SURAT, JUNE 16, 2022 (GPN): Aether Industries Limited, India’s leading specialty chemical manufacturer that focuses on advanced intermediates and specialty chemicals, has announced its first financial results following the listing of its shares for the fourth quarter ended on 31st March 2022.

Q4FY22 Highlights –

Particulars (Cr.)	Q4 FY21	Q4 FY22	FY21	FY22	YoY
Revenue	116.45	147.71	453.79	597.02	31.56%
EBITDA	36.34	42.32	116.13	175.08	50.76%
PAT	22.87	26.02	71.12	108.93	53.16%

FY22 vs FY21 –

• Revenues from operations for the full year ended March 31, 2022 stood at ₹590.05 crore as compared to ₹449.82 crore in FY21.
• The Company’s Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) stood at

₹175.08 crore in FY22, as against ₹116.13 crore in FY21. The Company’s EBITDA margin was 29.33% in FY22 vs 25.59% in FY21.

• Profit Before Tax (PBT) stood at ₹146.47 crore for FY22 as compared to ₹93.81 crore in FY21. The Company’s PBT margin was 24.53% in FY22 vs 20.67% in FY21.

• Profit After Tax (PAT) stood at ₹108.93 crore for FY22 as against ₹71.12 crore in FY21. The Company’s PAT margin was 18.25% in FY22 vs 15.67% in FY21.

• The Company clocked ROCE’s of 23.96% and ROE’s of 28.16% in FY22.

Operational Highlights

• Revenue from Exports (including deemed exports and SEZ sales) increased by 52.71% in Q4 FY22  in comparison with Q4 FY21.
• The order book as of 31 March 2022 is 247.05 crores, compared to 212.81 crores as of 31 March 2021.

Business Segment Highlights

Large Scale Manufacturing

• Installed, commissioned, and launched new production trains in existing manufacturing facility for Trans-4-Aminocyclohexanol (TACH) and 2-Chloro-1,4-Naphthoquinone (CNQ) products.
• Launched the civil construction of a new green-field manufacturing facility, slated for commissioning by EOY 2022.
• Launched several new efficiency and energy conservation programs, including a modern  aqueous waste treatment plant.

Contract Research and Manufacturing Services

• Continued to expand existing customer base and built new research and manufacturing partnerships with new leading innovator multi-national companies globally across the industry spectrum.
• Launched an almost double times expanded R&D facilities and a new world-class R&D centre. More than 55 Fume Hoods installed and the R&D facility has 164 plus highly experienced people, including 92 PhDs / Scientists and 72 Engineers.
• Continued the triple expansion of the pilot plant facility, culminating into one of the largest pilot plants in the world. More than 100 Reactors being installed. Batch and continuous reaction technologies to be used at this Skid based pilot plant.

Contract / Exclusive Manufacturing Services

• Despite being a pandemic year, Aether could cement and expand the existing exclusive manufacturing partnerships for the 3-Methoxy-2-Methyllenzoyl Chloride (MMBC), 2-Methoxy-6- Chlorotoluene (MCT), and Delta Valerolactone (DVL) products with key multi-national customers.
• Earmarked and developed a few production blocks dedicated for exclusive manufacturing opportunities in the near future.

Commenting on the results, Dr. Aman Desai, Promoter & Whole-time Director, Aether Industries, said, “We have managed to sustain our growth profile year on year. Our differentiated approach, methods and consistent investment into R&D, building better manufacturing platforms has kept us riding the tide and efforts will continue across teams to stay ahead. In our sales mix the Pharma sector continues to dominate i.e 59.54% followed by the Agrochemicals sector which grew by 4.08% to 24.68%. Other segments like Coatings grew by 0.54% to 3.31% in addition to new segments like Material Science contributing 4.21% and Oil and Gas contributing 0.92% besides others. 64.67% of our revenues comes from exports (including SEZ sales and sales to EOU units in India), balance 35.33% catering to domestic sales.

Additionally states, If we were to speak of the three business models, the sales revenue break-up for  the FY22 looks more interesting with Large Scale Manufacturing contributing 67.03%, (FY21 it was 72.23%), Contract Manufacturing contributing 23.77% (FY21 19.38%) and Contract Research and Manufacturing Services (CRAMS) contributing 8.12% (FY21 7.98%) of the revenue from operations. If we were to look at the geographic mix, India accounts for 58.77%, Europe accounts for 30.30%, USA accounts for 6.25%, Asia accounts for 4.27% and ROW accounts for 0.42% of the revenue from operations in FY22.

We started off the Company in 2013 and have done extensive Research and Development in the initial years, which we still continue to do as R&D is the heart of our Company. The expenses towards R&D (revenue plus capital) have been increasing year on year in absolute terms and also as a percentage of total revenue, wherein in the FY22 6.60% our total revenue is spent towards R&D.

Focus of the Company has always been on the Quality, Environment, Health & Safety (QEHS), where we have a total of 15.44% of manpower (of our total strength as on March 31, 2022) deployed to these areas. We have also been awarded a Silver EcoVadis Medal, for the sustainability initiative. We are also a proud member of UN Global Compact for the various corporate social responsibility initiatives.

We have also started the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Reporting exercise and soon will be going ahead with the ratings for the same.”Ends

About Aether Industries Ltd (www.aether.co.in) BSE: 543534; NSE: AETHER

Incorporated in 2013, Aether Industries Limited is a speciality chemical manufacturer in India focused on producing advanced intermediates and specialty chemicals involving complex and differentiated  chemistry and technology core competencies. Our vision is to create a niche in the global chemical industry with a creative approach towards chemistry, technology and systems leading to sustainable growth. We began commercial operations in the last quarter of FY17 and stand to be one of the fastest growing specialty chemical firms in India. The company has an installed capacity of 6000 MT as on date and operates its state of the art and DCS automated manufacturing facilities in Surat, Gujarat. We are  ISO 9001: 2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 45001:2018, ISMS 27001:2013 and Indian GMP certified.

The Promoters (Mr. Ashwin Desai, MD, Ms. Purnima Desai, WTD, Mr. Rohan Desai, WTD and Dr. Aman Desai, WTD) lead the Company from the front with their techno-commercial mix, where Mr. Ashwin Desai being Technical Expert and Ms. Purnima Desai being Commercial Expert in the older generation and Dr. Aman Desai being Technical Expert and Mr. Rohan Desai being Commercial Expert, adds tremendous value to the Company.

Our Board of Directors led by our Promoters, being the Executive Directors of our Board. We are further enriched by our Board Members who are technically sound and have extensive experience in various fields like chemicals, pharmaceuticals, accountancy, finance, and project implementation, who add tremendous value and vision to our Company.

We are further enriched with the 3 Senior Management Personnel (Dr. James Ringer, Mr. Ray Roach and Dr. Norbert Fluggen), who add technical expertise and bring in years of experience from their past engagements with various multinational giants like Dow, Altana, companies.