Welcome to Investors’ Edge— your daily dose of business insights, trends, and updates that matter. In this space, we go beyond the headlines to explore the evolving world of companies and industries. Each day, we bring you thoughtfully curated insights, sharp observations, and key developments shaping the business landscape.
Whether it's a strategic pivot by a market leader or an under-the-radar company making waves, we break it down for you — clearly, concisely, and consistently.
The 18th edition of Investor's Edge, released on July 19th, offers compelling insights. This issue highlights key takeaways from Q1FY26 concalls of noteworthy companies across industries such as chemicals, AMC, Brokers, Hotels, Cabels and Wires, etc. Let's dive in!
Multiple New Product Commercialisations Set to Expand Addressable Market by $1.7B, Driving Margin & Revenue Growth
“The water trials for Performance Chemical 1 is expected to commence in the next 4 weeks. And commercial production to begin in September. CapEx for Performance Chemicals 2 to steel is underway, and we expect the plant to commercialize by Q4 FY '26. Regarding DHDT, the Pharma Intermediate, the plant is now commercialized, the production process is more or less stabilized and now the samples have been sent to a variety of customers for validation. Regarding another product called as barbituric acid, we are in process to rebuild the existing facility of PBQ to convert it into barbituric acid, and this is estimated to commercialize by August end. The growth driver with commercialization of newer launches, including HALS, Performance Chemicals 1, Performance Chemical 2, the addressable market is set to expand by over 1.7 billion over the next 3 quarters. These newer launches give us visibility in terms of revenue acceleration going forward.
Secondly is we are trying to diversify into more complex products. One is 2020, which we mentioned, which we are starting next month. So all these is giving customers confidence that it is not that we are only into 4, 5 basic HALS product, but we are also into more complex series, which gives them the confidence to switch over as my base keeps increasing, my fixed costs keep reducing and thus, the EBITDA margin should improve.”
— Siddharth Sikchi
RBI’s Liquidity Measures and Rate Cuts Boost Debt Market Sentiment, Supporting Debt Fund Growth
“I think the RBI taking series of measures to improve the liquidity in the system. I think the reduction in interest rates, CRR, all of that had a cumulative impact on debt market also becoming attractive for investors who are looking at yields, which have kind of like can be on a downward trajectory.
And I think overall favorable backdrop for the debt markets and by extension for debt mutual funds. I think all of these measures have been good for us. We remain constructive on the outlook for debt funds. You might have noticed that even at we have relaunched our campaign to promote debt fund. And I think whenever liquidity in the system improves, that also helps and then people have positive view on the interest rate trajectory.”
— Navneet Munot
How HDFC AMC have been a leader and wants to ensure that they want to be the leader
“So we've got the full product bouquet. We've got the best-in-class content and a seamless journey for investors to participate in that. We engage with partners who have been offering passive as their product bouquet. So trying to make every possible efforts to ensure that we get our fair share in that space. On the overall new product pipeline. So our current product suite is very well diversified. And as per the classification, we are present in almost all the categories that regulator allows. Within the sector and thematic category, wherever our investment team has a strong belief in terms of the product that we should offer where we have the investment capability, and we think that at least a set of investors and distributors would have a place for that kind of product, we continue to come out with that. Recently we did this NFO of Innovation Fund. So I think overall, our product bouquet has been pretty decent. And our endeavor is to keep gaining scale in each and every category and each and every product within that.
So we are market leader in a couple of categories, let's say, balanced advantage fund or a mid-cap fund, flexi cap funds, small cap, but our ambition is to build leadership across the board, each and every product where we are present, given the long-term track record, given the investment capability and given the reach that we have, we want to ensure that we have leadership in every product where we are present.”
— Navneet Munot
Balanced Portfolio Strategy & Revival in Wholesale Lending to Power Next Phase of Growth
“We have quite heavily demonstrated our ability to grow certain asset classes and the cost of the other asset classes and drive the right NIM through various kind of interest rate changes we have seen over the last 3 years or so. On one side, you've seen our elevated retail risk. So it was important to get a handle and ensure that the stock with all the kind of the flow, which is coming is at a credit cost, which is much lower than what we have seen in the past. So some of those areas which we are growing, obviously, the growth has slowed down. If you go through the disbursement growth in some of our retail asset losses, you will see that has definitely picked up in comparison to what you saw in '24 - '25.
The AUM has not picked up because you are seeing repayment of loans, but we do expect these disbursements will start going through AUM. You are seeing decent growth on the mortgage side in the industry. Between wholesale and mortgage, we have grown the wholesale side more and wholesale has not really been one of the lower growth asset classes for us for some time. Now we have an opportunity to grow, and we are growing there. And we have always told you that when we want to grow wholesale, we can grow, and we're just demonstrating that as we speak. We expect growth to come back up and some of the other asset classes also as time goes by.
We would not like to start giving guidance on specific areas where we believe where the growth is going to come from. I think we have demonstrated the ability to manage our portfolio mix. We have demonstrated ability to grow some asset classes, not grow some, cut down on some. We've shown the ability to manage our NIMs. Yes, obviously, deposit has to be a driver. We expect deposit growth also to start fitting into the system in the next 1 or 2 quarters. So it's a combination of all those facts rather than getting into what exactly is the formula, which will help it. I think we will -- partly, we have a certain strategy, partly we'll also have to react to what is happening in the market. But we do believe that the growth engine is fully gradually coming back, and we will be able to drive that growth in the system.”
Nearing to achieve the 400 hotels milestone this month
“We continue to demonstrate industry-leading growth with 12 hotels signed and 6 hotels opened in Q1 '25-'26. This includes three luxury wildlife lodges in Kruger National Park, South Africa, expanding our presence in the African continent with 249 operational hotels and over 143 hotels in the pipeline, we are nearing the milestone of 400-plus hotels portfolio. We remain confident of achieving this milestone during this month itself.
And as a reminder, our guidance under Accelerate 2030 is to have 700 hotels portfolio by 2030. Number five, traditional business continues to be strong. RevPAR for our consolidated domestic hotels grew by a strong 11% on a like-for-like basis and 13% for our owned international hotels. Key business cities, which are important for our consolidated performance continue to benefit from limited supply growth. Our international hotels performed very well, led by strong growth in U.S. hotels, especially The Pierre, which closed the quarter with a positive profit before tax. Number six, new brands and reimagined businesses.”
Good growth in the new business verticals
“IHCL's new businesses vertical comprising of Ginger, Qmin, amã Stays & Trails and now also Tree of Life continued to showcase strong growth of 27% year-on-year. Ginger grew 25% year-on-year, enabled by the stellar performance of the flagship Ginger Mumbai Airport Hotel as well as a strong growth in F&B revenues driven by what we call Qminization of Ginger. That means having Qmin-branded restaurants in our Ginger properties. All this was despite revenue curtailment for the reasons I've already mentioned. Qmin has grown to 93 outlets across multiple formats, amã Stays & Trails has reached a portfolio of 309 bungalows, with 138 in operation, and Tree of Life is now a 20-plus results portfolio with 18 in operation. Number seven, management fee growth through capital-light strategy.”
Extremely confident to deliver Double-Digit growth
“Each quarter or the year has 12 months and quarter has 3 months. The trend is positive. Everything moves in the right direction, we feel extremely confident. I mean, I can't be more direct than this when I use the word extremely confident of delivering on double-digit growth for the hotel segment for the year. And despite all the turbulences in the airline sector, we still feel very confident about delivering 20% top line growth in the airline catering business for the year.
The sector is going through a good phase. Demand remains strong. Supply is constrained in the key markets. And normally, if all goes as we have seen in the last so many quarters, I think it's -- and I've said it in the last call, and I've said it in some television interviews, I think there will always be some headwinds.
We don't know what and when. But this is the beginning of a very long journey for a nation that is aspiring to become the third largest economy. And there, we compare the GDP growth and the infrastructure development that is expected to happen, the sector is very undersupplied.”
Upon use of AI agents and developing use case of AI in travel bookings
“One of the most powerful applications of agentic AI at Ixigo is in voice agents. Today, more Than 60% of our customers support voice interactions that are handled end to end by fully autonomous AI agents. These voice agents don't just respond. They proactively call customers to deliver critical travel updates, collect NPS scores or feedback and even follow up with business partners on behalf of our users or internal teams. This is saving time improving service levels and enabling proactive customer care at scale. Democratization of agentic AI across the organization is a key part of our strategy as well. Anyone at Ixigo can build, test, and deploy autonomous workflows without needing an engineering background and without having to write a single line of code. As for the future, we believe travel apps will evolve into conversational multimodal and hyperpersonalized autonomous agents. Not just recommending, but doing for you. From booking your trip at the optimal time, reserving your travel at a restaurant on arrival. Future travel assistants will act not just as advice. And to power this, they'll need real time inventory.”
AI as an enabler to scale
“If you want to measure how good a company is at AI adoption for accelerating growth and efficiency, the best measures would be to look at their revenue per employee. For us, last quarter we crossed rupees 2.2 cr annualized revenue per employee in Cuba or roughly 256,000 USD, which even on a global benchmark is pretty decent. We believe this is just the start. In FY25 we managed to grow our revenue nearly 40% while growing our employee base by less than 10%. In spite of adding newer business lines like hotels, food on trains etc. which will require a couple of years to scale.”
Prioritising tech spends over short term focus on operating leverage
“In such a dynamic environment, we believe it's critical to stay and continue investing in cutting edge technologies and capabilities. These technology expenditures may not immediately translate into operating leverage in the short term, but when one of these pays off. When a particular use case matures and can be deployed at scale, it unlocks significant operating leverage and competitive advantage. Our philosophy is to stay ahead of the curve, absorb the learning costs today, frontload and build a defensible mode that compounds over time through proprietary AI driven efficiencies and user delight.”
Favourable macros
“In India, a favorable inflation outlook prompted the central bank to frontload rate curves complimented by proactive liquidity measures and regulatory reforms. Together, these have supported the economy's steady expansion as evidenced by the strength in high frequency indicators. Early data for Q1 FY26 suggests a gradual improvement in consumption demand. This is reflected in rising steel consumption, a pick up in electronic imports, and higher central government revenue expenditure. Services activity is also gaining pace with encouraging trends in services PMI vehicle and state level tax collections monsoon progress has been favorable as well currently tracking 15% above the long period average which boards well for rural demand and agricultural output on the ground momentum is clearly visible digital payments continue to surge capital good output is improving and auto save recovery.
Manufacturing industry output rose close to 3% year on year in May while steel and cement production remained resilient growing 7 and 9% respectively. Headline CPI for June declined to 2.1% a 73month low with core inflation also remaining well anchored at 4.4%. The real estate sector remains but with some signs of moderation. Government capex 2 has gathered pace with 19.7% of the FY26 budgeted outlay already spent by May 2025 marking the highest spend in 7 years. While few challenges persist, India's economic foundation remains strong with strong fundamentals, proactive policy support and demonstrated resilience.”
Levers behind expansion of margins
“The continued focus on premiumization helped the ATM business achieve its second consecutive profitable quarter. Margin expansion was driven by a better product mix and operating leverage from scaling efficiency with remain confident in the long-term potential of our FMEG business, continuing to align our efforts with project spring, targeting one and a half to 2x of industry growth.”
Additional AI and data centre lead demand
“what you also have to keep in mind are two other opportunities one is the kind of investments which will be required on the data center side because of all the investments or towards AI which are being done by the large corporations in India that will require are huge set of power cables as well as optical fiber cables and that will continue to be there”
Tariffs favourable to India when compared to other nations
“Definitely the tariff situation over there is kind of an overhang which kind of impacts the visibility in the near term but in the longer term as you are aware it's a very very big opportunity. "If you look at the current situation in terms of tariffs, India stands to be in a beneficial position." India's 10% import duty with China's almost 55%, Mexico's 30% (effective from 1st August), South Korea's 25%, and Vietnam's and Philippines' 20%. He concluded on the US situation by saying: "So as of now the situation is in favor of India but this is an evolving situation. So we won't be able to comment very clearly on how this will play out but irrespective in the longer term I think uh exports will definitely be growing and definitely the USA will be one of the larger contributors in terms of the exports that we do”
Smaller deals , slower decision making leading to slowdown in business
“Experiencing that customers are taking more time and being cautious in decision making and the project starts . Deferrals and closure delays have led to slow license sales and subsequent implementation in Q1”
Pipeline remains healthy , but there is conversion slowdown
"While the pipeline is healthy and holds up well, we are experiencing that customers are taking more time and being cautious in decision making and the project starts. As a result, the funnel conversion is slower than initially anticipated at the start of the quarter". This highlights a key challenge despite a strong sales pipeline.”
Emerging Growth verticals
“Not building just another financial services business . We are building an intelligent AI Powered product led multi offering platform designed to meet the full spectrum . “
Navigating uncertainty through consolidating market share :
"During period of heightened uncertainty whether driven by market cycles or external factors our foundational and ongoing strategy is to maintain and consolidate market share We believe this focus will ensure long-term sustainability and resilience especially when the broader environment may be more volatile in broking where we began Over the years we have witnessed the industry go through multiple peaks and traps which has only strengthened our conviction in its long-term growth potential"
Wealth management expected to breakeven faster than AMC business
"Wealth Management: The philosophy of reimagining financial services through technology "extends into a fluent segment as well where traditional wealth management models are being challenged by the digital revolution Here too we are creating a new kind of experience for digitally s affluent clients". The "wealth business to break even faster than the AMC business". Ionic Wealth "now serves over a thousand clients as of June 2025" and has "crossed 5,000 crores in AUM"
Falling fno volumes a short term trend rather than a sustained trend
"now already we dispose of our number July was a bit flattish and April May we saw some number for July Yeah June June July we haven't disclosed yet Okay But industry is around almost 27 28% So is it fair to understand it to be some something very similar or is it what happens the leader reaction to Jane street and it takes time for players to get readjust to you know kind of next scenario So we have seen like you know market like if something happens like this there's an impact for 10 15 days and things go back to normal So we should not read anything from this number what we are seeing in 7 8 to 8 days Although it has been volatile it is not that every day it was low"
As we close the 18th edition of Investor's Edge, it's clear that the business landscape is in constant motion, driven by innovation, strategic pivots, and evolving market dynamics. From Clean Science's ambitious product commercializations and HDFC AMC's focus on debt fund growth and market leadership, to Axis Bank's balanced portfolio strategy and Indian Hotels' impressive expansion, the Q1 FY26 concalls offer a rich tapestry of insights. Ixigo's pioneering use of AI, Polycab's optimistic view on macros and data center demand, and Angel One's emphasis on consolidating market share and the future of wealth management all highlight the diverse opportunities and challenges companies are navigating. Even Newgen Software's candid discussion on slower deal conversions provides valuable perspective on current market sentiments.
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This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell any securities. Please consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
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