“Rane Group of Companies Q1 FY-22 Earnings Conference Call” August 10, 2021 MANAGEMENT: MR. L. GANESH – CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR, RANE HOLDINGS LIMITED MR. HARISH LAKSHMAN – VICE CHAIRMAN, RANE HOLDINGS LIMITED MR. P. A. PADMANABHAN – PRESIDENT-FINANCE & GROUP CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, RANE HOLDINGS LIMITED MR. SIVA CHANDRASEKARAN – EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF SECRETARIAL AND LEGAL SERVICES, RANE HOLDINGS LIMITED MR. J. ANANTH – CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, RANE HOLDINGS LIMITED Page 1 of 14 Rane Group of Companies August 10, 2021 Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Rane Group of Companies' Q1 FY22 Earnings Conference Call. 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. Binay Sarda from Christensen Advisory. Thank you and over to you, Mr. Sarda. Binay Sarda: Thank you, Nirav. Good afternoon friends. Welcome to the Q1 FY22 earnings call of the Rane Group. To take you through the results and answer your questions today, we have with us the management team from Rane Group represented by Mr. L. Ganesh – Chairman & Managing Director, Rane Holdings; Mr. Harish Lakshman – Vice Chairman; Mr. P. A. Padmanabhan – President-Finance & Group CFO; Mr. Siva Chandrasekaran – Executive Vice President of Secretarial and Legal Services; and Mr. J. Ananth – CFO of Rane Holdings. Please note that we have sent you the press release. And also, we have sent you the presentation link of the deck. In case any of you have not received the presentation, you could look it in our website, or even the BSE or you could also write to us, and we will be happy to send the detailed earning presentations over to you. Before we start, I would like to say that everything that is said on this call that reflects any outlook for the future, or which can be construed as a forward-looking statement must be viewed in conjunction with the risks and uncertainties that we face. These uncertainties and risks are included but not limited to what we mentioned in the prospectus and subsequent annual reports which you can find on our website. With that said, now I hand over the call to Mr. Ganesh. Over to you, sir. L. Ganesh: Thank you, Binay. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for dialing in. I would like to welcome you all to this teleconference. Hope all of you are staying safe and healthy. You would have seen our Quarter 1 FY22 performance highlights of the group companies, which is posted on the website. I would like to provide a few comments on the industry before handing it over to Harish. Quarter 1 was rather testing quarter with us weathering a wave two in India of the COVID-19. As we started the year on a positive note our plants were doing nearly 100% plus in terms of capacity utilization and achieving plans. However, as you know, the COVID problem started in a big way, the second wave and shutdown, lockdowns, partial restrictions, etc., started affecting and the level of activity came down sharply. Page 2 of 14 Rane Group of Companies August 10, 2021 In June there was some recovery, although not fully. And in going forward, what you find is from July, things are much better, and the recovery seems to be on its way. Some of our plants built stocks during the first quarter because we could not switch our plants in such an uncertain environment and also because commodity prices were going up, we thought it may not be a bad idea to build and funding it. The export demand was good. And this was despite some impact due to semiconductor chip shortage and otherwise the export could have been even slightly better. The wave two resultant lockdown has slowed down the economic recovery. Various agencies have moderated their growth forecast for India. The wave two was different compared to wave one on multiple counts. The National lockdown in wave one is a state specified lockdown in wave two. This had its own challenges. Manufacturing continued in wave two catering to exports, but with many, many on the ground challenges. The pent-up demand and low level of inventory after wave one triggered a strong recovery whereas recovery post wave two seems to be more gradual as we look at it today. In terms of inflation of vehicle prices, the fuel costs increase very sharp in the last couple of months seems to be having a negative influence on vehicle purchase. However, this has to be seen in addition the commodity price inflation is also affecting the businesses. We are working on recovering from various customers. But as you know, there is always a time lag. RBI seems to be extending its accommodative stance, to help to revive and sustain the growth in the economy. We hope there will be no severe third wave thanks to the vaccination coverage and better preparation by all the state governments. On the Export front the risk is further due to the impact of semiconductor chip shortage. We hope that it will not worsen further from what it is today. Subject to these risks, we hope to see a good recovery in the economy and the auto industry. I now hand it over to Harish for his comments and review of the Q1 performance. Harish Lakshman: Thank you, Mr. Ganesh. Good afternoon, everyone. As Mr. Ganesh mentioned, Q1 was a challenging quarter for India and for the entire industry due to the strong second wave of Coronavirus. This coupled with the impact of the semiconductor shortage that was felt definitely pulled back the growth momentum of the automotive segment and that too coming from a very strong Q4 of last year. I will now give a quick overview on the quarter 1 performance of each of our businesses starting with Rane Madras. The hydraulic business continued its traction and we achieved the highest production of cylinders. The light metal castings business in India continues to win new business and we have recently won a new business worth about Rs. 43 crores. The US subsidiary has improved the operational performance and they are experiencing a ramp up in the volumes with the overall improved demand environment in the US as well as some of the new business kicking in. With the Page 3 of 14 Rane Group of Companies August 10, 2021 operational improvements, the new orders, and the emerging demand for aluminum components in the auto industry particularly due to the electrification, the Rane Madras Board has decided to stay invested in this business for strategic reasons. Coming to REVL, the market declined due to wave two impacted some of the operational improvement initiatives. Nevertheless, we continue to prioritize on cost reduction and achieve breakeven at lower volumes. The company continues to focus on enhancing the non-auto customer and today the non-auto customers contribute 22% of sales and we are hopeful of enhancing our order book further in this segment. Rane Brake Lining, due to lockdown the proportion of aftermarket segment to the sales dropped significantly. This impacted the product mix and resulted in a drop in profitability. RBL is continuing to enhance its presence in the export market. And we are recently expanded to Saudi Arabia and also introduced some new products in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Coming to Rane TRW, we continue to enjoy dominant share with the domestic customer for the steering gear products. However, the company is significantly dependent on the CV segment and the CV segment sales continue to remain muted. On the occupant safety side, the exports accounted for almost 67% of the revenue for this quarter. We also won about Rs. 78 crores of new export business to our partner ZF. Rane NSK, we have secured some new business with Maruti Suzuki for an upcoming UV program. The plant also struggled to meet demand due to some labor availability in the month of April and May. With the relaxation on restrictions post the wave two we are seeing favorable recovery in the demand environment in India. The export demand continues to remain robust as Mr. Ganesh said except for the semiconductor shortage, and we hope that wave three and the resultant lockdown does not derail the growth momentum. The commodity price increase is another concern, and our teams are working for the recovery. We continue to prioritize the safety of our employees and our focus on cost management to navigate these challenging times. With these remarks, we will now open for any questions that you may have. Moderator: Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. The first question is from the line of Ashwin Agarwal from Akash Ganga Investments. Please go ahead. Ashwin Agarwal: Sir, you mentioned in your opening remarks, that for strategic reasons, the Board of Rane Madras has decided to continue with the investment in the subsidiary in the US. Could you highlight by when do you expect, because of the new orders the company to break even at the EBITDA level, and also the Rs. 3.8 million which we received as stimulus, whether any stimulus is expected even for this year, or there would be no stimulus from the US government? Page 4 of 14 Rane Group of Companies August 10, 2021 Harish Lakshman: Yes Ashwin, I will answer the second question.