Full Earnings Call Transcript for Q3FY20 - call with analysts
Opening Remarks by Management
Message one in this Avatar, our vision is to deliver capital efficient consistent earnings growth, I would like you all to know three key words in this mission, capital efficient consistent and growth.
Message number two, we have the building bocks in place to deliver on this mission. The entire board has been revamped with fit for purpose experts who continue to be deeply involved in the key strategic initiatives being undertaken by the company. I would also like to formerly welcome Parag Shah who joined as our new CFO in November 2019. Parag comes with 25 plus years of consumer and pharma industry experience with Unilever, Nike and most recently at ACG Group.
In addition we as management team continue to work closely with Blackstones global advisor and portfolio company network to support us deliver on this mission. Mr. Harish Manwani, ex-chairman Hindustan Unilever and CEO of Unilever globally, he is helping with the key account management and various growth initiatives of the company, Mr. Dhaval Buch, Head for Unilever Globally is leading what we are internally calling project phoenix, a productivity improvement program, finally Mr. Dawn Anderson, who is a global energy expert with Blackstone he is helping the company optimized its energy utilization globally.
The effects of this team and productivity initiatives has started to reflect in the improved margin, you are all seeing in Q3.
Coming to message 3, the key levers to deliver on this mission are one, accelerated growth in personal care; two, continued leadership in oral care; three, innovation and sustainability solutions and four prudent capital allocation across regions and finally we as a team are proud to report that the early results of this efforts are reflected in our Q3 financials. Coming to next page, Q3 reported revenue up by 2.4% year-on-year, EBITDA is up 20.1% with margin expansion of 328 basis points, PAT is up 32.3% year-on-year. As promised last time, we as management team will measure ourselves and the progress we have made on our mission. The relevant matrix on a recurring basis adjusted for any one-time items are on page 6.
Q3 revenue grew by 3.7% year-on-year on constant currency basis. This growth was achieved despite a tough macroeconomic environment in India and China and 1.5% revenue growth impact due to pass through of lower raw material to contracted customers. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 17.3% yearon-year on a recurring basis and adjusted EPS grew by 40.8% year-on-year.
This growth has been driven by improvement in revenue mix, productivity and cost optimization across regions. Focus on capital efficiency is also visible in the numbers against Rs.304 Crores of capex spend in FY2019, capex spend in nine months of this year has only been Rs.96 Crores as a result return on capital for the business has increased from 16.7% to 17.8% and the net debt has reduced to Rs.361 Crores which is at healthy level of 0.7 times of EBITDA.
The key message on page 7 is that this quarter has been a strongest quarter in terms of absolute EBITDA in the history of this company. The strong operating performance has been achieved with prudent capital allocation and lower capex spent. The improvement in ROCE to 17.8% from 16.4% last quarter is a testament to it. With the recent volatility in macroenvironment and raw material prices we got a quick queries from some of few asking what it means for the companies margins even EPL presense across end to end value chain and being a value add partner to many of our customers variation in key raw material that is volume of prices does not translate to margin variations despite significant movement in the polymer index over the last eight quarters. Our gross margins have remind in a narrow band. In many of our long-term contracts the raw materials are wet to the relevant index and any movement in this indexes is contractual pass through to our customers.
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