Ion Exchange (India) Limited

My notes from 2023 Annual report for Ion Exchange:

1. Internationally serving – 80 countries
2. Exports ~ 20% of Sales

• India’s demand for water is projected twice as much as the available supply by 2030. According to Frost & Sullivan report, the Indian water and wastewater treatment market will likely reach $2.08 billion by 2025 from $1.31 billion in 2020, registering growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9 percent.
• Robust governmental initiatives, such as the:

• • Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation,
• • National Mission for Clean Ganga,
• • Jal Jeevan Mission, and
• • Community Drinking Water Schemes will contribute to the growth of the Indian water and wastewater treatment market.

• growing regulations by the regional Government to prevent pollution of naturally occurring water bodies and illegal wastewater discharge have boosted the market growth.
• Industrial sectors Power, Food and Beverages, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Steel, Refineries and Textile industries prefer advanced treatment technological systems such as reverse osmosis membranes for treating their wastewater. The concept of wastewater recycling and zero discharge systems is becoming more widely accepted as newer technologies such as membrane bioreactor (MBR) based treatment gain in adoption.
• Industries are also setting up sea water desalination plants to meet process water requirements. The coastal states of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are frontrunners in setting up desalination plants to bolster drinking water supply.
• Rapid industrialization, deteriorating quality of surface and ground water has increased the demand for pure and safe water in residential, institutional and community segments.

Segments:

1. Engineering

• The year has seen increase in sales profitability, order inflow from both domestic and international markets. It also has a healthy order backlog and bid pipeline from core industries like Oil & Refining, Steel, Infrastructure & Chemicals and OEMs in renewable energy domain, apart from Food & Beverages, Pharmaceuticals, Automobile & Components, to name a few.
• The service business also reported a healthy growth in the post Pandemic period.

With these the segment has visibility for sustaining growth in the next 2-3 years.

• The execution of Sri lanka project remained significantly affected and the company has engaged in discussions for expediting the project closure on a mutually acceptable terms.
• On the other hand, execution of UP Jal Nigam project progressed satisfactorily and revenue has been recognised based on work completion.
• The Membrane Division continued to deliver a double- digit growth in its top line with proportional growth in the EBITA margins. The success of its range of world-class membranes (RO, NF) and earlier than planned capacity expansion during the year, will help to further increase our market share in India and increase export of membranes to geographies where we have global presence.

2. Chemical Segment

• sales in the domestic segment continued to record steady growth
• the export volume remained muted due to geo-political issues and recessionary trends in global markets, particularly US and Europe
• Segment witnessed improved margins aided by softening and stability of input costs.
• Consistent with increased demand for ion exchange resins, we have announced a greenfield expansion project for manufacturing world-class ion exchange resins in Roha, Maharashtra.

3. Consumer Products

a. Home water solutions

• The Consumer Products segment comprises of Home Water Solutions, Institutional, Commercial Water Solutions and Rural Sales Division.
• It was a path-breaking year for Zero B Home Water Solutions which had significant growth in its revenue and profits.
• Sustained product innovations, commercial success of its Zero B Hydrolife range of top end product and Smart Digital initiatives in sales and services contributed to the growth.

b. Institutional segment

• The Institutional segment which caters to the requirement of Realty, Hospitals, Hospitality, etc. also registered good growth in its topline as compared to the previous year. High and differentiated product solutions like INDION HEMO (High Purity Water for Dialysis system), INDION QUENCHER (System for packaged drinking water in glass bottles with an aim to eliminate single-use plastics) and a wide range of Sewage Treatment Plants, contributed to the vertical’s performance.

c. Commercial Water segment

• In the Commercial Water segment the new Water Cooler models with unique features of purified water dispensed at three temperature variants (normal/warm/cold) received good response contributing to this segment’s growth. The LAB Q “Ultra Plus”, and High Purity Water systems for research laboratories and institutes requiring ASTM type-1 water registered good growth.

d. Rural Segment

• In the Rural Segment your Company continues to grow through its participation in various Government initiatives such as the Jal Jeevan Mission as well as with its association and support to non-government organizations and companies under their CSR activities.

Exports ( 394 Crores for FY 23) – Having built a favourable position as a reliable exporter of quality ion exchange resins, two of its important markets, namely North America and Europe continued to be constrained due to economic and geopolitical reasons.

• On the Engineering front, the company witnessed steady order flow in the international market. It includes a 40 MLD Seawater Desalination project for a leading EPC company in North Africa

Digital: your Company launched their new Corporate (www.ionexchangeglobal.com) and Hydramem (www.hydramem.com) websites which were stronger in functionality, appearance and navigation. Development of the new regional websites for Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe, India, Middle East and North America widened our marketing and sales reach to global customers.

Risks and mitigation:

• Company continued with its reassessment of short-term and long-term impacts of the geopolitical war and Covid cases in China and slow down in Europe – preferred to “strengthening of domestic manufacturing capabilities”.
• your company resorted to building capabilities in the countries of interest by investing in business and manpower abroad.
• In order to cash in on the growth opportunities in the Indian markets and to offset the impact of uncertainties, your Company continued to build a good order bank of profitable businesses.
• • Unprofitable or highly volatile opportunities were declined
• • continued to maintain a healthy mix of profitable and relatively stable stream of revenues from the engineering, chemical and home segment along with a good opening order bank