The company has conducted a conference call on 30^th July 2018 to discuss the financial performance for the first quarter ended June 2018 and way forward. Mr. Jamshed Naval Cooper –Managing Director and Mr. Anil Sharma –Chief Financial Officer of the Company addressed the conference call.

Key highlights

• As on 30 June 2018, all India installed cement capacity of ~475 mt. Cement Industry reported production volume growth of 8.7% in last twelve months. Part of the growth was also driven by low base due to demonetization. During the same period, the Company reported sales volume growth of more than 10%. Cement prices in the central region have remained flattish in July 2018 as compared to average of Q1FY19.

• The company reported 219% incline in net profit to Rs 51.10 crore on the back of 22% growth in top-line to Rs 540.20 crore in Q1FY19.

• The company sales volume inclined 15% to 12.70 lakh tonne in Q1FY19 and EBITDA increased 55% to Rs 942 per tonne, driven by robust cement demand especially in rural central India. The company higher volume growth and as well higher capacity utilization led to higher EBIDTA growth. The company's trade-nontrade mix in Q1FY19 was 83:17.

• The company operated at around 92% capacity utilization. The company continues to maintain its stance that it still has 3 years of headroom to manage its volume at 7% industry growth, they can produce additional cement without having to put extra capacities by just doing some de-bottlenecking activities and new capacity addition will be through Greenfield or inorganic route.

• The company incurred a maintenance shutdown cost of ~Rs 4-5 crore in Q1FY19. The Company expects maintenance capex of Rs 50 crore in FY19.

• The rail-road mix for the quarter was 55:45.The Company expects extra loading led by new notification to aid industry to save merely ~Rs10/tonne. Lead distance stood at 365kms against 355kms in 4QFY18.

• The company power and fuel per tonne was lower in Q1FY19, mainly due to 17% YoY rise in WHR generation (20% of total power need); and 25 years PPA for solar power for Karnataka plant, which meets 50% of total power need of this plant and was sourced at a discount of 30-35% from grid price, partially offset by spike in Petcoke and Packaging cost. The Company plans to replicate Karnataka plant model (PPA for renewable energy) in Damoh unit as not any sign of further improvement in power efficiencies (at 73 units/tonne to clinker).

• The Company freight cost increased due to increase in road freight cost primarily driven by increase in diesel prices.

• The Company has repaid Rs 75 crore as first tranche of their ECB loan and another Rs 75 crore will be repaid in Q2FY19. Net Debt as on 30th June 2018 was Rs. 337 crore as against Rs 400 crore as on 31st March 2018.