Carborundum Universal Ltd. — Call Transcript 2026

Feb 4, 2026

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4[th] February 2026

BSE Limited 25[th] Floor, Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers Dalal Street, Fort Mumbai- 400001

Stock Code: 513375

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. Exchange Plaza, C-1, Block G, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (E) Mumbai – 400 051

Stock Code: CARBORUNIV

Dear Sir/Madam,

Sub: Transcript of the Investor Call

Pursuant to our letter dated 30[th] January 2026 informing the upload of audio recording of the investor call, please find enclosed a copy of the transcript of the Investor call and the same can be accessed through the following link.

Link: https://www.cumi-murugappa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/CUMI-Q3FY26Earnings-Call-Transcript.pdf

Request you to kindly take the above on record.

Thanking you

Yours faithfully

For Carborundum Universal Limited

Rekha Rekha Surendhiran Surendhir 2026.02.04 19:39:17 +05'30'

an

Rekha Surendhiran Company Secretary

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“Carborundum Universal Limited

Q3 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call”

January 30, 2026

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• MANAGEMENT

– – R. SRIDHARAN RANGARAJAN MANAGING DIRECTOR CARBORUNDUM UNIVERSAL LIMITED – – MR. G. CHANDRAMOULI ADVISOR, INVESTOR RELATIONS CARBORUNDUM UNIVERSAL LIMITED

– MODERATOR: MR. KUNAL SHAH DAM CAPITAL ADVISORS LIMITED

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Moderator:

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Carborundum Universal Q3 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by DAM Capital Advisors Limited. As a reminder, all participants' line will be in listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Kunal Shah from DAM Capital Advisors. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Kunal Shah:

Yes, welcome to the Quarter 3 of FY26 earnings call of Carborundum Universal Limited. From the management side today, we have Mr. Sridharan Rangarajan, the Managing Director and Mr. G. Chandramouli, the Advisor. At this point, I would like to hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks, post which we can take up the Q&A. Thanks, and over to you, sir.

G. Chandramouli:

Good morning. I'm Chandramouli. Let us start the proceeding with a disclaimer clause. During the call, we may make certain statements which reflect our outlook for the future or which could be construed as forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are associated with uncertainties and risks are more fully detailed in our annual report, which may cause the actual results to differ. Hence, these statements must be reviewed in conjunction with the risk that the company faces. Thank you.

Sridharan Rangarajan:

Good morning to all of you and Happy New Year to all of you. A warm welcome to our third quarter earnings call for the FY '26. Thank you for joining us today. So, we'll begin this call by providing an overview and then followed up by Q&A. On a stand-alone basis, sales in Q3 FY '26 was INR769 crores compared to INR712 crores in Q2 FY '26. This is a growth of 7.9%. Ceramic grew by 11.9% from INR228 crores in Q2 FY '26 to INR255 crores in Q3 FY '26. Electrominerals grew by 7.9% from INR213 crores in Q2 FY '26 to INR229 crores in Q3 FY '26. Abrasives grew by 4.9% from INR308 crores in Q2 FY '26 to INR323 crores in Q3 FY '26.

Standalone sales in Q3 FY '26 was INR769 crores compared to INR728 crores in Q3 FY '25. It's a growth of 5.6%. Abrasives grew by 9.8%, Electrominerals grew by 8.9%. Ceramics dropped by 3.8%. On YTD 9 months basis, standalone sales was INR2,179 crores compared to INR2,097 crores for the same period last year. This is a growth of 3.9%. Electrominerals grew by 7.3%, Ceramics grew by 1.7% and Abrasive grew by 1.3%.

At the standalone level, PBIT of Q3 FY '26 grew by 32% compared to INR87 crores in Q2 FY '26. The PBIT for Q3 FY '26 was INR115 crores compared to INR110 crores in Q3 FY '25. This is a growth of 5.3%.

Standalone PBIT margin increased sequentially from 12.2% in Q2 FY26 to 15% in Q3 FY26. This when compared to Q3 FY '25, is almost flat. At YTD 9 months level, Standalone PBIT was INR369 crores compared to INR344 crores and a growth of 7.1%. PBIT margin increased from 16.4% in FY '25 to 16.9% in FY '26.

Standalone profit after tax for Q3 FY '26 was INR85 crores compared to INR64 crores in Q2 FY '26. This is an increase of 31% on a sequential basis. Compared to INR81 crores in Q3 FY '25, this is an increase of 4.9%. Profit margins in Q3 FY '26 was 6% compared to 2.8% in Q3 FY '25 and 5.8% in Q2 FY '26.

At the 9 months level, standalone profit after tax in FY26 was INR294 crores compared to INR260 crores in the same period last year. This marks an increase of 12.9%. At the YTD 9 months level PAT margin in FY '26 was 13.5% compared to 12.4% in the same period last year.

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Moving to the consolidated results. On a YTD 9 months basis, consolidated sales was INR 3,766 crores compared to INR3,635 crores in the 9 months of FY '25. This marks a 3.6% growth. Ceramics grew by 6.1%, Abrasives grew by 2.4% and Electrominerals was almost flat. Consolidated sales in Q3 FY '26 was INR1,273 crores compared to INR1,241 crores in Q3 FY '25. This marks a growth of 2.5%. Abrasives grew by 8.1% and Ceramics was almost flat. Electrominerals dropped by 3.6%.

On a sequential basis, consolidated sales in Q3 FY '26 was INR1,273 crores compared to INR1,287 crores in Q2 FY '26. This has marked a drop of 1.1%. Ceramic grew by 4.7%. Electrominerals grew by 0.6%. Abrasives dropped by 2.5%.

Coming to the bottom-line performance. Consolidated PBIT for Q3 FY '26 was INR109 crores compared to INR141 crores in Q3 FY '25. Consolidated PBIT in Q2 FY '26 was INR111 crores, which is almost flat compared to Q3 FY '26. At the 9 months level, consolidated PBIT was INR301 crores in FY26 compared to INR444 crores in FY '25.

Consolidated profit after tax for Q3 FY '26 was INR76 crores compared to INR35 crores in the same period last time. The profit after tax of Q3 FY '25 includes an exceptional item related to VAW. At the Q3 FY 26 level, the PAT margin was 6% compared to 2.8% in Q3 FY '25. On a sequential basis, consolidated profit after tax for Q3 FY '26 was INR76 crores compared to INR75 crores in Q2 FY'26. At the YTD 9 months level, consolidated profit after tax was INR212 crores compared to INR264 crores in the same period last year. Profit after tax for the first 9 months of FY '25 includes exceptional item related to VAW. At the YTD 9 months level, the PAT margins were 5.6% compared to 7.3% in the same period last year.

I'll move now to abrasives.

Stand-alone abrasives recorded a sales of INR323 crores in Q3 FY '26 compared to INR294 crores in Q3 FY '25. This is a growth of 9.8%. The growth was broad-based, driven by retail, industrial and precision. On a sequential basis compared to the sales of INR308 crores in Q2 FY '26, this is a growth of 4.9% and on an YTD basis, INR917 crores is the total sales in FY '26, which is a growth of 1.3% compared to INR905 crores in the same period last year.

Consolidated Abrasives. Q3 FY '26 consolidated sales was INR569 crores with a growth of 8.1% compared to INR526 crores in Q3 FY '25. This growth was contributed by standalone business, which grew by 9.8%.

Compared to Q2 FY '26, consolidates were lower by 2.5% moving from INR584 crores Q2 FY '26 to INR569 crores in Q3 FY '26. Standalone business grew by 4.9%. Rhodius Abrasives had a small drop, which is in line with the seasonality. Consolidated sales for YTD 9 months in FY '26 was INR1,660 crores with a growth of 2.4% when compared to INR1,621 crores in the same period last year. At the YTD level, standalone Abrasives grew by 1.3%.

Now I will move to Rhodius. In Q3 FY '26, Rhodius achieved a net sales of EUR 14.8 million, which is a 3.5% drop over EUR15.3 million in Q3 FY '25.

On a sequential basis, sales declined from EUR 17.4 million to EUR 14.8 million. Normally, Q3 is a lower quarter, 2.5 months quarter because of the Christmas vacations, etc. At the 9 months level, FY '26 Rhodius recorded sales of EUR45 million compared to EUR49 million. You might remember that we lost close to EUR 5 million sales in Q1 due to the shifting of warehouses in Q1.

Q3 FY '26, the loss after tax was EUR0.84 million compared to the loss after tax of EUR 0.78 million in Q3 FY25. On a sequential basis, loss after tax increased from EUR 0.57 to EUR 0.84 million. At 9 months level, FY '26, Rhodius

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incurred a loss after tax of EUR 3 million. This is after a PPA write off of EUR 2.1 million. The loss of business due to shifting our warehouse in the is a predominant increase in further higher losses. The 9-month loss after tax in FY '25 was EUR 0.89 million.

So, on a full year basis, we said in the last call that Rhodius will do same as last year in Q2, Q3 and Q4. So, this means an annual sales of 62.6 million. We now expect the full year sales to be about 60 million. We expect the full year loss to be in the range of EUR4.5 million after write-off of PPA about 2.8 million.

AWUKO.

At the YTD 9 months level, Awuko recorded a sales of EUR7.9 million compared to EUR7.6 million in the same period last year. This represents a growth of 4.6%. For the quarter, Awuko recorded sales of EUR 2.4 million, which is a 3% growth over sales of EUR 2.3 million in Q3 FY '25. On a sequential basis, sales dropped by 19% from EUR 2.9 million in Q2 FY '26 to EUR 2.4 million in Q3 FY '26.

In Q3 FY '26, Awuko recorded loss before tax of EUR2.7 million compared to the loss before tax of EUR 1.4 million in Q3 FY '25 and the loss before tax of EUR1.5 million in Q2 FY '26. The higher loss is primarily due to no production during this period to optimise the inventory and hence, ability to recover the fixed set cost was lower. Besides this, there was also a small one-time expenditure that they incurred.

At the YTD 9 months level, FY '26, Awuko incurred a loss before tax of EUR 5.1 million compared to the loss before tax of EUR 3.7 million in the same period last year.

Now I'll cover the bottom-line performance of the Abrasive segment. Consolidated abrasive PBIT in Q3 FY '26 was INR20 crores with a drop of 28% compared to PBIT of INR28 crores in Q3 FY '25. This was an account of PBIT drop in Awuko.

On a sequential basis, PBIT of consolidated abrasives declined from INR33 crores to INR20 crores. This drop is, again, mainly on account of Awuko. At the YTD 9 months level, consolidated PBIT in FY '26 was INR65 crores compared to PBIT of INR118 crores for the same period last year. The drop is contributed by Rhodius, Awuko and the standalone.

Electrominerals.

Standalone Electrominerals recorded a sales of INR229 crores in Q3 FY '26 compared to INR211 crores in Q3 FY '25. This marks a growth of 8.9%. The growth was driven by export segment, which is a very substantial progress that we have made. On a sequential basis, sales of INR229 crores in Q3 FY '26 represents a growth of 7.9% compared to sales of INR213 crores in Q2 FY '26. Sales for the YTD 9 months period was at INR654 crores, which is a growth of 7.3% compared to the INR 609.8 crores of last year.

Consolidated EMD sales for YTD 9 months FY '26 was INR1,204 crores with a growth of 0.5% as compared to INR1,119 crores for the same period last year. At the YTD level, standalone Electrominerals grew by 7.3%. Foskor grew by 16.6%, VAW dropped by 25%. Drop in VAW reflects due to the U.S. sanctions, which was imposed in January 2025.

Compared to Q2 FY '26, sales was almost flat moving from INR399 crores to INR401 crores. Standalone business grew by 7.9%. and I think, there was a decline in Foskor as well as in VAW. Q3 FY '26 sales was at INR401 crores

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with a drop of 3.6% compared to INR 416 crores in Q3 FY25. Standalone business grew by 8.9%, and VAW dropped by 28%. Foskor grew by 6.5%.

Now going to VAW. At the YTD 9 months level, VAW recorded sales of RUB 4.8 billion compared to RUB 7.6 billion in the same period last year. This represents drop 36% drop over the last year. VAW came under sanction since January 2025. For the quarter, VAW achieved a sale of RUB 1.4 billion, which is a drop of 46% compared to the last year same period at RUB 2.6 billion.

On a sequential basis, sales declined from RUB 1.5 billion to RUB 1.4 billion, almost flat. At the YTD 9 months level, VAW recorded profit after tax of RUB 414 million compared to profit after tax of RUB 35 million in the same period last year.

We move to the Foskor. At the YTD 9-month level, Foskor recorded a sale of ZAR 336 million compared to ZAR 308 million in the same period last year. This represents a growth of 9% over the last year. Sales volume went up substantially, 28% growth. At the same time, the realisation fell by 13% because of the price pressure from Chinese competition. In addition to that, rand appreciated by 6%, very strong appreciation because of the rand appreciation, coupled with the price drop and the volume increase, the net result is sales value increase of 9%. In Q3 FY '26, Foskor achieved the sales of the ZAR 101 million, which is a 4.5% decrease over ZAR 106 million in Q3 FY '25. Again, volume went up. However, the realisation dropped by 13%, volume went up by 22%, rand appreciated by 8% and so that's the basic reason for the gain impact.

On a sequential basis, sales declined from ZAR 114 million in Q2 FY '26 to ZAR 101 million. The volume remained flat, and the sales drop is due to the rand appreciation in the same period. At the 9 months level Foskor recorded loss after tax of ZAR 66 million compared to loss after tax of ZAR 22 million in the same period last year.

Q3 FY '25, Foskor made a profit after tax of ZAR 10 million. In Q3 FY '26 this became loss after tax of ZAR 24 million. This drop in profit is predominantly due to the drop in price and appreciation of rand and on sequential basis loss after tax was almost flat.

Now, I'll cover the bottom performance of the segment. On a sequential basis, PBIT of consolidated EMD increased from INR33 crores to INR34 crores in Q3 FY '26. This is a 16% increase sequentially.

Consolidated Electrominerals PBIT for Q3 of FY '26 was at INR35 crores to a drop of 48.7% compared to INR68 crores in Q3 FY '25, mainly on account of PBIT drop in VAW and Foskor. At the 9 months level consolidated Electrominerals PBIT was INR72 crores compared INR168 crores in the same period last year. At the 9 months level, margins have declined from 14% in FY25, to 6.0% in FY26.

I'll move to Ceramics now, consolidated Ceramics. Sales for YTD 9 months in FY '26 was INR917 crores with a growth of 6.1% and compared to INR864 crores in the same period last year. At the YTD level standalone ceramics grew by 1.7%. Compared to Q2, sales were higher by 4.7%, moving from INR301 crores to INR316 crores. In Q3 FY '26, sales was INR316 crores with a growth of 0.4% compared to Q3 FY '25 at INR315 crores.

Standalone Ceramics

Standalone Ceramics recorded sales of INR255 crores, which is a growth of 11.9% compared to INR228 crores in Q2 FY '26. In Q3 FY '26, sale of INR255 crores dropped by 3.8% compared to INR265 crores in Q3 FY '25. At YTD level, sales was INR721 crores, which is a growth of 1.7% compared to INR 710 crores in the same period last year.

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Now total debt position, there was no debt in standalone books. The total consolidated debt was about INR290 crores in Q3 FY26, compared to INR210 crores in Q2 FY26 and, INR108 crores in the same period last year.

The debt -equity ratio is 0.07 at the consolidated level. Cash and cash equivalents at the consolidated level without VAW was INR385 crores.

CAPEX- During the first 9 months, the capex investment is INR248 crores compared to INR209 crores same period last year. We said we will spend INR350 crores for the full year, and we feel that we should be completing that INR350 crores of capex.

I'll come to the guidance. During the last call, I said, growth in consolidated sales could be 5.5% to 6.5%. I maintain the same guidance. Consolidated Ceramics, we communicated a sales growth of 16% to 18% in the beginning of the year. We marginally bring this down from 13% to 14%.

Abrasives sales in our last call, we communicated to 4% to 5% for the year. I maintain the same.

Consolidated EMD, we gave a guidance of 1% to 2% sales growth. I maintain the same.

Margins.

In the Ceramic segment, we communicated PBIT margin of 23.5% to 23.7% on a full-year basis. We are likely to be at 21% to 22%.

EMD in the last call, we said 4.5% to 5.5% is the PBIT margin. We maintain the same guidance.

Abrasives, last time, we said PBIT margin would be 6% to 6.5% on a full year basis. We now revised that to 4% to 4.5%.

We said the last time, the overall consolidated PBIT margin could be 8.2% to 8.5%. This could be 7% to 8%.

On the capex side, we said we will spend INR350 crores on a full year basis. We spent so far INR248 crores on a 9- month basis. We maintain the full-year guidance of INR350 crores of capex.

I now open up for a Q&A and then we will conclude the call. Thank you.

Moderator: The first question is from the line of Amit Anwani from Prabhudas Lilladher Capital.

Amit Anwani:

So, first question for the reduced guidance in Ceramics, and we can see that even standalone business is kind of 4% down. So, could you explain what went wrong? And within that, is it the exports from Ceramics which has also been impacted and versus the technical and wear ceramics, how the situation in Ceramics since we are expecting some recovery after Q1, Q2, and we are again revising down the guidance for Ceramics?

Sridharan Rangarajan:

So, I think we are not again revising. This is the first time I'm bringing it down. We feel that I think Ceramics, Q4 will be a strong quarter, first of all, because we feel that Ceramics on a full year basis, the projects are getting delayed, and that is what is causing us this challenge of Q3. But I think if you look at sequentially, they have done well on a standalone basis and we feel that Q4 will be a very strong quarter based on the order backlog that what we have.

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However, we expect that there could be delays in some of the projects like, for example, while we have an order, the ability to ship depends on the inspection by the customers, and there could be some delays. Hence, we are cautiously bringing this down. We felt that there could be some challenge. Hence, we are bringing it down. So that's what I would think so. It is not anything at this point in time, we feel otherwise.

Amit Anwani: So, what's the kind of exports contribution in Ceramics for first 9 months?

Sridharan Rangarajan: If you see a blended rate, it could be in the range of around 50% to 55%. and industrial ceramics, it could be as high as 75% because it's a combination of two businesses.

• Amit Anwani: Right. Sir, second question on the recently concluded EU FTA, and we have exposure to Europe and in fact, when we acquired the subsidiaries, we were talking about synergies and cross-sell. So, any reading you have for your businesses from this FDA? And if you could explain more, could it be of benefit to you?

• Sridharan Rangarajan: So, I think right now, it's too early at this stage. So, I feel overall FTA will be beneficial to us. Right now, we are under the MFN category. So hence, definitely compared to that rate, MFN FTA rate will be definitely lower, at least to the extent of about 4% to 5% lower which definitely increases our competitiveness. Hence, it is more beneficial to us.

• Amit Anwani: Am I audible?

• Sridharan Rangarajan: Now you are audible, yes. Again, you are not audible.

• Amit Anwani: I think there is some line issue. Is it better?

• Moderator: Amit, go ahead with your question.

• Sridharan Rangarajan: We can take the next question and then let him come on the queue.

• Moderator: Okay. Thank you Amit.

• Harshit Patel: Firstly, on Awuko and Rhodius, while you have outlined your performance so far in the 9 months of FY '26, can you broadly highlight how we should think about revenue growth and margin development for both these companies for the next year, that is FY '27?

• Sridharan Rangarajan: I will share the details more in the next call, Harshit, because we will be doing the roll up at that time, we'll be able to share at that time and I strongly feel that the current challenge of Awuko, which is like a marginal top line growth is our key concern and I think we will reflect on that and when we meet in the next call, we'll share this more.

• Harshit Patel: Sure, sir. In terms of the next quarter, which is the fourth quarter, will it be broadly on similar lines as to what we have seen in the third quarter? Or would there be a material improvement sequentially for the January to March quarter?

• Sridharan Rangarajan: You are talking about Awuko?

Harshit Patel: Correct. Both, sir, both Awuko as well as Rhodius.

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Sridharan Rangarajan: Yes, yes. Okay. So Awuko will be on the similar trend is what our reading is, and we feel that the current trend would continue, and it could be better compared to the profitability because of the expenses getting spread over the production process because last quarter, we did not manufacture. So hence, the fixed cost absorption was practically zero. So that was the cause. But going forward, that would be a slight benefit on that. But top line, we are expecting to be on the similar trend and as far as Rhodius is concerned, I feel normally Q4 is a better quarter compared to the Q3 because Q3 is a Christmas quarter. So that benefit I expect that it would come in terms of the top line.

Harshit Patel: Understood, sir. Sir, secondly, on domestic abrasives, China has recently removed the export rebate on abrasives products including grinding wheels from 9% to 0%. This will be in effect from April onwards. Can this translate into a tangible improvement in the domestic market share for us over time?

Sridharan Rangarajan: So, this is a positive news as far as the Indian market is concerned and across. I mean, abrasives is one such product, but many products, the export benefit drop would benefit this. So, we think that this is a positive information, and it would definitely help us to strengthen our position. Harshit Patel: Understood. Sir, lastly, on Foskor Zirconia. This particular business has continued to impact our margins and profit negatively. Even in the first half of FY '26, we have incurred a PBT loss of around INR25 crores in INR terms. On top of that, there is further loss in the third quarter as well. So, what is the outlook on this business? And how do we plan to improve the performance here? I remember a few years ago, we had also planned to divest this particular business. But I think since then, nothing has happened on that front. So, if you can provide some outlook on this business, that will be very helpful. Sridharan Rangarajan: Yes, I think it's a good question. So, Foskor does trouble us a lot and definitely impacting us. So right now, what we are doing is they have two products, ZC and Z450 and ZC is having higher losses. So, we have tapered down the ZC business. we are only focusing on Z450. So, the Q4 will have only Z450 operation, and we want to see how that performance is. If it is going to improve, that is fine. If not, we need to take a firm call. So, this is what our current approach is. Moderator: The next question is from the line of Harshit Patel from Equirus Securities. Harshit Patel: Sir, in the domestic Electro Minerals business, what is the mix between domestic revenues and exports within our stand-alone business? Also, is there any material difference in margins between these two? Sridharan Rangarajan: So yes, the mix is improving more towards the export. That is helping us a lot. I think our aim is to have a 30% mix, that is 30% export mix on a long-term basis, but the current trend shows that even now, we are very close to that. Harshit Patel: Understood. Sir, secondly, in our standalone Ceramics business, which has barely grew by around 1.5% to 2% in the first 9 months of FY '26. So could you highlight the performance and growth rates of different sub-segments, mainly refractories, wear ceramics, industrial ceramics. If you could give us a flavour on which of the segments have grown and which haven't, and based on your assessment, how FY '27 will look like for all these sub-segments? Sridharan Rangarajan: So we have two broad segments within that, which is ceramics and refractories. But the way we discussed in the last few calls, the set of businesses we have engineered ceramics, some of the fire refractories, all that growth, we are looking at growth of 20%.

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Our challenge continues to lie in the wear ceramics and also the project-based fire refractory business, bunching of the product and that is happening or that's going to happen in Q4 is one of the reasons that we are looking at a muted 9 months one. So, we expect the full year basis, they will be strong. Wear ceramics continues to have this challenge.

Largely, we feel that one, the ceramic business in U.S., particularly in the last 2 quarters, were sluggish. The end customers on many projects have delayed and deferred because of the uncertainty in the tariff, not just because of us, I'm just saying as a project.

We are only a small supplier in that, but because they are actually going to face many import costs. So, a lot of them have deferred this trying to get clarity in terms of how it is going to happen. So that 2 quarters is causing this challenge.

We think -- the information we are getting is that people more and more now start firming up their project and start moving ahead. So that should come back. So, this is how I read the ceramic business as a whole. And as we guided ceramic business, we've given a guidance at the consolidated level. But in the ceramic, obviously, India becomes forming a major portion. We expect that overall growth rate, we know that the current rate is 1.7%, but we expect this to be in the range of about 9% to 11% at the full year level.

Moderator: The next question is from the line of Jonas Bhutta from Birla Mutual Funds.

Jonas Bhutta:

So, I would appreciate your comments while you said that you'll give out a separate guidance for both the businesses, the Awuko and Rhodius probably with the Q4 results and just like Foskor, sir, do you sort of have a time frame as to when you will keep evaluating these businesses, whether they remain -- are something that are sort of meeting the targets that you had set out at the time of their acquisition as in you bought them for a particular reason?

And I know maybe 3 years, or 4 years is not a good enough time to sort of evaluate these businesses because we buy it for the long term. But just curious to know as to what are the steps that you are taking to sort of see that whether these fit probably just like you're going to take a call on Foskor. So, what is the timeline that you've given yourself on this?

Sridharan Rangarajan:

Yes. I think, again, a good question. Foskor, as I communicated, probably 1 quarter to 2 quarters, we will take a call. And Awuko, we think that we should take a firm call in a year's time.

Jonas Bhutta:

Understood and just out of curiosity, sir, again, what is the cap -- while we bought it for, I think, EUR5 million or EUR6 million, what has been the total loss funding that we've done insofar or the losses that we would have incurred in the last 3, 4 years ever since we acquired them?

Sridharan Rangarajan: Yes, yes. I think we have incurred a loss of close to about EUR30 million and this is over the last 4 years’ period.

Jonas Bhutta:

Sure, sure. My second question, sir, was on Ceramics. About 2 years back, sir, we've seen a phenomenal growth and for the past 4, 5 years up until maybe fiscal '24 and predominantly driven by these new age applications in SOFC, cells, et cetera. The business of the company that was giving us those orders seem to be booming. Is it already reflective in the sales of Ceramics for the past 2 quarters?

Or that is something -- that's the upside that's potentially going to come going forward? Because, again, the communication was that the intensity of Ceramics in these products is likely to go up and our wallet shares will sort of trend higher. So, I'm just, again, wanting to know whether that's already reflective of the upside in the last 2, 3 quarters?

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Carborundum Universal Limited

January 30, 2026

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Sridharan Rangarajan:

So, I think your pointed observation is well noted. I think on the Ceramics side, the businesses that we are serving to SOFCs and some of the high-end ones, they are growing pretty high. As I said, it's north of 20% is the growth that we are having and we also have a very sizable, good order book. In fact, we bagged the highest-ever order in the last quarter from them.

So, we seem to be doing fine there. So, challenge, as I explained to you, comes largely from the wear ceramic side, which is what is causing and probably once the project starts kicking in, in America, I think this should start getting better. And then you will start seeing the overall growth would also start looking better. So, two broad reasons.

One is that side. The other side is the refractory projects bunching that is happening in Q4. So, these are the two broad reasons why we are seeing a muted growth up to 9 months. Still I'm -- as I guided on stand-alone 9% to 11% on a basis ceramic, we will still do that because you will see a strong Q4 on that. And then you will start seeing a better growth in FY '27 and some of the businesses that you are hinting are really supporting our growth there.

Jonas Bhutta : Got it. I appreciate your responses sir. All the best

Sridharan Rangarajan: Thank you

Moderator: As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Sridharan Rangarajan: Good. I thank you all for participating. I would like to summarize as follows. I think, of course, you don't have the business plan, but we are tracking to the business plan at 9 months level and we think that we have worked on all the major efforts in terms of our long-term strategies for Ceramics, Electrominerals and Abrasives.

Capacities are being created and our investment progress is pretty much in line. That's why we are also maintaining the guidance of INR350 crores. All the programs in terms of technology tie-ups, working with partners in two broad areas are all progressing well. People addition, getting key leaders’ part of this new and improved programs that we are looking at are all also happening in parallel. So, I would say while we focus on the current and future also, we are securing well.

Abrasive growth in Q3 is encouraging. We think that this trend should continue. We feel Q4 will be a strong quarter for Ceramics based on the projects that they have tied up. Electrominerals is showing good come back, very good margin recovery that they have shown. Their ROCs are also looking good.

So overall standalone has done an exceptional job. We think that Q4 could be better in standalone. We do have challenges at Foskor Zirconia, Awuko and I think we would take appropriate actions on this. Rhodius is doing fine, but I think we can get better at it. We will do work on that. So, with that background, I thank you for all your patience and time in attending this call. Thank you.

Moderator:

On behalf of DAM Capital Advisors Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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