Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited — Q3 FY26
ABFRL reported Q3 FY26 revenue of INR 2,374 crore, up 8% YoY, with EBITDA margin expanding 70 bps to 15.6%.
neutral
medium
✓ Verified against BSE filing
Claim Ledger
Did management answer the analysts?
Every material analyst question, graded on whether management actually answered it — with the verbatim exchange and quantitative claims checked against filed numbers.
71%Questions answered1Evaded / deflected12Questions auditedMixedNumbers vs filing
Partial answer
High priority
Details on Pantaloons' month-on-month performance and KPI improvements.
Asked by Archana Menon, Morgan Stanley
Management gave qualitative trends but no specific KPI metrics or January numbers.
no specific KPI numbers givenqualitative only
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Question
So if you could share some more details on, how the performance has been through this quarter and in January, and, which are the key KPIs we are seeing improvement, any additional details?
Sangeeta Pendurkar, CEO, Pantaloons
our performance for this quarter actually corrected for the shift of festive actually is at about 3%. ... we actually decided to shift our EOSS versus last year to quarter four. ... our growth have been above expectation.
Answered
Medium priority
Growth in average basket size or ticket size due to premiumization.
Asked by Archana Menon, Morgan Stanley
Provided specific percentage increase in average selling price.
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Question
are you seeing a growth in the average basket size or ticket average bill order so far?
Sangeeta Pendurkar, CEO, Pantaloons
in terms of our bill value, it has increased a little bit. ... in terms of our average selling price, we've seen about a 2%-3% increase, because of the shift and because of our premiumization.
Answered
High priority
Store expansion plans for TCNS next year.
Asked by Archana Menon, Morgan Stanley
Provided a specific range for store additions.
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Question
On TCNS, what are your store expansion plans for next year?
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited
I expect that we'll add between 50-60 stores next year in TCNS, something that we had held back so far.
Partial answer
High priority
Path to margin improvement in Pantaloons given nine-month revenue and margin trends.
Asked by Gaurav Jogani, JM Financial Limited
Explained margin dip but did not quantify future margin trajectory.
no specific margin target givenblamed shift and OWND
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Question
where are we on the path of, you know, margins improvement going ahead? So should we consider, you know, a large part of the, the rationalization of stores, et cetera, is now over...
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited
Pantaloons margin remains steady. The reduction that you're seeing is combination of two things. One is the shift in revenue... The other reason is, of course, as OWND expanded this year...
Answered
High priority
Store expansion for Pantaloons in FY27-28.
Asked by Gaurav Jogani, JM Financial Limited
Provided a specific number of stores.
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Question
Pantaloons, what kind of store expansion can we expect, you know, from the next year, say, for FY 2027-2028? What steady store expansion can we build in?
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited
I think about 20 stores is what we would say, we need to build in.
Answered
High priority
Margin profile of designer-led vs other ethnic wear and path to profitability.
Asked by Gaurav Jogani, JM Financial Limited
Provided specific profitability status and breakeven timeline.
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Question
if you can dissect, you know, the profile of margins between, you know, their designer-led brands, which were already profitable, versus the journey of profitability in the other ethnics part of the business...
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited
the designer-led brands are very profitable. ... TCNS, we have made a big shift. ... profitability has halved in this nine-month period versus last year. We are very close to breakeven this quarter...
Partial answer
Medium priority
Impact of Galeries Lafayette on profitability and depreciation.
Asked by Gaurav Jogani, JM Financial Limited
Gave investment cost but not the exact depreciation impact for Galeries.
depreciation number not given for Galeries alonedeferred to CFO
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Question
what kind of impact that had, and also what kind of an impact that had on the depreciation and the lease liability interest?
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited
we would have, you know, invested maybe about INR 25 crore in terms of the event initial launch... On the balance sheet side, we have told you, I think indicated store cost of about 130-odd crores, INR 125 crore-INR 130 crore...
Answered
High priority
Target growth for Pantaloons over next two years.
Asked by Ankit Kedia, PhillipCapital
Provided specific growth targets.
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Question
over the next two years, what is the target, like for, like, growing Pantaloons, you know, which we are budgeting for?
Sangeeta Pendurkar, CEO, Pantaloons
We are looking for mid- to high-single-digit growth in Pantaloons. In terms of L2L and a double-digit growth at an overall level.
Partial answer
Medium priority
Revenue contribution and impact of Insignia loyalty program.
Asked by Ankit Kedia, PhillipCapital
Gave Green Card contribution but not Insignia-specific revenue share.
no specific revenue contribution for Insignia
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Question
What is the today overall revenue contribution of that program, and how is the, you know, loyalty being here?
Sangeeta Pendurkar, CEO, Pantaloons
Our overall Green Card contributes to about 70%+ of our revenues, and Insignia sits on top of that.
Answered
High priority
Two-year target on store opening and profitability for OWND!.
Asked by Ankit Kedia, PhillipCapital
Provided store opening target and confirmed profitability timeline.
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Question
What is the two-year target on store opening and profitability for OWND!?
Sangeeta Pendurkar, CEO, Pantaloons
we will be looking at opening about 40-50 stores in the coming year. ... Is it fair to assume we will not be profitable at least till FY 2029? Yes, probably.
Evasive
High priority
Why Pantaloons like-to-like growth is lackluster despite store closures and investments.
Asked by Devanshu Bansal, Emkay Global
Did not provide a clear path to double-digit growth or quantify improvement.
blamed market environmentno specific like-to-like growth target
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Question
this is still not reflecting into like-to-like growth for us. ... So how do you see this business returning to double-digit growth?
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited
the overall environment across the different price segments and consumer segments is somewhat different. ... the performance in this segment has been lower than our premium segment...
Partial answer
Medium priority
Cash, CapEx, and free cash flow for the quarter and nine months.
Asked by Rajiv Bharti, Nuvama
Provided cash and CapEx but omitted free cash flow and cash burn.
no free cash flow givencash burn not quantified
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Question
Tell me the cash in hand currently, the cash burn during the quarter, the CapEx number, and the free cash flow for the quarter, and nine months, if possible.
Jagdish Bajaj, CFO, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited
we have roughly INR 2,100 crore cash. ... CapEx across business for nine months is roughly INR 300 crore, including security deposits.
Quantitative claims vs filed numbers
| Claim | Management said | Filing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pantaloons festive-adjusted growth about 3% | 3% | 8% | Understated vs filing |
| Pantaloons mid-to-high single-digit L2L growth target | 7.5% | 8% | Matches filing |
Filed figures sourced from Screener.in. Claims within a small tolerance of the filing are marked “matches filing”.