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Informist, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026

 

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--Exide Ind: Telecom, export businesses were weak in Q3
--CONTEXT: Comments by Exide Ind mgmt in post-earnings analyst call
--Exide Ind: Hope exports performance improves following US tariff cut
--Exide Ind: Can ramp up supply to US after final details of trade deal known
--Exide Ind: Infrastructure business saw double-digit growth in Q3
--Exide Ind: Set up new partnerships overseas after tariff-led disruptions
--Exide Ind: Did not hike prices in Q3, wanted to pass on GST cut benefit
--Exide Ind:  Hiked prices in Jan on rise in commodity prices
--Exide Ind: Focused capital on lithium-ion battery ops, very bullish on it

 

By Anand JC and Eshitva Prakash

 

MUMBAI – Exide Industries Ltd. Tuesday said the market will give the company opportunity to improve its top line by high single-digit to early-double-digit next year as pressure is seemingly bottoming out for many of its businesses. "92% of our business in this quarter grew by about 12%. So if I can fix the balance 8% to that level, we should at least come to double digit level," a top executive of the company told analysts in a post earnings conference call.

 

"The headline growth numbers still remain muted because 8% of the remaining businesses had a strong decline, namely our telecom business as well as the exports business," the company said. Exports and telecom combined contribute around 8% to Exide's overall turnover.

 

Its operations under automobile segment, industrial infrastructure, and invertors contributed to overall top line growth. "Industrial infra performance improved year-on-year basis, order flow and execution picked up in B2B (business-to-business) sectors like railway, traction and industrial UPS (uninterruptable power supply) for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers)," the executive said. 

 

Excluding its telecom business, the company's domesstic businesses grew 10% in the December quarter. Exide's telecom business has come under pressure as the industry has shifted to lithium-ion batteries, which is causing a dip in lead acid volumes. The company is a major supplier of batteries and power backup solutions for telecom network infrastructure.

 

Exports alone used to contribute around 8% to the company's top line up until a few quarters ago, but that has moderated because the company was forced to pull back its supplies in overseas markets because of geopolitical tensions. "We lost all of our Central Asian markets. We were impacted because of the geopolitics. And we developed certain products, some premium products for the developed market like US and Europe which didn't pick up because of the barriers," the company said. 

 

Washington and New Delhi late Monday announced that they have agreed on a deal to reduce tariffs on both sides, with tariffs on Indian imports falling to 18% from 50?fore. "With the announcements what we heard yesterday (Monday), we know that yes, our customers, our distributors are ready. Our product is ready. We can very soon ramp up those supplies once we see the final details of the new tariff announcements," the company said.  

 

Exide set up new partnerships in different countries as it manoeuvred geopolitical uncertainties. "Actually this tariff-led disruption helped us to find out new countries and new partners, new distributors in other parts. And in Europe, we found out a new partner with whom we have an exclusive arrangement, which we might make public very soon," an executive said. The company is looking to ramp-up its exports going forward as it seeks to corner incremental growth from them.

 

The company did not hike prices in the December quarter even as some commodity costs inched up because it wanted to pass on the entire benefit of the cut in goods and services tax to consumers. "Some of the increases, we offset it through the cost savings initiative. But in January, we have taken one round of price correction. We had to take because otherwise this currency and these commodities were killing us," an executive said. The company hiked prices by 2% in January. 

 

Exide has been increasing its investment in lithium-ion batteries given that energy industry is increasingly adopting greener energy. "Investment for tomorrow...which is the Lithium-ion project. And therefore we are very bullish on this project that we have to be future ready," the company said. The company invested around INR 3.20 billion in the December quarter and INR 500 million in January towards manufacturing of lithium-ion cells.

 

The company invests in lithium-ion cells through its subsidiary Exide Energy Solutions Ltd. This arm manufactures advanced lithium-ion battery cells, modules, and packs for electric vehicles and stationary industrial applications. Exide has invested INR 42.52 billion so far in Exide Energy.  

 

It is currently in talks with various automobile original equipment manufacturers in the two-wheeler, three-wheeler, and four-wheeler space for projects. The company worked with Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd. and Kia Motors to supply batteries for their four-wheeler models such as the Tata Sierra and Kia Seltos. 

 

The company is currently engaging with a two-wheeler company. "The cylindrical line process validation, our internal validation, has already started in Bengaluru. We are now building cells, validating it. Next, we are sending samples to these customers for their own testing," an Exide executive said.

 

Exide disclosed its December quarter financials on Friday. It had reported a net profit of INR 2.58 billion on revenue of INR 40.30 billion. At 1421 IST, shares of the company traded 1.9% higher on the National Stock Exchange at INR 327.40.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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