uploaded on the website of the Company Izttr7://~i~-ci171). ~ ~ ~ n I l ~ l z i l ~ n c i e . ~ - ( ~ ~ ~ ~

Kindly acknowledge the receipt and take the same on the record.

Thanking you,

Company Secretary and Compliance Officer Membership No.: A 29614 Encl.: as above

Mahindra CIE Automotive Limited Cliu L27 100MH 1999PLC121285

“Mahindra CIE Limited Q2 CY2019 Results Conference Call”

July 22, 2019

ANALYST:

MR. NISHANT VASS – ICICI SECURITIES

MANAGEMENT: MR. ANDER ARENAZA ALVAREZ – CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER – MAHINDRA CIE LIMITED MR. K JAYAPRAKASH – CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER - MAHINDRA CIE LIMITED MR. VIKAS SINHA – SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT – STRATEGY – MAHINDRA CIE LIMITED MR. OROITZ LAFUENTE – BUSINESS CONTROLLER – MAHINDRA CIE LIMITED

Page 1 of 21

Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

Moderator:

Ladies and gentlemen good day and welcome to the Mahindra CIE Q2 CY2019 Results

Conference Call hosted by ICICI Securities. As a reminder all participant lines will be in

the listen-only 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 “*” then “0” on your touchtone phone. Please note that this

conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Nishant Vass from

ICICI Securities. Thank you and over to you Sir!

Nishant Vass:

Thanks Steven. Good day everyone and thanks for joining us for the call today. From the

management side, we are represented by Mr. Ander Arenaza Alvarez, CEO, Mr. K

Jayaprakash, the CFO, Mr. Vikas Sinha, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Mr. Oroitz

Lafuente, the Global Business Controller. Now I would like to hand over the call to the

management for their initial remarks. Over to you Sir!

Vikas Sinha:

This is Vikas. Good Afternoon to all of you and good morning to those who are joining

from Europe. I welcome all of you on this call as also Ander Arenaza, our CEO.

I will present MCIE results for the second quarter of CY19. This is also the first quarter

since Aurangabad Electricals acquisition and includes the AEL numbers.

Before starting with the results I would like to state that after a long time this has been an

exceptionally difficult quarter in terms of the market scenario, both in India as well as

Europe. In India, it was perhaps the worst quarter in two decades as far as market demand

goes. The June month has especially been harsh with a sudden and steep drop in growth

across all segments. Additionally, our customers have tried to reduce the inventory levels

closing factories during certain days. We too have been affected by this nosedive and

inventory correction in the market. That said, MCIE has always been striving to perform

better than the market and we are happy to state that we continue with that trend in this

quarter as well.

We start with India results on page 3, which show growth in Q2C19 in both revenue and

profits due to the AEL acquisition. The EBITDA margin for the India businesses in Q2C19

was 13.1%, the AEL acquisition reducing the consolidated margin. AEL recorded sales of

INR 2160mn and a EBITDA margin of 11.2%. MCIE India had reported an EBITDA

margin of 16.3% in Q1C19 but this included the financial income from the cash which had

been made ready for the AEL acquisition, without this one-time income the equivalent

EBITDA % was about 15%. The EBITDA has grown by -3% vs 2QCY18, EBIT by -17%

and EBT by -8%, margins being negatively affected by volume drop.

In Q2 C19 without AEL the drop in sales for MCIE India is 12% which is still better than

the fall in demand from our Key customers which fell by 15.2%. We have taken cognizance

Page 2 of 21

Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

of the tougher market condition and have an EBITDA margin recovery plan on going. We

are aligned to the market reality and cost adjustments are being done to current sales level.

The precipitous drop in June meant that we did not have enough time to make these

adjustments in this quarter. While we think that the next 2-3 quarters might be turbulent for

market demand in India, we still remain cautiously optimistic. This is based the normal

forecast for the monsoon this year, the festival season and the expected pre buying demand

from BS6 implementation.

On page 4, we have the results for MCIE India’s H1C19 performance which shows the

impact of the positive performance over 2 quarters. The revenue has grown to INR 17,172

Million. To be noted here is the fact that even without AEL there has been a sales drop of

just 4.8% despite the key market segments being worse. EBITDA margin in H1C19 was

14.6% and EBIT has stayed above our target at 10.4%. This includes the one time financial

income of Q1C19 explained earlier.

MCIE Europe results for Q2C19 are shown on page 5. Please note that the Q2C18 numbers

have been restated without Stokes. In Europe too, we have performed better than the

underlying market which has fallen by 7% for light vehicles and the commercial vehicle

market has seen degrowth as well. Sales have degrown by 3% vis a vis Q2C18 but all of

this is on account of exchange rate translation impact and the sales are flat in Euro terms.

There is drop in EBITDA margin compared to Q2C18. Pls bear in mind that the EBITDA

margin of Q2C18 was positively affected to the extent of 1% by the steel price increase

agreed to by customers and received from them retroactively from 1 Jan 2018. There was a

buildup of stock last year. Both these factors had pushed up the EBITDA margins in

Q2C18. We have however retained our EBITDA margins at 13.1% as compared Q1C19. In

absolute terms, EBITDA has grown -10% vs Q2C18, EBIT by -13% and EBT by -13%.

Going forward, we are concentrating on maintaining profitability levels in a falling market

scenario.

On page 6 we have the H1C19 results for MCIE Europe. There has been a 6% increase in

Sales vis-à-vis first half of C18. The EBITDA has grown by 2%, EBIT by 1% and EBT by

3%.

And now, if we go to slide 7, we will see the consolidated the Q2 C19 results which are a

combination of the tougher market condition evolution in both India and Europe and AEL

integration: 5% growth in sales, -7% growth in EBITDA, -15% growth in EBIT and -11%

growth in EBT when compared with same quarter of last year. Despite a fall in EBITDA

margin to 13.1%, the comparative EBIT has not fallen by that much and is at 9.0%.

On Slide 8, we have the H1 C19 consolidated results of MCIE which are a combination of

the positive first quarter evolution in both India and Europe and AEL integration in a

tougher second quarter. In H1C19 there was 7% growth in Sales, 2% in EBITDA and no

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

change in EBIT and EBT compared to H1C18. The point to be noted is that even without

AEL, sales in H1C19 has grown by 2% and EBIT% has been maintained at close to 10%

despite the tougher market environment.

Now we move to Slide 10 where we have disclosed the Balance sheet position for the half

year ended 30 Jun 2019. RONA is slightly lower at 14.1% due to the acquisition of AEL

but ROE has improved to 12.4%. Net Financial Debt/ EBITDA is also close to 1 despite the

cash outgo due to the acquisition. You will also notice from our SEBI results that there has

been strong cash generation despite negative market evolution.

In conclusion I would like to say that the market demand remains uncertain, but every mini

crisis is also an opportunity, as the adage goes. On the back of CIE’s proven business

model, MCIE will emerge a stronger company once the demand stabilizes. We are already

working to adapt our companies to the new scenario demonstrating our reactivity,

managerial speed and business resilience. We assure all our stakeholders MCIE continues to

remain calm in this turbulence. Thank you and now we proceed to Q&A.

Moderator:

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Ladies and

gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first

question is from the line of Yash Gupta from Prince Group. Please go ahead.

Yash Gupta:

Thank you for the opportunity Sir. Sir in the previous concall in the AGM, management

was confident about the growth in the European business then what suddenly happened in

the last three odd months that changed the complete scenario?

Ander A. Alvarez:

This is Ander Alvarez speaking. In Europe, we had this first quarter with a very strong

phase growth and in the second quarter there has been a slight reduction in the growth so

we had this flat quarter in 2019. The main reason of this flat quarter is coming from the

automotive passenger car reduction that is slight degrowth in the market of something like

5% to 6% is the reduction, but let us say the commercial vehicle market the drop has been

higher. That is the main reason of this reduction from Q1 to Q2.

Yash Gupta:

My second question is in the Indian auto business there is an overall slowdown in the Indian

auto business, as per your experience is there a permanent erosion of demand in India or it

is just a part of auto cycle?

Vikas Sinha:

This is Vikas here. At this stage we do not think that there is a structural change in the

demand as you are aware I think because of the impending BS-VI there is a whole lot of

inventory confusion that is there in the pipeline. Also OEMs are waiting to be closer to BS-

VI to introduce newer models plus there is the crisis on lending as we are aware so all of

these factors are contributing a lot to whatever is happening on the demand side. Once these

factors clear up we will see if there are any more structural factors, but as of now we do

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

think that these are the main reasons why the demand has come down and in the long term

and in the medium term I guess the demand will come back.

Yash Gupta:

We can say that in the next six months to a year it will be a more challenging time ahead?

Vikas Sinha:

As I said in my opening remarks I think two to three quarters of uncertain demand. of

course we have to factor in the Diwali season, which is coming so this will probably lead to

some recovery plus the pre-buying for BS-VI, so there could be factors, so all that we are

looking at is some uncertainty in the market, but let us see how it pans out. I have said in

my remarks we are trying to adjust our cost to whatever demand exists. In Q2 I think

between April, May and June, the June month was extremely difficult, so we did not have

enough time to adjust some of our costs, so maybe we will be able to handle our margins

much better going forward, but yes the market situation remains volatile for the next few

months.

Yash Gupta:

Last question on the financial part, the provision has been increased by around to be Rs.130

Crores and the debtors has also been increasing is there any change in the policy by the

company or this is the question on the quality of the debtors?

K Jayaprakash:

There is no significant increase in the provision.

Yash Gupta:

For CY2018 and CY2017 we see there is an increase in the provision of Rs.130 Crores?

K Jayaprakash:

No it is the same number. You are looking at the standalone balance sheet or the

consolidated balance sheet?

Yash Gupta:

Consolidated.

K Jayaprakash:

I am sorry I am not able to see, which line are you talking about?

Yash Gupta:

I will just collect the exact page number and will get back to you on the line.

K Jayaprakash:

Please tell me where are you seeing the provision.

Yash Gupta:

Sure. Thank you.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jinesh Gandhi from Motilal Oswal

Securities Limited. Please go ahead.

Jinesh Gandhi:

My question pertains to the India business, you indicated that you are working on EBITDA

margin recovery plan and corporate initiatives can you throw more light on that?

Page 5 of 21

Ander A. Alvarez:

Let us say that this market reduction has been deeper than expected in the last quarter

Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

mainly because of the inventory regulation done by our customers and factory shutdowns

during some days most of the customers they stopped production, so we are now adopting

our cost structure to the new situation, so we expect that in the next quarter we will

recuperate at least part of this margins that we lost in this quarter. This has been something I

would say that is normal to reduce margins when the volume goes down and we are now

adapting. We have this cost cutting activities already done in several units. All the units

they take a little bit more time to adjust, but we see that we will improve our margins in the

next quarter so let us say that yes the market is tough, margins have gone down slightly in

the last quarter, but we still are in a very calm situation because of the payment. We will

continue improving our margins in the next quarters. I am sure that the market will come

after this BS-VI implementation and let us say after the financial situation and the credit

situation in the market is corrected, so in the midterm we expect we are quite optimistic and

we will continue our growth strategy and let us say we are generating cash and ratios will

improve in the future.

Jinesh Gandhi:

When you are talking of adapting cost structure is it largely on manpower side or any other

cost areas also we are targeting to reduce in short term?

Ander A. Alvarez:

What we are talking about is mainly about the labour cost and the structural cost is clear,

but also we are adapting our structural cost and let us say overheads and so on in order to

improve our situation so we will use this time of let us say the drop or reduction to improve

our internal efficiencies also. You know that sometimes when you are growing you are not

focusing your efforts in the cost. Now as the market is going down we will focus our efforts

on the cost cutting and we will improve our efficiencies even more than in the past.

Jinesh Gandhi:

Understood and second question pertains again to India business particularly on Bill Forge

and Aurangabad Electric given that they have higher exposure to two wheelers how do you

see this increasing noise around electrification of particularly two wheelers and three

wheelers influencing business for Bill Forge and Aurangabad Electric what percentage of

their business comes from power train components?

Vikas Sinha:

Thanks Ander. As far as Bill Forge is concerned not much will be affected because they are

not into the power train side they are more into races and retainers of two wheelers Bill

Forge is a major player in that product category. As far as Aurangabad is concerned I think

15% to 20% is related to the power train, so that is the situation. It is not about what

percentage is going to be affected. I think the entire two wheeler industry is going to be

affected by that and what emerges we have to see. In fact the numbers as of now are not

much in terms in the market of 25 million vehicles I think you are talking about some lakhs

of electric two wheelers, most of these electric two wheelers have lead acid battery based so

we have to wait and watch as to how this changes and as I said as far as Bill Forge and AEL

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

are concerned it is not that big very purely in product category terms, but the entire industry

will get affected so we will really have to wait and watch at this stage.

Jinesh Gandhi:

Sure and there is a new opportunity open up particularly for Aurangabad Electric on

aluminum dye casting side because of electrification though they might not have products

right now, but technology becomes more relevant in electric vehicles?

Vikas Sinha:

We assume that will be the case because I think electrification would mean moving towards

more aluminum parts. That assumption is what we are also going along, those parts have to

be developed and then we will see how it goes.

Jinesh Gandhi:

Last question is on standalone P&L so if you look at standalone P&L our effective tax rate

has been about 37% in Q2 and about 36% plus in first half is a sustainable rate or there

were any one offs in this?

K Jayaprakash:

We are at 36% Jinesh and I think it will remain around that number with some

disallowances and all.

Jinesh Gandhi:

Understood great. Thanks. I will come back in queue.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Priya Ranjan from Antique Stock Broking.

Please go ahead.

Priya Ranjan:

Thanks for taking my question. One thing is on the commodity price reduction so is our

number reflected of the steel price drop or we have to still take price cut in future related to

the steel price drop?

K Jayaprakash:

Part of it has come in.

Priya Ranjan:

In terms of the growth outlook now there has been significant reduction in the European

truck market as you mentioned so how do we see it say going forward in say the current run

rate for third quarter in Europe for the commercial vehicle side?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Commercial vehicles in Europe are let us say reducing their percentage importantly in the

last quarter. I would say that after this drop in the last quarter it will remain more or less flat

to the end of the year that is what we see in our forecast, so this drop has happened in the

last quarter and we will remain at this level during the year. That is our expectation.

Priya Ranjan:

How much we can actually recuperate from say passenger side going up and as well as

Metalcastello the new orders, which we have bought probably in the last year, so I think the

ramp up will also be there so can we expect some kind of offset from that side?

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

Ander A. Alvarez:

Metalcastello got these new business last year and we were ramping up during 2018 and

also during the first quarter of 2019. Now we are at the top of this growth and we will have

a slight growth, but not much in the next couple of quarters and regarding the passenger

cars in the other business that we have in Europe we saw a slight reduction, but we will

keep let us say at the same level in the next quarter so we do not see further reductions

there.

Priya Ranjan:

Any thought on say Mexico ramp up how it is progressing both in terms of topline as well

as the margin challenges, which we have witnessed in the past?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Yes in Mexico we have seen certain growth in the last quarter, but we expect to continue

growing and regarding the margins yes we have already solved our operational issues and

margins are growing and we expect to finally have a standard margin situation in Mexico

by the end of the year.

Priya Ranjan:

With the market correction and valuations coming down can it open up another acquisition

opportunity in inorganic growth in India?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Let us say that we are always open to the inorganic growth and acquisitions so let us say

that after the integration of Aurangabad you saw that market where our cash generation

remains strong and we absorb it perfectly and our debt is only a little with higher than one

time EBITDA that means that our financial situation is very solid. So yes we are open for

new acquisitions in the next mid-term. Let us say that we do not expect in the very, very

short term to make any acquisition, but let us say in the mid-term I would say that yes we

are ready to open our portfolio and add something new.

Priya Ranjan:

Sure. Thanks. That is all from my side.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ujjwal Shah from Quest Investment

Advisors. Please go ahead.

Ujjwal Shah:

Thank you for taking my questions. Ander, just wanted your outlook on new piece

considering second half of the year going to see a lot of holiday season also coming in and

also wanted to know in 1Q we were expecting our CV business to do as good as they did in

1Q and 2Q so has there been order cancellations from CV OEMs and you just stated that

you expect CV to now stabilize at current level, how confident are we of achieving that kind

of a growth from CV side?

Vikas Sinha:

No Ujjwal, your question is for Europe or India?

Ujjwal Shah:

For Europe.

Vikas Sinha:

Okay.

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

Ujjwal Shah:

So for Europe in 1Q we were expecting our CV business performance,

Vikas Sinha:

So when you say 1Q you mean Q2 CY2019 for us?

Ujjwal Shah:

Yes.

Vikas Sinha:

Okay.

Ujjwal Shah:

So in the previous quarter we were expecting growth to be sustained in our 2Q?

Vikas Sinha:

Yes. So with your permission may I, rephrase the question?

Ujjwal Shah:

Sure, please go, thanks Sir.

Vikas Sinha:

So essentially what I gather is that in Q1 the CV business had grown and we were expecting

Q2 C2019 to show similar growth in the CV business, but unfortunately that has not

happened, so what is will this stabilize or will this further go down is that the question you

are asking, Ujjwal?

Ujjwal Shah:

Yes. Was it that there were order cancellations because we were confident of that growth,

so were there any order cancellations from OEMs, are we seeing some more pain on the CV

side is what I want to understand?

Ander A. Alvarez:

We have not had order cancellations from the customers in the commercial vehicle

business; it has been mainly just market drop from our customers, okay, so that has been the

reality in this quarter. For the next quarters we expect to stay at that same level and we do

not expect to have let us say further drop in the end of the year, okay that is the situation

where we are in this moment in Europe. In regard to the passenger car vehicle market we

saw a slight decrease also in this quarter and we expect to have this more or less this level

by the end of the year also, so we see that there has been a drop and then we do not see

further drop in the next quarter, let us see I mean this is depending on how the market is

deploying.

Moderator:

Sir the line for Mr Ander is disconnected.

Vikas Sinha:

Okay. So we will wait for him to come back till then let us go back and take other

questions.

Moderator:

Sure. Should I promote the next participant?

Vikas Sinha:

Yes.

Ujjwal Shah:

No I have a few more questions if I can.

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

Vikas Sinha:

So we will try and substitute for Ander in the meantime.

Ujjwal Shah:

No worries, no worries, Vikas, something on the India piece so what kind of growth or

degrowth did Bill Forge and AEL see during the quarter?

Vikas Sinha:

Of course AEL, there is nothing to compare with as far as the previous quarter is concerned,

but Bill Forge being more two wheeler and export dependent was there was hardly any

degrowth, it was mostly flat.

Ujjwal Shah:

Okay and even margins were sustained, do we see margin compression for Bill Forge as

well?

Vikas Sinha:

Aurangabad Electricals we have talked about the margin, we have given the margin

separately, Bill Forge is largely in the same range. There was some minor adjustment here

and there, but Bill Forge margins are stable.

Ujjwal Shah:

Okay and because we were expecting post our acquisition that we will try and expand AEL

margins considering the weak scenario right now, do we think margin expansion at AEL is

possible during next 6 to 12 months or we might have to wait for demand to revive and only

post that we can see margin expansion at AEL?

Vikas Sinha:

If Ander is back, I will let him answer that.

Moderator:

Yes Sir, he is connected.

Ander A. Alvarez:

I am here, sorry, the connection was lost. Regarding the Aurangabad Electrical margins, yes

we expect to have improvement in this margin in the next quarter, okay, we are working

already on that, we have the team supporting let us say the technical improvement from

Europe in Aurangabad, so we expect to slightly increase our margins slowly, so that is our

strategy to get the standard margins of our businesses in India, okay that is our main target.

Ujjwal Shah:

Sure and lastly Ander just wanted your outlook for Europe business margins, can it be

sustained at current levels or considering the tough market scenario there might be some hit

at margins as well?

Ander A. Alvarez:

No we do not expect to reduce the margins and I would say yes they are positive, I would

say that we should recuperate a little bit of margins that we lost in this drop, let us say

unexpected drop that happened so made it fast in the second quarter, okay, so we will adapt

to our cost structure to any situation and we expect to recuperate our margins. The volumes

and the kind of the equation regarding the volumes we think that the market is not clear yet

and we expect to be more or less flat in the next quarters but we expect some improvement

in the margins by the end of the year.

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

Ujjwal Shah:

Thank you so much for the answers. Thanks a lot.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jose Canovas from JB Capital Markets.

Please go ahead.

Jose Canovas:

Good morning and thank you for taking my questions. Actually most of them have already

been answered, so I would just have a brief followup on Europe, so you say weak

performance in Europe to what extent should it be explained by change in cycle of the

commercial vehicle and to what extent is it because the situation of some of your clients and

more specifically I would like to know how much has Daimler’s tight situation impacted

you and I do not know if you could provide the weight of Daimler in European sales?

Thank you very much.

Ander A Alvarez:

Okay let us say that Daimler is our main customer in the commercial vehicle business as we

have in Europe, it is not the main customer for the rest of the business so the main profit in

the European business is coming from the commercial vehicles clearly. The passenger car

drop little a bit, but not too much, the drop can be about 5% or something like that in the

passenger car market. The commercial vehicles dropped much more than that, okay, so in

the consolidated business in Europe Daimler can be something like 10% of our business so

it is not important, but in the commercial vehicle we have much more dependence on

Daimler. I would say that the drop in the commercial vehicle has been general not related to

one customer, much more in market situation market drops have been something general.

Jose Canovas:

Okay. Thank you very much.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Srinath Krishnan from Acacia Partners.

Please go ahead.

Srinath Krishnan:

Thanks a lot. I have a couple of questions for Mr. Ander. The first question was on the

stampings division. You know in your annual report you have mentioned about Rs.1000

Crores in size and I guess the dependency on Mahindra is also pretty high. You know what

is the strategy here for this division, three to five years out, I guess in terms of OEM

reducing Mahindra dependence or running down this business because I guess there is also

a requirement to have the plant close to OEM and do you plan to expand into newer

geographies in India?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Okay lets us say that in our stamping business in India we have dependence on Mahindra &

Mahindra that is clear we are working both in the SUVs within the Bolero and Scorpio

those are the main products we supply to Mahindra & Mahindra and then we have also a

big market in the tractor business with Mahindra & Mahindra base. The big drop we have in

this let us say last quarter in India it has been mainly coming from this stamping business as

you mentioned because in June for example Mahindra tractor production dropped by 60%. I

Page 11 of 21

Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

you would say that this is just an inventory regulation situation because we do not expect

market going so deep in the next month so we will probably have some recuperation there.

Having said that let us see that our strategy global is we are diversifying our customer

portfolio in India and also in the stamping business we are opening our customer portfolio

so we wanted to keep Mahindra as a customer and develop it if possible this is our reason

and relations are very good, but we are also opening new customers and we are in the last

stage of negotiations for big businesses with our customers and we expect to confirm those

businesses in the next quarter. So yes we are doing our diversification on job commercially

we are very active and we expect to succeed on that also in the next quarters.

Srinath Krishnan:

So it would mainly be around Pune and where the existing stamping plant locations are

right you know the customers who were close to your existing stamping locations?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Yes, we have been in Pune, we have been in Nasik, we have been in Zaheerabad, we have

been in Rudrapur, and we have been in Pantnagar, so yes are quite well expanded in India

and yes we should be close to our customers, but I do not think we have a lack of presence

in our stampings business line but we don’t have a presence in the Chennai area so this

could be a potential location for us if we got a new business from a customer located there.

Srinath Krishnan:

Okay and my second question was on MFE you have mentioned in the past even at the time

of acquisition of Mahindra that you wanted to rationalize your product portfolio to improve

the margins, a share in this business you are more into trucks and tractors where the modern

cycles are extremely long, how long do you think it would take further to know successfully

implement the strategy because you have reduced your employee count by more than 30%

since the acquisition, reduced your other expenditure, use presses more effectively, you

have done multiple things, but I guess your margins are still below what you had guided so

how long would this product rationalization strategy take?

Ander A Alvarez:

Okay let us say what in the last year in Indian rationalization and it is true that in this

commercial vehicle business with heavy parts with low volumes coming from the

commercial vehicles the weight of the labor cost in the P&L is very high so Germany is a

let us say complex and non competitive country to produce this kind of products so we are

improving our cost structure, we are working a lot in order to get rationalize this present

portfolio and eliminating the less profitable products and consolidating the business in the

current three plants. We closed one plant in 2015-2016 which was the Jeco plant and let us

say that we are continuously working in this organisation. The point is that we are

improving our internal efficiencies, we have reduced our quality reductions, we have

improved our delivery ratios with the customers and we are working very hard in order to

improve our internal efficiencies to continue improving our margins. This quarter has been

a little bit challenging for us because of the drop now we need to adapt again let us say in

the midterm, we will continue having a profitable business also okay that is our main

challenge in Europe let us say the rest of the businesses in Europe are performing very well.

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

The MFE has weaker business there and we are trying to organize and rationalize the

business in order to make it more profitable so that is our challenge and that is where we are

now putting our overall efforts.

Srinath Krishnan:

Okay, Thanks a lot.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shyam Sundar Sriram from Sundaram

Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Shyam Sundar Sriram: Thanks for the opportunity Sir. My question is on the India growth. In the past India

business has grown much stronger than the underlying production, this quarter we have

seen a sharp decline if we exclude the AEL acquisition, I understand tractor business has

been major factor for degrowth, which you also explained in the prior questions so other

than that how we excluding tractor if you look at the other parts of the business PV and the

LCV businesses how they performed with respect to the underlying production trends, are

they weaker than, have we lost any business here in the recent past?

Vikas Sinha:

Shyam we have lost no business. As you are rightly pointing out I think the tractor business

was particularly difficult in the last month, frankly all segments were bad and the tractor

business was very bad that is the only thing that I can say and if you look at April, May,

June trends, the June was like, you just fell off a cliff that was the kind of growth pattern

that we saw and that is why you are seeing we will not able to adjust some of our costs, so I

do not think it was related to our losing any customer, we must know customer in fact as I

pointed out in my initial remarks if you look at our weighted average customer portfolio we

have actually grown like we are better off, I think we are still degrown, but we have

degrown much less than what the weighted average customer portfolio has degrown by

because there have been some small additions here and there in terms of customers as well

as products, which we have talked about in the past so the situation is completely related to

the market and there is absolutely no relation to our loss anywhere.

Shyam Sundar Sriram:

If you can also help us understand how are the current capacity utilizations in India between

forging, stampings, castings, just some broad ballpark numbers?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Our capacity utilization can be now at 70% more or less and let us say that we have the

capacity ready or then make jump that will come for sure in the next, I would say that is not

in the next one or two quarters because let us say we do not see very clear market situation

now, but once the BS-VI effect is already absorbed by the market we will see that the

Indian market will come back to their growth rate that it has been in the past, let us say that

we are ready, we are preparing our sales, we are improving internal efficiencies, we will use

the strength to improve our cost structure so we expect to come back to the market even

stronger than we were in the past

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Shyam Sundar Sriram: Right and Ander when you mentioned capacity utilization at 70%, the stamping business be

at a lower utilization currently?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Yes. In the gasoline we have also now let us say we have big capacity available because of

the drop in the market; however, let us say that we are now recuperating a part of the

business and we had been awarded for the certain additional businesses so we expect to

recuperate this big capacity again and in fact we are planning to make an improvement in

our lines in order to increase our capacity for the future so that the strategy where we have

investment plans already ready to let us say accomplish in the beginning of next year.

Shyam Sundar Sriram: Okay and on new stamping plant in Kanhe, have we started commercial production any

order wins for that plant?

Ander A. Alvarez:

No, we have not started the production yet, we expect to do it in the last quarter or this year,

yes we are now in the last stage, everything is almost ready, now we are finishing the

automation and we expect by the end of year to be ready to start production and to make

formal inauguration of the plant.

Shyam Sundar Sriram: Sure thanks that helps. In Europe you mentioned that the CV business has been impacted

how has been so within the passenger vehicle you also mentioned that we have seen a slight

degrowth if you can which customer has seen a worst impact from our passenger vehicle

perspective in Europe for us?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Regarding the passenger vehicle, let us say that the decent growth has been about 5%

between more or less the average, in certain customers we saw a little bit higher decline

than this 5%, but overall we have seen that the drop will be approximately 5% as an

average. It is true that certain customers have dropped a little bit higher than that and let us

say that it is not a special or particular customer that is dropping higher than the others, I

will say that more or less the average market drop.

Shyam Sundar Sriram: Okay because in Europe also because aided by the new Lithuania VW order we were doing

better than the underlying markets and now we have started doing more or less in line with

the market trends if I were to read from your statements, what factors is contributing to this

growth more or less in line the market trends that you are seeing in Europe?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Sorry I did not catch you.

Shyam Sundar Sriram:

In Europe also on the passenger vehicle side we were growing better than the underlying

market also aided by the new Lithuania VW order now as per your statements we seemed to

be growing broadly in line with the market what has led to this in line performance vis-à-vis

outperformance that we saw earlier?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Vikas can you help me?

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Vikas Sinha:

Like Ander the question, Shyam if I can rephrase with your permission, I think the question

being asked is we were growing faster in the market because of the Lithuania and the

Metalcastello order and it was expected to continue for some time, so is that ended and now

we will track the market or is there something more to it.

Ander A. Alvarez:

In Metalcastello we have been growing more than the market due to the new orders, but

now we are at the market situation, which are at the peak of these programs so we will

continue now the market evolution and regarding the Lithuania, we have been growing also

with the new orders and we expect we still have some room for growth there, but what we

have been offset is because of some reduction in our lead acid plants with some customers

dropping more than the market so Lithuania is still doing well, now if you know that we are

close to taking the new orders and in the next quarters yes we effectively in line with the

market perhaps a little bit better than the market.

Shyam Sundar Sriram: Okay understood and on the RDE norms that are going to come in Europe, do we see any

inventory reduction that can happen going into the next quarter or so?

Ander A. Alvarez:

No let us see in the next quarter at least in the planning coming from our customers let us

say that we will see quite a stable situation now, except in Europe we have this summer

holiday where we have approximately two weeks off in most of our customers so it will be

more or less let us say the same trend of the previous quarter, we do not see any inventory

reduction as we saw in India, at least in our product they are not reflected.

Shyam Sundar Sriram: Okay thanks. Just one last housekeeping question if I may, you mentioned India capacity

utilization was 70% broadly how was that last year just to compare on YoY basis and if you

can give some utilization levels in Europe as well? Thanks

Ander A. Alvarez:

In India let me give the clarification that it is completely different from one business to

another, but our previous capacity situation was I would say that we were close to 85%,

90% that was where we were previously now we have this drop and this additional capacity

in India and we will need to take into account we have been investing and we have been

adding additional capacity to cope with the respected growth that we were planning, so with

capacity increase is there so in near future we expect to fulfill those capacities and regarding

Europe let us say that in Europe we also got different situation depending on the plants, but

we can be approximately 10% of the capacity utilization, so in our German Forges in the

last year and in the first quarter 2019 we were fully working in weekends and now we have

eliminated all these extra overtime and now we are approximately with the current level we

are 100% of our capacity, so in Germany we do not see any capacity pressure right now

either and in rest of the business we may be 85% those capacity levels that we are quite

comfortable with.

Shyam Sundar Sriram: Thank you very much. That is it from my side.

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mahesh Bendre from Karvy Stock

Broking. Please go ahead.

Mahesh Bendre:

Thank you for the opportunity. First question, are you surprised by the current slowdown in

terms of intensity in auto industry?

Vikas Sinha:

The answer is yes.

Mahesh Bendre:

Sir because of this uncertainty and Indian city slowdown is, have we cut down any of the

plant regarding the capital expenditure or expansion plans over the next two years?

Vikas Sinha:

Capex for the next two years has it been affected by the slowdown?

K Jayaprakash:

Of course we are being more careful with whatever decisions we are taking, but wherever

new programs are coming we are going ahead with it.

Mahesh Bendre:

So what is the capital expenditure plan for next 18 months?

K Jayaprakash:

Will be around 4 to 5%.

Mahesh Bendre:

4 to 5% of consolidated assets?

K Jayaprakash:

Yes.

Mahesh Bendre:

Second part of the question is that because of this slowdown do you anticipate any change

in the cash generation for company because we generate a lot of operating cash both from

domestic and international business, so do you see any challenges on that front?

K Jayaprakash:

This quarter the first half has been good, looking forward with your question is if I see any

stress on the receivables front with good customer base I do not really see beyond a couple

of days maybe, but not really affecting our good cash generation.

Mahesh Bendre:

Sure. Last question we have been acquiring companies for the last two years so will we able

to hold on because of the current slowdown and will we continue to our strategy with

inorganic route or just we will hold on for some time to get established in the market?

Vikash Sinha:

Mahesh, as Ander pointed out the inorganic strategy is also a part of our strategy, but we

have made two acquisitions in 2016 and we are extremely careful with the acquisitions that

we make, so we may keep on evaluating, but the final decision will be based on whether it

fits in with our long-term goals or not, so yes we will keep looking, but as JP pointed out

we are being very careful with capex, we will also be very careful with the inorganic capex

if I may say so.

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

Mahesh Bendre:

Last question just housekeeping question, is it possible to what kind of contribution came

from Mahindra for this quarter end of sales and what kind of sales contribution on two

wheeler and four wheeler, passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle for domestic sales,

breakup of sales?

Vikash Sinha:

We have not done the exact calculations around that, but even including AEL I think M&M

continues to be a single largest customer close to third or maybe anywhere between third

and fourth of our India revenues. As far as dependence on different segments is concerned

in terms of rough dependence of course now the passenger vehicles and two wheeler

segments are now larger segments, passenger vehicles used to be close to 50%, but that is

after AEL acquisition has come down a bit, so between passenger vehicles and two

wheelers I think we may be close to 60% of revenues in India. These are rough numbers,

but since we have not made the exact calculation I think these are the rough pointers that is

what we will talk about.

Mahesh Bendre:

Passenger vehicle will be about 40% approximately and two-wheeler will be 20%?

Vikash Sinha:

We will have to see, but yes passenger vehicles will be larger than two wheelers.

Mahesh Bendre:

Thank you Sir.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil Kale from Axis Capital. Please go

ahead.

Nikhil Kale:

Thank you for taking my question. Just one question, we were just talking about the two

wheeler side, so just wanted to understand you talked about inventory reduction by your

customers, so what it to understand if it has also happened on the two wheeler side because

the data that we are getting say the inventory at the dealer location that has been

consistently rising for the two wheelers, so just wanted to know if there is a chance that the

reduction that you have seen at PVs could also occur for two wheelers in the coming

months, which could be a downside to your margin improvement plan?

Vikas Sinha:

Nikhil you are absolutely right. If you look at the latest FADA release, of course the two

wheeler inventory pipeline is much larger, I think we are talking about 55 to 60 days

compared to about 30 to 35 days as far as four wheelers is concerned, but it could reflect

greater stability in two wheeler demand. Essentially two wheeler has been the most stable of

all the segments if you look across any segment be it passenger vehicles, LCV, M&HCV,

tractors, three wheelers, I think two wheeler has been the most stable segment. I think what

we would like to think is that this reflects the stability in the demand more than a risk for

inventory reduction going forward, but nothing can be said for surety.

Nikhil Kale:

Okay, thank you. That is it from my side.

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil Vaishnav from ED Investments.

Please go ahead.

Nikhil Vaishnav:

I have just three questions. Firstly, what is the miscellaneous income of 21 Crores in other

income for the year CY2018?

K Jayaprakash:

We had this money, which we brought in from Europe, so out of 21 Crores it would be

around 8 to 9 Crores.

Nikhil Vaishnav:

Okay, any new customer added in this quarter?

K Jayaprakash:

Yes. We have Kia, which is added in India. I think for this quarter that is what it would be.

Nikhil Vaishnav:

Lastly, any more improvement in Stokes business, what are the guidelines for like

realization of assets?

K Jayaprakash:

In Stokes, all the provisions have been booked last year, so there will be no further loss to

be accounted for. There will be some marginal income that could come.

Nikhil Vaishnav:

Okay Sir. Thank you.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saji John from Geojit Financial Services

Limited. Please go ahead.

Saji John:

I got one question. I just wanted to know like what is you are getting for the pre-buying

going to happen from OEM side, so is there is any demand pickup or maybe because if I see

that almost the inventory is around the elevated side, so could you please share some

information on that?

Vikas Sinha:

Hi Saji that is a million dollar question that you have asked. I think at this stage nobody is

talking about anything which is two to three months down the line. I think all OEMs are

focused on meeting the current challenges, so we cannot say anything definitively, but the

festival season is also around the corner, so we hope that things will pick up, but you know

definitively it is difficult to say anything at this stage.

Saji John:

Thank you.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bharat Sheth from Quest Investment.

Please go ahead.

Bharat Sheth:

Good afternoon Ander and Vikas. My question is related to AEL, so can you give some

kind of perspective or your vision on this AEL from three years perceptive and the capex

how do we want to grow this business apart from catering to domestic India as well as from

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

export perceptive and what kind of a margin that you would like to see for this AEL over

the next three years?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Currently the main customer is two wheeler and main customers are domestic in India with

approximately 10% to 15% export rate. Our strategy in the Aurangabad Electrical is to grow

the business especially for the passenger vehicle business. We would like to enter into the

kind of products for passenger car, four wheeler business products that we produce in

Europe and enter into these products in India, so this is one growth strategy. Of course we

want to continue growing the two wheeler business where we are strong and we are seeing

that we have room for growth there and we diversify in the two-wheeler customers we have

already identified in India and finally we have a strong opportunity to grow with the export.

We are now exporting a big chunk of our business to Germany and we have been awarded

with several new programs in the last quarter and we will continue growing in the export

rate where we will have a little bit better margins than in India. Overall, the current

EBITDA margin is about 11.2% and our strategy to go to the minimum to the average that

we have in India that is about 15%. This is our short midterm strategy to improve the

margins in Aurangabad Electricals.

Bharat Sheth:

Second thing to grow this for export market, how much capex we need to do and whether

the export market will be for HPDC or gray casting?

Ander A. Alvarez:

Aurangabad Electricals is all aluminum. So we have two technologies, high pressure die

casting and gravity die casting and the growth we are expecting with the high pressure die

casting. HPDC is where we will grow and this is the technology where we are adding

capacity. We are adding capacity in injection machines and also in machining capabilities

that we are increasing. We will invest and we will plan our capex according to the new

products that we receive. Mainly the strategy is to increase the size of our injection

machines where we are now working what we call in the small size range and we want to

go up to deliver medium higher range where we have in our what are due for the confirmed

actions.

Bharat Sheth:

Then what kind of a capex plan that we have for AEL?

Ander A. Alvarez:

In average, in all India, we have to get 5% of our sales and in AEL it is slightly higher

because the growth rate that we expect is higher than the rest of the businesses. So I would

say our capex is approximately 10% of the sales, but I cannot give you right now the figure.

You can count on 10% of our sales.

Bharat Sheth:

Okay, all the best Sir. Thank you.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil Vaishnav from ED Investments.

Please go ahead.

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

Nikhil Vaishnav:

Same followup question on the miscellaneous income. Miscellaneous income is of 21

Crores in other income for CY2018 and you are saying that Europe is around 8 to 9, what is

the component of the income in this miscellaneous income?

K Jayaprakash:

As I told you we had last year and even in the first quarter the money came to India, so it

has been India actually.

Nikhil Vaishnav:

No Sir, but basically if you are saying that if the financial debt goes into the other income,

not the miscellaneous income?

K Jayaprakash:

Where are you seeing this miscellaneous income, you are looking at the annual report of

last year?

Nikhil Vaishnav:

Yes, page number 161. Point number 26, last line 210 million.

K Jayaprakash:

Which page are you referring to?

Nikhil Vaishnav:

161.

Vikas Sinha:

Which point?

Nikhil Vaishnav:

Point number 26, other income. In that other income miscellaneous income of 210 million.

K Jayaprakash:

Okay, let me just check this and come back to you Nikhil.

Nikhil Vaishnav:

Okay sure Sir.

K Jayaprakash:

There are various components, so let me just pick up the major ones and then get back.

Nikhil Vaishnav:

Okay, thank you.

Vikas Sinha:

Nikhil can you send us an e-mail around this, sinha.vikas@mahindracie.com please.

Nikhil Vaishnav:

Okay sure Sir, I will do that.

Moderator:

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shyam Sundar from Sundaram Mutual

Fund. Please go ahead.

Shyam Sundar:

You mentioned Kia production has started which product categories are we supplying them,

is it the cranks or if you can give some colour on that?

K Jayaprakash:

Cast crankshafts.

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Mahindra CIE Limited July 22, 2019

Shyam Sundar:

Okay, got it. Sir other point on stocks we were planning to ship about two presses to India

and supply from there, has there been any progress on that front?

Ander A. Alvarez:

The presses are being disassembled in UK and transferred to India and in the meanwhile we

have already started supply for Jaguar Land Rover from our Bill Forge plant in Bengaluru.

This plant is working properly and we are making this transfer according to our plans.

Shyam Sundar:

Sir, one more question. We were planning to integrate Brazil, Mexico and China plants into

the Mahindra CIE fold, what is the progress on that and how do you see that happening over

the next year or so?

Ander A. Alvarez:

This is our strategic movement that is now in our minds and we plan to do that in the next

quarters. Let us say that our idea remains the same, so we plan to integrate Mexican

Forging, Brazilian forging plant and Chinese forging plant let us say three factories into

Mahindra CIE within the next, I would say our next strategic plan we will show this

integration, so I cannot give an exact date because it is something that we need to agree

with the shareholders and then this needs to be done properly, but we plan to do that in the

next strategic period.

Shyam Sundar:

Okay got it Sir. Thank you. That is it from my side.

Moderator:

Thank you. As there are no further questions, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of ICICI

Securities that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now

disconnect your lines.

Note: This statement has been edited to ensure quality

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