AIA Engineering Limited — Q3 FY25
AIA Engineering reported Q3 FY25 revenue of INR 1,050 crore with EBITDA of INR 354.6 crore (33.8% margin) and PAT of INR 259.2 crore.
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.
50%Questions answered4Evaded / deflected12Questions auditedConsistentNumbers vs filing
Partial answer
High priority
Timeline for China and Ghana plants and impact of falling freight rates on volumes.
Asked by Bhoomika Nair, DAM Capital
Management gave a broad timeline but refused to commit to specific volume guidance.
no volume guidancedeferred timeline
Read the exchange
Question
Sir, in terms of you mentioned that shipping freight rates are starting to come down. So while obviously the China and Ghana plant will come in, but it'll take some time for those plants to be operational. I don't know what the timelines are. If you can elaborate on that.
Kunal Shah, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
We are still not ready for sharing a guidance on volume. But over the next two, three quarters, it looks like that we should be back on a 25,000-30,000-ton annual addition on a rolling basis.
Answered
High priority
Base for incremental volumes: 250 or 300?
Asked by Bhoomika Nair, DAM Capital
Management clearly stated the base is this year's volume (250).
Read the exchange
Question
So do we take that as a base and then look at the incremental volumes? Do we take it come back to 300,000 and then take the volume increase?
Kunal Shah, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
Consider 250 and getting us some growth from here, right? ... the starting point has to be this year.
Evasive
Medium priority
Why not set up a plant in Chile?
Asked by Bhoomika Nair, DAM Capital
Management did not explain why Chile was not chosen, only hinted at future possibility.
no specific reason givenvague possibility
Read the exchange
Question
Why are we not looking at Chile? Because that's a much larger market for us in terms of our potential conversion.
Kunal Shah, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
We are spoiled for choice ... A plant in Chile could also be a possibility, but allow us some time.
Partial answer
High priority
Has margin profile structurally shifted to 24-26%?
Asked by Bhoomika Nair, DAM Capital
Management acknowledged improvement but declined to give a specific margin range.
no specific margin guidancerefused to commit to range
Read the exchange
Question
So does that structurally change our margin profile more towards the 24%-26% kind of a range?
Kunal Shah, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
We have been consistently giving better margins. ... a 21% or a 22% looks to be much lower than what we can do. ... I personally believe we should do definitely better than 21%-22% on a medium to long-term basis.
Answered
High priority
Status of destocking impact and when volumes return.
Asked by Priyankar Biswas, BNP Paribas
Management gave a specific timeline for volume recovery from a customer.
Read the exchange
Question
So, sir, my first question is, if I recall from your statements in the previous quarter, there were some destocking-related impact at certain large customers that you had highlighted. So, what's the status on that, and when can we see those volumes coming back?
Kunal Shah, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
I think at least for one customer, we expect that to come back from the June quarter. Some in March, but mostly in June quarter.
Evasive
Medium priority
How will overseas plants avoid margin erosion like Magotteaux?
Asked by Priyankar Biswas, BNP Paribas
Management gave no concrete details on how margins would be protected.
no specifics on strategygeneric assurance
Read the exchange
Question
So how will our business model be different from theirs, and how will we be able to protect our margins?
Kunal Shah, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
I mean, we are plenty conscious of margins. ... Rest assured that we are mindful and will learn from mistakes that we or our competitors have made.
Answered
Medium priority
Impact of US-China tariff wars on China plant.
Asked by Priyankar Biswas, BNP Paribas
Management clearly stated no expected impact.
Read the exchange
Question
Do you expect some impact on our volumes or, let's say, on our investments that we may be doing at China?
Kunal Shah, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
Not really. I mean, the U.S. may not be the destination country from China.
Partial answer
Medium priority
Rationale for global plants and competitor moves.
Asked by Yash Nerurkar, InCred Equities
Management explained their own rationale but avoided discussing competitor moves.
no competitor commentvague rationale
Read the exchange
Question
So what made you go global in terms of the plants in China and Ghana? So do your customers see this as positive as you being closer to the mines?
Kunal Shah, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
For us, all we are saying right now is that our model was make in India and then ship to the world. ... we do recognize that there are merits in having plants where there are some benefits linked to that.
Declined
High priority
Profitability of China plant vs India low-cost base.
Asked by Yash Nerurkar, InCred Equities
Management explicitly declined to provide profitability details.
refused to share details
Read the exchange
Question
So how will the profitability look like for these units in China?
Kunal Shah, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
This is the strategy, the nuts and bolts of strategy. It will be difficult for us to explain on a call this way.
Declined
Medium priority
Location of China plant and rationale for China.
Asked by Yash Nerurkar, InCred Equities
Management declined to provide any specifics on the China plant.
refused to share location or rationale
Read the exchange
Question
Just wanted to know in which region in China is this plant going to be. ... what was the reason for you to get into China in the first place?
Kunal Shah, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
I may not get the liberty to share much more color on it today or at this time.
Partial answer
High priority
Why volumes reset to 250-260 instead of recovering to 290?
Asked by Anupam Gupta, IIFL
Management denied customer loss but did not explain the volume decline fully.
no specific reason for resetblamed temporary factors
Read the exchange
Question
What is stopping us from recovering the volumes which we lost versus last year? So we were at 290 last year. Has there been a customer loss which has resulted in a reset to 250, 260?
Sanjay Majmudar, Independent Director
I don't think we have lost any major customers. ... we do expect the order book or the order inflow from the existing customers to start coming at a regular level in the next one or two quarters.
Answered
Medium priority
Competition from forged segment entrant in high chrome.
Asked by Anupam Gupta, IIFL
Management clearly stated no competition from that entrant.
Read the exchange
Question
Have you started to see competition from them for your existing customers on your targeting?
Sanjay Majmudar, Independent Director
No, I don't think so. I'm sorry. I can't go beyond that, but that really is not, I would say, a threat or a competition for us.
Quantitative claims vs filed numbers
| Claim | Management said | Filing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating margins in the range of 27%-28% | 27.5% | 27% | Matches filing |
Filed figures sourced from Screener.in. Claims within a small tolerance of the filing are marked “matches filing”.