Ashok Leyland Ltd Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Pramod Kumar - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Analyst : My first question pertains to the other expenditure side. Last quarter, we had a fair bit of control on the other expenditure side, but we have seen some massive sales this quarter. So if you can just help us understand, Gopal, as to what happened here? And what could be more like a normalized level of other expenditure for you for the remainder of the year?

Question: Pramod Kumar - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Analyst : Second question is on the pricing and the competitiveness because there's a evolving view that commodity prices have started to soften. So the CV industry should be able to see better pricing and better margins. But at the same time, we've seen even with the last 2 years plus of good demand or almost a pretty good demand in the last 3 quarters, the industry hasn't benefited on the profitability side, even with the operating leverage benefits and the reason being competition. So what are your thoughts, Dheeraj, on this, has the industry started getting some tailwinds from commodity? How do you see the net pricing and the net margin scenarios evolving, at the gross margin level, I'm not talking about the EBITDA margin, but more at the gross margin level? And related to that is, whether -- are you seeing any revival in demand from the small 1 to 10 truck operator kind of a category, because that could probably result in better pricing for you because the bidding scenario on those orders will not be bad as such. So if you can just help us understand the pricing and the gross margin scenario here? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 01, 2022 / 9:00AM, ASOK.NS - Q1 2023 Ashok Leyland Ltd Earnings Call

Question: Pramod Kumar - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Analyst : And Dheeraj, do you see that...

Question: Pramod Kumar - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Analyst : No, no, no, I think it's great, Dheeraj. And just a follow-up on that. Do you see the structure changing ever because of the way the taxation norms have changed the entire fall out of De-Mon, GST, and the way the financing has evolved. So do you see that in the heavy tonnage category or the medium and heavy tonnage category, there will be any reversal of this trend of formalization of the industry and it's becoming more of a B2B business with strategic players on the trucking -- on the fleet side. Do you see this changing ever?

Question: Pramod Kumar - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Analyst : Best of luck. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 01, 2022 / 9:00AM, ASOK.NS - Q1 2023 Ashok Leyland Ltd Earnings Call

Question: Amyn Pirani - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Hello, hi, can you hear me?

Question: Amyn Pirani - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : My question was regarding the pricing environment, obviously, you've spoken about it to some extent. But would it be right to say that for the last 3 to 4 months, the discounting pressure from competition in the market in general has been much lower and everybody has taken the perishable route and allowing prices to go up?

Question: Amyn Pirani - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : And secondly, just on the financing business, if you could give some update as to how Hinduja Leyland Finance is doing? And any updates on the listing of the business and the deal that you had announced some time back? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 01, 2022 / 9:00AM, ASOK.NS - Q1 2023 Ashok Leyland Ltd Earnings Call

Question: Amyn Pirani - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : That's helpful, sir. Just one last thing on that. Do you anticipate investing any money into Hinduja Leyland Finance this year, because we still don't know the time lines of the reverse merger. So if you can help us understand on that, and that will be my last question.