Management Participants

The call was moderated by Aditya Jhawar from Investec Capital. Exide management participants included:

  • Mr. Avik Roy – Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
  • Mr. Manoj Kumar Agarwal – Director Finance and Chief Financial Officer
  • Mr. Jitendra Kumar – President, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Company Secretary
  • Mr. Prashant Saraswat – Head, Investor Relations

Q1 FY27 Financial Performance (Standalone)

  • Revenue Growth: 17.6% year-on-year
  • EBITDA: INR 655 crores, up 19.5% YoY
  • EBITDA Margin: 12.4%, expanding by 20 basis points YoY and ~70 basis points sequentially
  • Profitability Drivers: Higher revenues, cost control through cost excellence program, and efficient supply chain
  • Balance Sheet: Remains strong, debt-free, with healthy operating cash flows

Business Segment Performance

Growth was broad-based across major businesses with double-digit growth in:

  • Automotive OEM: Third consecutive quarter of 25% YoY growth (on a low base)
  • Home Inverters & Solar: Over 20% YoY growth, with solar achieving its highest ever quarterly revenue of INR 400+ crores
  • Industrial Infrastructure (ex-telecom): Double-digit growth supported by industrial UPS and traction business
  • Exports: Grew by 20%+ on revenues after 5 consecutive quarters of decline
  • Government Tenders: Remained muted during the quarter but expected to pick up in second half

Operational Environment

  • Demand Environment: Supportive with improved affordability and consumer sentiment following GST rationalization in H2 last year. Positive sentiment in both rural and urban markets with robust replacement market demand.
  • Cost Environment: Challenging with elevated input costs due to disruptions in West Asia and adverse currency movement. Lead LME prices in USD remained range-bound, but adverse Rupee movement against USD pressured costs. The company took calibrated price adjustments of 4-6% across categories to partially offset impact.

Lithium-ion Giga Factory Update (Bangalore)

  • Progress: Equipment across all 4 production lines delivered and installed. Utility fully operational.
  • Milestones: First NMC cylindrical line commenced customer sample deliveries (first locally manufactured cells). LFP prismatic line started sample supplies for 3-wheeler and telecom applications.
  • Certifications: Completed key certifications and testing requirements, including multiple BIS standards registrations.
  • Investment: Cumulative investment in Exide Energy Solutions Limited stood at INR 4,902 crores as of 31st July 2026, including INR 100 crores invested in July.
  • Revenue Expectation: Revenue contribution expected to commence during FY27.
  • Capacity: Phase 1 capacity of 6 GWh with provision to expand to 12 GWh.
  • FY27 Capex: Board approved INR 1,400 crores for FY27, with INR 100 crores already invested in July.
  • Utilization Target: 25-30% utilization expected in first year of operation.

Market Strategy & Demand Outlook

  • Customer Engagement: Talking to all major OEMs (legacy and new). Three OEMs that represent 80-85% of Indian EV market volume are in homologation process.
  • Product Applications:
  • Line 1 (NMC): 2-wheeler applications
  • Line 3 (LFP): 3-wheeler, telecom, and stationary storage
  • Line 4 (LFP): 4-wheeler applications (commissioning by end of FY27)
  • Demand Assessment: No demand-side issues seen as market already exists with imported cells. Focus on replacing imported cells with Indian cells.
  • Pricing Environment: Monitoring Chinese export VAT reduction from 9% to 6% (to be removed from 1st January 2027) and increased Chinese domestic EV production capacity utilization.

Raw Material Sourcing & Localization

  • Current Sourcing: Raw materials still imported, primarily from China.
  • Localization Roadmap: Target of 50-60% bill of material localized in next 2-3 years. In discussions with multiple Indian companies for raw material sourcing.
  • Export Controls: Chinese export control announcements (effective November) don't cover raw materials yet but may require higher inventory levels.

Technology Development

  • Current Status: Licensed 4-5 products from technology partners.
  • R&D Investment: 100+ R&D engineers in Bangalore with pilot plant expected by end of calendar year.
  • Future Strategy: Developing own know-how on other cell formats through pilot line to reduce dependency on technology transfers.

Core Business Capacity & Strategy

  • Lead Acid Business: Annual capital allocation of ~INR 500 crores for manufacturing technology, automation, and capacity expansion.
  • Capacity Utilization: Five 4-wheeler battery factories with headroom for brownfield expansion through debottlenecking.

Additional Business Insights

  • Home Inverter Business: Contributes 15-25% of revenue with seasonal patterns (Q1 is typically strongest due to summer demand).
  • Lithium Battery Assembly Business (FY26): Revenue of ~INR 100-200 crores, not profitable due to low value addition with imported cells.
  • Pack Capacity: Current in-house pack making capacity of 1.5 GWh, with plans to augment through ecosystem partner model.

Regulatory & Policy Environment

  • PLI Scheme: Government opened up 10 GWh for reapplication. Company studying fine print conditions but has already set up 6 GWh without PLI support.
  • Import Duty: Currently 5% for lithium-ion cells. Expectation that government may implement approved list of cell manufacturers (similar to solar) once domestic capacity reaches 15-18 GWh.