GHCL earning call for Q1FY2027

August 6, 2026 National Stock Exchange of India BSE Limited Limited Corporate Relationship Department, “Exchange Plaza” 1st Floor, New Trading Ring, Rotunda Building, P.J. Bandra – Kurla Complex, Towers, Bandra (E), Mumbai – 400 051 Dalal Street, Fort, Mumbai – 400 001 NSE Code: GHCL BSE Code: 500171 Dear Sir / Madam, Subject: Filing of Transcript regarding Investors’ conference held on August 3, 2026 In continuation to our earlier communication dated July 24, 2026 and July 30, 2026 and August 1, 2026 regarding Investors’ conference on August 3, 2026 and pursuant to requirement of Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, we are pleased to attach copy of the transcript regarding said Investors’ conference held with the management on August 3, 2026 for your reference and record. Please note that copy of this intimation is also available on the website of BSE Limited (www.bseindia.com/corporates), National Stock Exchange of India Limited (www.nseindia.com/corporates) and website of the Company (www.ghcl.co.in ). You are requested to kindly take note of the same. Thanking you Yours truly For GHCL Limited Bhuwneshwar Prasad Mishra Vice President - Sustainability & Company Secretary (Membership No.: FCS 5330) “GHCL Limited Q1 FY27 Earnings Conference Call” August 03, 2026 MANAGEMENT: MR. R.S. JALAN – MANAGING DIRECTOR MR. RAMAN CHOPRA – CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (FINANCE) MODERATOR: MR. ARYA PATEL – EMKAY GLOBAL FINANCIAL SERVICES LIMITED Page 1 of 13 GHCL Limited August 03, 2026 Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to GHCL Q1 FY27 Earnings Conference Call hosted by Emkay Global Financial Services Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be the 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. Arya Patel from Emkay Global Financial Services Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Arya Patel: Thank you, Palak. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us on GHCL's Q1 FY27 Results Conference Call. I would like to welcome the management and thank them for giving us this opportunity to host them. We have with us today Mr. R.S. Jalan, Managing Director; and Mr. Raman Chopra, CFO and Executive Director, Finance. Before we begin this call, I would like to point out that the discussion during this call may contain forward-looking statements reflecting the company's current view of future events and their potential effect on the company's operation and financial performance. These statements involve uncertainty and risks, which could cause actual results to differ. The company is under no obligation to provide subsequent updates to these forward-looking statements. I shall now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks, following which we'll have a Q&A session. Thank you, and over to you, sir. R.S. Jalan: Thank you very much, Arya. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to the GHCL Q1 FY27 Earnings Call. Our results and investor presentation has been published, and I trust you have had the opportunity to review them. Let me begin with the industry landscape. Global soda ash market continues to face pressure with supply exceeding demand and price remains weak. The current pricing environment is a continuation of a cycle that has been unfolding over a period of 2 years. China demand recovery has been slower than expected, and this continues to weigh on the global market sentiments. Chinese inventories remain high. And while we are starting to see early signs of capacity rationalization, including maintenance closure among older synthetic producers, a meaningful reduction in the supply remains some way off. The collapse of the U.S. Iran ceasefire has introduced renewed volatility into global energy markets and supply chain with shipping routes being disturbed. Coming to Indian market, overall demand has been soft, driven by ongoing conflict and domestic market dynamics. Page 2 of 13 GHCL Limited August 03, 2026 This situation may continue to persist in the near term with the onset of the monsoon season and some increase in imports. That said, we take a measured view on imports. However, the rupee depreciation will provide some degree of natural protection for Indian producers. Going forward, the Indian soda ash industry has been a structural demand opportunity from solar glass capacity build-out, where capacity additions are creating a sustained and visible requirement for soda ash. We expect demand tailwind to improve over time. Let me turn to margins. Operating margin for the current quarter are elevated, supported primarily by better realization and the benefit of lower cost input inventory, with volume having played a lesser role. I would caution against reading this as a new normal. The ongoing global conflict is likely to feed into our energy and raw material costs over the coming quarters. Going forward, we expect margin to moderate from current level and revert to more normalized trend driven by the domestic demand, higher captive industry production and softening realization. We would encourage you to view our margins on an annual basis rather than quarter-to-quarter since any single quarter will carry the effect of factors that do not repeat. Our growth project, the Vacuum Salt project had been completed its commissioning checks and we took production trial. Our bromine pre-commissioning work has been completed. Both these projects, commercial production is expected in Q2 of this year. We will take a conservative view on the pace of scale-up thereafter, which we expect to be gradual and phased. In the case of bromine, output in any case, seasonally lower than through the monsoon months. We are reasonably confident that both plants operating at their intended capacity level in the course of this financial year. These are strategically important to us. Over time, these value-added downstream projects will contribute to GHCL product diversification, thus curtailing any adverse industry cycle impact on our business. Our Greenfield project, this is a significant strategic investment and part of our long-term goal, and we will continue to provide updates as project milestones are achieved. The external environment this quarter has been demanding and the current pricing environment is a continuation of a cycle that has been playing out over the last 2 to 3 years. Through this period, our operational and cost parameters have maintained intact. We remain among the most efficient soda ash producers and our low-cost foundation positions us to be among the first to benefit as and when pricing recovers. We remain focused on operational excellence on bringing our Vacuum Salt and the Bromine project to the commercial production and on our customer relationship. Page 3 of 13 GHCL Limited August 03, 2026 Our focus remains on what is within our control. We thank you, our investors and stakeholders for their continued trust in GHCL Limited. True to our tradition, shareholders once again received their dividend on the very first day of our AGM on the day of our AGM. I will now hand over the call to Raman to walk through the financial highlights in detail. Thank you. Raman Chopra: Thank you, sir. Good evening, everyone, and a warm welcome to our earnings call for the first quarter ended 30th June 2026. Our overall performance remains steady and reported margin improvement during the quarter. This is a result of our focus on operational excellence cost control and efficient financial discipline. We achieved this despite the global disruptions and challenging pricing environment. I will now walk through the key financial highlights. Revenue for the qu [Showing first 8,000 characters — download PDF for full document]