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SUMITOMO CHEMICAL INDIA LTD.

Written Transcript of the proceedings of the 24th Annual General Meeting held on

30th July 2024

 Ms. Deepika Trivedi – Company Secretary, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd:

 Good afternoon, everyone.

 Chairman Sir, it is 2:30 IST and the quorum for the meeting is present, so we can start with the meeting.

 Dr. Mukul G. Asher – Chairman, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd:

 Ladies and gentlemen, it is now past 2:30 pm and the necessary quorum being present I call the meeting to order. The representatives of the statutory auditors and the secretarial auditors are present in this meeting. The notice of the meeting has already been circulated and may I with your kind permission take it as read.

 A Shareholder:

 Yes, Chairman sir.

 Dr. Mukul G. Asher – Chairman, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd:

 The member speakers have been muted. During the question/answer session the name of speaker member will be called out, his or her speaker will be unmuted and the speaker will be able to speak.

 The register of directors and key managerial personnel and their shareholding kept under Section 170 of the Companies Act, 2013, the register of contracts and arrangements kept under Section 189 of the Companies Act, 2013, the auditors' reports and the secretarial audit report are laid on the table. They are also available on the Company’s website www.sumichem.co.in for inspection by the members during the meeting. As this meeting is being held by means of video conferencing the facility for appointing proxy has not been given to the members and hence the register of proxy is not laid on the table. The auditors’ reports are unmodified and do not contain any qualifications, reservations or adverse remarks. With respect to the observations in the auditors’ report regarding audit trail feature of the company’s accounting software, the same has been explained in a note to the standalone financial statements. There is no qualification, observations, comments or remarks in the secretarial audit report.

 I have inquired about the efforts made by the company and have satisfied myself that the company has made all efforts feasible under the circumstances to enable the members to participate in this meeting and vote on the items being considered in the meeting. E-voting process for voting in this meeting has already commenced.

The members attending this meeting who have not availed remote e-voting facility

1 are eligible to vote on the resolutions through e-voting process. I request such members to cast their votes.

 The 24th Annual General Meeting of Sumitomo Chemical India Limited, on Tuesday,

30th July 2024:

 I would like to warmly welcome you to the 24th annual general meeting of the company. We are into the silver jubilee year of our company. I extend hearty congratulations and warm regards to all the members and other stakeholders on this happy occasion.

 Please permit me to introduce my colleagues on the board and other friends present in this meeting. You have met all of them at previous AGMs.

 Mr. B.V. Bhargava is unable to attend the meeting as he is traveling.

 Let me now introduce the directors:

 Mr. Chetan Shah, Managing Director and Chairman of CSR Committee

 Mr. Sushil Marfatia, Executive Director

 Dr. Suresh Ramachandran, Whole-time Director

 Mr. Ninad D. Gupte, Director

 Mr. Tadashi Katayama, Director

 Mrs. Preeti Mehta, Director and Chairperson of Nomination and Remuneration

Committee

 Mr. Masanori Uzawa, Director

 Others present at the AGM:

 Mrs. Deepika Trivedi, Company Secretary

 Mr. Kunal Mittal, Sr. Vice President and Sr. Vice President PCO

 Mr. Anil Nawal, Chief Financial Officer

 Mr. Jayesh Gandhi, Partner of SRBC & CO LLP, auditors

 Mr. Farhad Bamji, Partner of BSR & Company, LLP, auditors designate

 The year 2023-24 in perspective:

 Looking back the year 2023-24 turned out to be one of the most challenging years ever faced by the agrochemicals industry. There were multiple challenges such as erratic rainfall and unfavourable weather conditions across the globe leading poor to domestic and international demand, high-cost inventory pile-up at all layers in the industry, declining raw materials and product prices, volatile geopolitical situation,

Red Sea situations posing logistics challenges in international material movements and escalating transport costs. Almost all industry players witnessed sharp decline in

2 financial performance and your company was no exception. Even in the face of such adversity your company has shown remarkable strength, resilience and adaptability.

 During 2023-24 the sales turnover decreased from Rs. 34,733 million in the previous year to Rs. 28,063. The domestic sales turnover decreased from Rs. 26,069 million in

2022-23 to Rs. 22,510 million; while the export turnover decreased from Rs. 8,664 million to Rs. 5,553 million. During FY23-24 the PBT decreased from Rs. 6,554 million in the preceding year to Rs. 5,033 million and the PAT (profit after tax) from Rs.

5,034 million in 2022-23 to Rs. 3,697.

 The company nevertheless continues on its journey from consolidation phase to an accelerated growth-oriented phase. Among others, this will require sustained capital expenditure and investments as well as research and innovation. The focus areas identified by the company for the coming years are global markets - expansion of product basket and forays into new markets; Research and innovation; and leveraging digital technology for business and achieving growth.

 The company continues to focus on enriching product basket, introducing and developing new brands and enhancing product pipeline through continued introduction of new products. The company has completed setting up of two new plants for global requirements. Commercial production has begun in these plants and the endeavour is to increase production volumes speedily. The process for setting up manufacturing facilities in a newly acquired land parcel in Dahej in Gujarat has been initiated. The company has applied for environmental clearance. Once this clearance is in place work on construction will begin.

 The company has plans for strategic investments in augmenting its R&D infrastructure with focus on enhancing capabilities for exploring innovative solutions and improving production efficiencies.

 The company is focusing on sustainable development and green technologies. It is working rigorously in the areas of harnessing renewable energy, reducing CO2 emissions by embracing green fuel in place of fossil fuel, scientific plastic waste management, and efficient water management through water conservation and recycling.

 The company has been an early adopter of digital tools in the rural market and has been placing emphasis on their use for increasing timely reach to the customers in a cost effective manner.

 In February 2024, the board declared a special interim dividend of Rs. 5 per share to commemorate the company entering its silver jubilee. Keeping in view the global, domestic and company related factors, the board after extensive deliberations has come to the conclusion that for FY23-24 a prudent course would be to recommend a final dividend of Rs. 0.90 per share on 499.15 million shares.

 Acquisitions of Barrix Agro Sciences Private Limited:

 In December 2023 the company acquired 85% stake in Barrix Agro Sciences Private

Limited, a company engaged in R&D and innovation as also in manufacturing and marketing pheromones and other IPM (Integrated Pest Management) and IPNM

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(Integrated Plant Nutrition Management) products for agricultural pest management. This is one more step of your company towards promoting sustainable eco-friendly biological and green solutions to farmers who are controlling managing pests.

 Now we come to the year ahead 2024-25:

 We are all aware that monsoon is the single largest determinant of fortunes of agriculture and in turn of agrochemicals companies. Though, monsoon set in well in time this season in the country, it took some time before it gathered momentum and spread. By now most regions have received good amount of rainfall and sowing and other agricultural activities in most parts are normal. Met-agencies and weather experts are predicting bountiful rainfall this year which should augur well for the country.

 On 27th July 2024, the company’s board approved the audited financial results for the first quarter of the current financial year 2024-25. I hope you have seen these results. The first quarter results indicate uptick in performance and return of normalcy from an extremely challenging year of 202324. In the first quarter of the current financial year, revenues from operations has increased from Rs. 7,242 million in the corresponding quarter in the previous year to Rs. 8,318 million, thr PBT increased from Rs. 834 million in the preceding year to Rs. 1,726 million and Profit

After Tax increased from Rs. 618 million to Rs. 1,284 million. We expect this trend of improved performance to sustain throughout the year, if the rainfall and other climatic conditions are normal.

 As you are aware the company has regularly updating shareholders by means of investor presentations and earnings calls. These provide useful information and updates to the shareholders on these financial results.

 Let me conclude. Here I would like to make a special mention of Mr. B.V. Bhargava, our independent director. He would be taking retirement on completion of his term in August 2024. He has been on our board of directors for the past 5 years. Earlier he was on the board of Excel Crop Care Limited as an independent director since 2004.

During this long stint, his contribution to the board deliberation, business strategizing and planning and persistent emphasis on improving business systems and processes has been immense and praiseworthy. I, on my behalf and on behalf of the board, shareholders and senior management of the company place on record our sincere appreciation for his immense contribution.

 I would like to express my deep appreciation to all the shareholders in supporting the company. The company and the directors are thankful to you for attending this meeting. I request continued support by the shareholders to the company and its management in their endeavour to grow the business and enhance shareholder value. I am confident that the company and the management will continue to receive support of the shareholders. I take this opportunity to thank the company’s bankers and business associates, customers, suppliers, various government agencies, financial and other institutions for extending their professional support to the company.

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 May I invite you to join me in thanking all my colleagues on the board, the management team, other staff and the workforce at various production sites, sales locations and offices who have strived as a harmonious team to help enhance the company’s resilience and competence.

 Thank you.

 I now enumerate the 10 resolutions proposed to taken up for voting in this meeting through the e-voting process.

 The first resolution is an ordinary resolution for adopting the financial statements and the reports of the Board and the auditors.

 The second resolution is an ordinary resolution for declaration of final dividend of Rs.

0.90 per share on equity shares as recommended by the board. Please note that earlier this year in February 2024 the board declared and paid a special interim dividend of Rs. 5 per share to commemorate the company’s silver jubilee year.

 The third resolution is an ordinary resolution for approving reappointment of Mr.

Tadashi Katayama as director. Mr. Katayama retires by rotation and being eligible offers himself for re-appointment.

 The fourth resolution is an ordinary resolution for approving appointment of M/s.

BSR & Co. LLP as the company’s auditors for 5 years. The 5 year term of M/s. SRBC &

CO LLP, the current auditors expires on conclusion of this meeting and hence the resolution for appointment of M/s. BSR & Co. LLP, as the auditors is proposed.

 Mr. Chetan Shah – Managing Director, Sumitomo Chemicals India Ltd:

 The fifth resolution is a special resolution for approving reappointment of Dr. Mukul

G. Asher as independent director for the second term with effect from 27th August

2024.

 Dr. Mukul G. Asher – Chairman, Sumitomo Chemicals India Ltd:

 The sixth resolution is a special resolution for approving reappointment of Mrs. Preeti

Mehta as independent director for the second term with effect from 31st August

2024.

 The seventh resolution is a special resolution for approving appointment of Mr. N.

Sivaraman as independent director with effect from 1st September 2024.

 The eighth resolution is a special resolution for approving promoting Dr. Suresh

Ramchandran to the position of Deputy Managing Director with effect from 1st

September 2024. In the last AGM the members had approved appointment of Dr.

Ramchandran as a whole-time director with effect from 1st June 2023.

 The ninth resolution is an ordinary resolution for approving transactions entered into and proposed to be entered into with Sumitomo Chemical Company Limited, a related party, during the financial year 2024-25.

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 The tenth and the last resolution is an ordinary resolution for ratification of the remuneration of M/s. GMVP & Associates LLP, the cost auditors.

 I now invite the members to raise queries, give their comments or ask questions, if any. I request Mrs. Deepika Trivedi to facilitate this process.

 Ms. Deepika Trivedi – Company Secretary, Sumitomo Chemicals India Ltd:

 Moderator sir Mr. Rajeev Ranjan, we will now begin the question and answer session. Please note that each speaker is allotted a time slot of 3 minutes which all the speakers are requested to follow. We will be noting questions of all the speakers and the same will be answered after all the speakers have completed their speeches.

Moderator sir, the first speaker is Mr. Bimal Agarwal I request you to kindly unmute him.

 Mr. Bimal Agarwal – Shareholder:

 Sir, can you hear me, hello.

 Moderator:

 Yes, sir, you are audible.

 Mr. Bimal Agarwal – Shareholder:

 Thank you. First of all I thank the company secretary, her team, management and the staff and also the shareholders. I again thank the company secretary for sending me the physical copy of the annual report. As management has already explained very well in their speech I got only one question, how we can sustain the profitability in future. That’s all from me and thank you once again and always have the meeting through video conference. And try to arrange a plant visit for the shareholders who have joined. That’s all from me thank you very much. I have supported all the resolutions.

 Moderator:

 Thank you, sir. Our next speaker for the event is Shri Vinod Agarwal. Vinod sir, kindly enable your video and you may speak now.

 Mr. Vinod Agarwal – Shareholder:

 Hello, can you hear me?

 Moderator:

 Yes, sir, you are audible.

 Mr. Vinod Agarwal – Shareholder:

 Respected Chairman, Dr. Mukul Govindji Asher, respected MD, Mr. Chetan Shah and

CFO, Anil Nawal and CS Deepika Trivedi, good afternoon and to everyone. I have voted for all the resolutions adopted in today’s AGM. The revenue from last year was down from the previous year. I think that was due to bad weather conditions and the

6 monsoon season was erratic and the prices of the commodity were not moving well.

And even the Ukraine war would have affected the sales of plant protection products. Sir, you have given special dividend of Rs. 5 for silver jubilee year. You would have celebrated silver jubilee year with your colleagues and the staff and workers so celebrate after Diwali or around Diwali with the existing shareholders who come to the AGM and attend the AGM and speak in the AGM, you can always celebrate with a part of the attendees of today’s AGM.

 Sir, new products you have launched Derecho for oomycetes disease control and

Cuflow, what will be the revenue target that you are looking for Derecho or Sumi

Blue Diamond which is from parental company we have received this year. I would like to know what would be this thing. Our products are much more [inaudible] and agri growth. I wish the company all the best - 900 SKU brands, 5 plants and 2 of them are very good sir, and 2 of those plants you have set up recently are meant for export, so our foreign exchange earnings will also improve. Brands are Pyclome,

Cuflow, Santana, Danitol - very good, sir. I wish the company all the best. We have got liquidity of zero debt and liquidity of 1065 crores when I see the balance sheet in my way - what are we likely to do with this. Now buyback is not going to be possible for shares after the new budget, no shareholder is going to do buyback. So, do look into such liquidity, such performance of the company. Do declare a bonus next year for the share prices have already crossed Rs. 500 after a long time. I wish the company all the best. Thank you, sir.

 Moderator:

 Thank you, Mr. Bimal. Our next speaker for the event is Mr. Kaushik Sahukar. Mr.

Kaushik, kindly enable your video and you may speak now.

 Mr. Kaushik Sahukar – Shareholder:

 Yes Sir, am I audible?

 Moderator:

 You are audible Sir.

 Mr. Kaushik Sahukar – Shareholder:

 Respected Sir and distinguished guests, good afternoon to all. It is an honour to stand before this esteemed gathering today. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the

Board for granting me this opportunity and be part of an important event. Today, I will raise some 2-3 questions that are essential in understanding our company’s position. In an ever evolving competitive landscape, how does Sumitomo Chemical maintain its competitive edge in such a dynamic environment? What innovative product has Sumitomo introduced or plans to introduce in this increasing competitive world? I believe that more the company invests in R &D, the stronger its dominance becomes in positioning it as a leader in the industry. Can we continue to trust the resilience of Sumitomo Chemical business model and how can the company

7 ensure that the shareholders’ value will remain intact? Additionally, our main product from which revenue are generated are Achive FT, [inaudible], activated alumina, [inaudible] chloride, alumina products and others. Does our company still face competition from China? I hope I am audible Sir.

 Mr. Chetan Shah – Managing Director, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

 Yes.

 Mr. Kaushik Sahukar – Shareholder:

 Has there been any benefit from PLI Scheme and make in India scheme that can be seen apart from products specified above? Has our company discovered any product for near future which will be a game changer? Before I conclude, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the entire secretarial team including Deepika Trivedi and team for connecting with me and granting me this opportunity to be a part of such a memorable event. Finally, I propose utilizing the substantial savings from virtual mode of meeting for the benefit of the speaker shareholders. This could involve arranging site visits or one day get together for shareholders or distributing tokens of appreciation such as sweets and small gifts to our esteemed speaker shareholders during festivals. Furthermore, I will greatly appreciate your assistance in facilitating and introduction with the auditor for potential engagement in professional endeavour. Given our professional affiliation, I am confident that such collaborations would prove mutually beneficial for both parties involved. Thank you all for your attention.

 Moderator:

 Thank you Sir. Our next speaker for the event is Mr. Sharad Jivraj Sir. Mr. Sharad, kindly enable your video and you may speak now.

 Mr. Sharad Shah– Shareholder:

 Can you hear me Sir?

 Moderator:

 We can hear you Sir.

 Mr. Sharad Shah– Shareholder:

 Sir, good afternoon. Basically, I am very happy with the company.

 Mr. Chetan Shah – Managing Director, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

 We are not able to hear you properly.

 Mr. Sharad Shah– Shareholder:

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 I am very happy with the company as I refer to page no. 174 and company has not borrowed any money so there is no question of debt equity ratio and another thing Sir, this particular year is slightly difficult. Our performance of this year is not comparable with the previous year. Another thing is, share price is also excellent which is now more than 550 and if I refer the budget Sir, budget says, ‘CSR amount, you can be used as money for stipend to the trainee employees in the company.’ Whether this scheme is applicable to us or not, that you please clarify and if it is applicable, definitely we can save lot of money because of this.

Thank you very much for giving me an opportunity to speak. Thank you.

 Moderator:

 Thank you Sir. Our next speaker for the event is Madam Prakashini Shenoy. Madam, kindly enable your video and you may speak now. You are audible.

 Ms. Prakashini Shenoy – Shareholder:

 Thank you Sir. I am Prakashini Ganesh Shenoy from Mangalore. Respected Honorable

Chairman, other dignitaries of the Board and my fellow shareholders, good afternoon to all of you. I am thankful to the Company Secretary, Ms. Deepika Trivedi and her team for sending me the AGM report well in time. The AGM report received through the mail is knowledgeable, informative, colourful and contains all the information as per the corporate governance. The Chairman has given a beautiful picture regarding the company and its working on all the parameters. Thank you Chairman Sir. At the outset, I am thankful to the

Board for recommending dividend for the financial year 23-24. I congratulate one and all for completing silver jubilee year of our company. Sir, I have a few questions.

 My 1st question is - kindly highlight the future roadmap for growth and risk in business due to global situation. My next question is, what is the expenditure occurred for developing products in our R&D? Next question is, how do we adopt digital technology to encourage productivity and my last question is - what is the future plan of our company? Chairman Sir, last but not the least, as my previous predecessor Mr. Bimal Agarwal had mentioned - to continue with VC, I also agree with him. I am from Bombay and I have just come to

Mangalore and I have got an opportunity to express my views. Please, my earnest request to you is, please continue with VC. I wish the company good luck for a bright future and pray to

God that the profit of the company shall reach its peak in due course. Sir, I strongly and wholeheartedly support all the resolutions put forth in today’s meeting. Thank you Chairman

Sir.

 Moderator:

 Our next speaker for the event is Mr. Yusuf Rangwala. Mr. Yusuf? Mr. Yusuf, kindly enable your video and you may speak now. Mr. Yusuf? Mr. Yusuf, you may speak now. There seems to be some audio connectivity issue.

 Mr. Yusuf Rangwala – Shareholder:

 Hello, hello, can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? I am Yusuf Rangwala speaking here. Respected Chairman and my fellow shareholders, speaking from Mumbai. Sir, I am very happy with our company’s share department for printing a very excellent report. We are having a 5 manufacturing plants, 1600 people are working there, 55 depots in India, 23

9 states, 4 branches, 50 countries. Sir, the product that you have mentioned on page …..we have Pyclome, there are so many products. If I go into the detail, I don’t want to go into the detail. Sir, seeing these products, we can use for our farmers. And thank our Link people.

Next year, we will complete 25th years, can we expect a bonus. So how will you celebrate next year Sir? 25 years are getting over Sir. At least keep a physical meeting. Sir, please organize a get-together. Please call us for the puja that you have during Diwali. For the 25th year celebration, please send us sweets. Kuch meetha ho jaye Sir. You all are very sweet, so kuch meetha ho jaye Sir. Also please keep in mind that you must organize a factory visit Sir.

Nothing more to add, I end my speech, paying our Link people…they give excellent services

Sir. There is no shortcut in their services, Prashant and all the teams and all the madams. Sir, our share department is excellent and I salute the share department for giving me a very excellent team, excellent Company Secretary Sir. Nothing more to add. Sir, I am not able to meet you. Now what to do Chairman Sir? What do I have to do to meet you Sir? Call us once after Diwali. Please arrange for a get-together. I want to meet you and I want your blessings

Sir. Nothing more! Jai Hind! Jai Maharashtra! Phoolon ki khushboo, kaliyo ki bahar, apka saath hamesha rahe Sir. This company has made us very rich Sir. What to say about this company? We have become balle balle in this company Sir. Jai Hind! Khuda Hafiz!

 Mr. Chetan Shah – Managing Director, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

 Thank you.

 Moderator:

 Our next speaker shareholder for the event is Madam Celestine Elizabeth Mascarenhas.

 Ms. Celestine Mascarenhas – Shareholder:

 Hello! Hello! Am I audible?

 Moderator:

 Yes madam, you are.

 Ms. Celestine Mascarenhas – Shareholder:

 Ok, thank you. Respected Chairman Dr. Mukul Govindji Asher, MD Chetan Shah, other members of the Board, my dear fellow shareholders, I am Mrs. C.E Mascarenhas. I am speaking from Mumbai. First of all, I thank the Company Secretary, Madam Deepika Trivedi and her team for sending me the annual report and also registering me as a speaker at my request and also for giving me this platform to speak. Thank you so much. Now I come to the annual report. It is good, full of information and at the same time adhering to all the norms of corporate governance. Working, not that good, revenues are down, PBT, PAT is down but you gave a special dividend of Rs.5, interim dividend. Thank you for that and now 0.90 paise final dividend. So at least we are in the dividend list - that is great. And we have got very good market capitalization. Now this is the 24th year, next will be the silver jubilee. So I want to know how you will celebrate it? Will it be celebrated by bonus or like some of my shareholders said, some sweets or what you intend? I mean you could speak out. Now I congratulate you all for the awards and accolades received. Also very good CSR work. My queries now.

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 Are we listed on any dedicated ESG platform? Would you name it and what is our score?

Next, 2nd one, how many total employees we have, average age, attrition level? No.3, we have 5 plants. What is our capacity utilization, average? We have 2 new plants for global exports. Could you throw some light on these 2 plants – new plants? We are in fungicides, metal phosphides, insecticides, herbicides. Among all these, in which of these we get very good margin and can be growth drivers of the future? Next question – how much is animal nutrition of the total business? Who are our main competitors in India and in the world?

Lastly but not the least, future road map for the next 5 years? What will be the capex requirements and which verticals will be the growth drivers? With this, I support all the resolutions. I wish my company all the best and especially I wish you and the entire team good health as health is wealth. With this, thank you once again and namaskar.

 Mr. Chetan Shah – Managing Director, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

 Thank you.

 Moderator:

 Thank you Madam. Our next speaker shareholder is Mr. Dilip Kumar Jain currently not present with us in the panel. So we will move on to our next speaker, Mr. Chandragupt

Acharya. Mr. Chandragupta?

 Mr. Chandragupt Acharya – Shareholder:

 Am I audible?

 Moderator:

 Ya, you are audible Sir.

 Mr. Chandragupt Acharya – Shareholder:

 Thank you for this opportunity Sir and congratulations on good results in the 1st quarter that we declared last week. Actually I had a long list of questions which I had sent to the company and Mr. Kunal was very kind enough to give a call and answered most of them. So I don’t want to repeat the whole thing again here. So many thanks to Mr. Kunal for spending his valuable time in explaining all the points. Just one point that I did not discuss with him is on the cash balance. As per the latest disclosure, we have almost 1500 crore of free cash with us. So I feel we should go much aggressively in the capex than whatever we have announced so far, like bio-pesticides and all that we are right now trading, sourcing from our group companies and selling in India, why don’t we get into the manufacturing of those things or any other because the market is so huge and just waiting to be tapped. I feel that we can be much more aggressive on capex front. So just would like to hear your thoughts on this. Apart from that, I don’t have any other questions. Many thanks also to Deepika mam.

On the few occasions that I have written to her, she is very quick to respond. So congratulations to the entire team for excellent performance. Thank you.

 Mr. Chetan Shah – Managing Director, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

 Thank you.

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 Moderator:

 We now move on to our next speaker, Mr. Shailesh Mahadevia. Mr. Shailesh? Kindly enable your video. You may speak now.

 Mr. Shailesh Mahadevia – Shareholder:

 Yes, you can hear me? Let me start my video also.

 Moderator:

 We can see you also.

 Mr. Shailesh Mahadevia – Shareholder:

 Good. Respected Chairman Mr. Ashar, Managing Director Mr. Chetan Shah and the other members of the Board and the management team. Sir, firstly let me congratulate the entire group for the excellent results that you have given under extremely difficult conditions, nationally and internationally. We have not only survived but we have taken advantage of that situation and made ourselves ready for the years to come thereafter. Sir, your working has been reproduced very nicely in the annual report, which gives lot of information and data to the satisfaction of the shareholders. Sir, I would also like to appreciate the services of the Company Secretary, who is the link between the management and the shareholders at large. And Sir, my congratulations for being one of the best crop protections companies not only India but in the world. And I also enjoyed to read that 9 new products have been introduced in the last 18 months. And the result of which will now reflect in the times to come. Sir, now I wish to put some questions with a view to increase my understanding and to appreciate the excellent work done by you and the management.

 Sir, my 1st questions is that we have taken over Barrix Agro Sciences Pvt. Ltd. Sir, may I know whether we have already started enjoying synergies of this acquisition and when will this company be integrated with our company? Well of course, it will take may be about a year or two but you can throw some light on it, so that we can look for the advantages. Sir, my 2nd question is that we have completed a capex cycle. We have put up two new plants for global requirements. Sir, may I know, which are these 2 new plants? What do they manufacture so that we can get some idea about its potential in the times to come? Sir, I also appreciate the work done by our company and in particular I would like to know whether in this budget, our company is likely to get benefits. I am sure because the budget is agriculture-oriented. It is poor-oriented, village-oriented. Well, these are the places where we have our activities but you may throw some light about these specific advantages we are likely to have. Sir, my next question is that ‘China+1’ is becoming more and more popular, compulsory almost.

May I know, whether under that scheme, we are getting some advantages? Sir, my 3rd question on this related subject is regarding ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and PLI scheme. May I know, whether this PLI scheme has been made applicable in our range of activities? Sir, I would also like to mention that the report which has been prepared and presented to the shareholders is on standalone basis and therefore my question related to that is, that our exports on standalone is 19.79%. So may I know on consolidated basis, what are our exports? Sir, my next question on the same subject is that women employees are only 2.39% in our organization. Sir, may I know, if we are making efforts to take advantage of women in our organization in the years to come. Sir, my 3rd question is related to this standalone only,

12 that our attrition rate in 23-24 is 22.38%. Sir, we have improved upon last year. Last year, it was 26.38%. But Sir, I would like to know, what efforts we are making to reduce this attrition rate? Because even 22.38% is very high. And Sir, before I may conclude, I would also like to appreciate that new technologies are being introduced by us for the advantage of farmers and ultimately we will get advantage like drones in agricultural operations. Sir, what such new technologies are being introduced by our company for the benefit of our clients and ultimately for the benefit of our company. Sir, with this, you may also throw light on the quarterly results. Unfortunately, I have not been able to go through the quarterly results and

I am sure, it must be excellent because it is reflected in market capitalization in the price.

Our price has increased by more than Rs.100 in the last one month or so. So that is the reflection of the latest working. Sir, with this, I wish our organization every success at an accelerated rate in the near future and also naturally long term will be brighter. Namaste to all of you.

 Mr. Chetan Shah – Managing Director, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

 Thank you.

 Moderator:

 Thank you Sir. We now move on to our next speaker, Mr. Senthil Manikandan. Mr. Senthil, kindly enable your video and you may speak now.

 Mr. Senthil Manikandan – Shareholder:

 Good afternoon! I am audible, right?

 Moderator:

 Yes, you are audible Sir.

 Mr. Senthil Manikandan – Shareholder:

 Ya, thanks for the opportunity. I have got just 3 questions.

 Management Team - Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

 Rajiv, we are unable to hear.

 Mr. Senthil Manikandan – Shareholder:

 Am I audible now please? Ya, thanks for the opportunity. I broadly have 3 questions.

 Management Team - Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

 We are unable to hear you Sir.

 Management Team - Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

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 Can you speak a little loudly?

 Mr. Senthil Manikandan – Shareholder:

 Just broadly 3 questions for management today. 1st is with respect to the recent foray into the electro, electronic chemicals segment where the company is planning to leverage the parents’ expertise. So broadly you can share some insights into the current market trends in

India, what's the current market size and what's the current competition and things like that and where our company plans to take this segment in the next 3-5 years? So some strategic view into the foray into the electronic chemicals segment would be helpful. 2nd is on the capital allocation part. So recently, we acquired a company Barrix. So going forward, will we be going for inorganic kind of growth? Can you just explain in terms of our capital allocation strategy? It will be helpful. And the last question is with respect to the ongoing business. So if you can share globally – has the pricing de-growth or the volume de-growth, that we have witnessed in the last 1 year has stabilized now? How does the management see the demand supply mismatch that we faced over the last years due to the inventory de-stocking that we have seen? Whether the phenomenon or the scenario has eased a bit or does the inventory de-stocking continues and how is the pricing and volume scenario now? That’s broadly 3 questions from my side. Thanks for the opportunity.

 Moderator:

 Sir, our next 2 speakers, Mr. Aspi Bhesania and Mr. Hitesh Doshi are currently not present in the panel with us. So we move on to our last speaker for the event, Lekha Shah. Lekha madams, kindly enable your video and you may speak now.

 Ms. Lekha Shah – Shareholder:

 Am I audible Sir?

 Moderator:

 Yes Madam.

 Ms. Lekha Shah – Shareholder:

 Thank you Sir. Respected Chairman Sir, board of directors and my fellow members, good afternoon to all of you. Myself Lekha Shah from Mumbai. I strongly support all the resolutions for today’s meeting. Sir, please continue with video conference meetings in future. Thank you Sir.

 Moderator:

 I think due to network connectivity, Lekha mam has exited from the panel. So that is all from the speaker session. Now over to Chairman Sir.

 Mr. Mukul G. Asher – Chairman, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

 I now request Mr. Chetan Shah, Managing Director, to address the shareholders’ comments and queries.

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 Mr. Chetan Shah – Managing Director, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

- Good afternoon everyone! First of all, I am really overwhelmed and I would like to express my gratitude to all the kind words that all the shareholders have spoken about the company. I assure you that I will pass on your message of congratulations to everyone in the company. There were some interesting questions. I will try and answer those. First of all, I would like to take up some general questions which came from many shareholders or many speakers and one was of course, how do we plan to celebrate the silver jubilee year? For that, we have already started celebrating by giving a very handsome interim dividend of Rs.5 per share, to start off the 25th year of existence of Sumitomo Chemical in India. So I have put it down the various other suggestions which may be possible or feasible, I don’t know how easy it would be to invite to office for Diwali Puja or anything of that sort but surely we will extend the invitation to all the speakers of today. Having said that, I think, let me go to Mr.

Mahadevia’s questions where I think lot of questions, which will answer lot of other questions. There are some few specific questions which are there like – how to use our cash reserves and what are our plans?

- So, Mr. Mahadevia, thank you very much first of all, for all your kind words. Yes, you're right, we have introduced 9 products. Unfortunately, we could not get the mileage out of that to the extent we would have wished in the last year and that was because of, you know, the weather conditions, climatic conditions, and overall very poor market sentiments in the agrochemical market. So, we are looking forward to ramp up the volumes of these nine products in the current year. It has started off well. Let us see how the year goes by, but we are quite confident.

- Your next point was Barrix. Barrix, we acquired only on 15th of December 2023. We are doing a lot of things with Barrix. They are a very unique company, very good R&D, some very unique products, and we are trying to, you know, not only sales of that, but we are preparing Barrix in all the areas of production, marketing, compliance, all sorts of areas we are trying to make move with Barrix to be ultimately be at par with Sumitomo Chemical

India Limited. So, its synergies will come. I think the biggest synergy which we are expecting out of this company is to take their products globally and try to find markets in other countries. We have talked with our affiliates. There is lot of excitement, a lot of research teams from Japan and the USA have visited Barrix facilities and they have really liked what they have seen. So, I think that the future is good for Barrix and we will take it to another level in time.

- The two new plants that we have already completed the Capex cycle, both are export oriented plants. In one of the plants we have made is manufacturing insecticide, which is meant for, I mean I would say, almost 20% for domestic market and 80% for exports. This plant is running full swing, 100% capacity. Unfortunately, in the last year, due to the slowdown in the global markets, we could not produce 100% and not sell 100% of the quantity. We could, however, sell almost 45%-50% of our volumes in the last year. This year, we are confident that the entire volume of this plant will be used up domestically as well as globally. The second plant, which has come up at Tarapur, which is the plant where we manufacture mainly one insecticide and the rest are all the household insecticide products for the global markets.

- So, these particular plants, even though commercially up and running - as a matter of fact, these plants started off without a single hiccup and we got the quality of the products to the international standards in our first attempt of production. Unfortunately, due to the market

15 conditions globally, we could not commercialize these in a very big way, but as the time comes, we will commercialize these entire plants and the revenue of these plants will also be adding to the company’s revenue to the extent of almost ₹150-₹200 crores. China plus one is of course, as you know, magic word on everybody's tongue and people are trying to do that, whatever difficulty there be. But some China plus one will happen and in that strategy, we of course are getting benefit because our affiliates who are buying very large quantities from China, are also giving a share of these products to us. So yes, definitely this policy is helping us.

- Budget benefits - as far as this budget or any budget is concerned, agriculture is at the forefront of the government's intents. Every budget will have something for agriculture and something for farmers. This of course helps us indirectly because this strengthens infrastructure or strengthens the way the farmer can work. So, it does help us indirectly. But there are no direct benefits as such for the agrochemicals or the use of agrochemicals etc.

- There is, of course, Make in India policy. Very clearly, there are advantages - not in terms of financials, but there are advantages of short time registrations if you Make in India with a foreign technology etc. So, those benefits are there and more and more companies including us, we are thinking of how to Make in India. Unfortunately, there is no PLI announced as of today by the government for agrochemicals, while the various associations, and the entire body of agrochemical manufacturers are working towards it and we hope that PLI will be introduced soon in our side.

- You raised a point about women employment. We have 2.3% of our entire population of employees as women. This is very clearly, you know, there are reasons because our largest employment is in our five plants and these five plants unfortunately cannot by law appoint women workers because being the agrochemicals, there are no women employment in the plants. Second, our second largest employment is in the field - our sales and marketing arm, a very large number of people get employed there. Again, that field is devoid of women workers. We do find women farmers, but there are no female workers in the sales and marketing of agrochemicals. So, that is why the percentage is less, right, but yes, we do encourage women employment whether in our Head office or in our branch offices wherever it maybe, we do encourage.

- Attrition rate also, which was mentioned, this attrition rate is also lopsided because if you see the attrition rate is highest in sales teams. In the lower strata of the sales teams, there is always a larger attrition and this is not only for us, but this is for the entire industry. We have introduced many HR-related programs, many interactions with this level of our teams, and it has seen some improvement. I mean in terms of our ability to keep them under our rolls, you can see that happening now. So we will continue to have all those efforts on regular basis.

- Technology in the fields is of course there. We being the most popular as a manufacturer, you will be happy to know that one of the first drone flown or used in this country was with our product and it was with lot of interactions with us as a company that the government deployed these drones with our product to control some very deadly pests. These efforts are definitely on.

- There was a mention by quite a few shareholders that we have, we are sitting on comfortable cash reserves and of course this must be deployed. We are very keen to deploy this whether it can be covered in Dahej plant where we can deploy almost ₹ 3,000 million for two or three new plants and also we are open to any inorganic growth if the right

16 opportunity comes, the right technology comes our way, we will not be shy of deploying our funds there.

- Mr. Vinod Agarwal asked, how do we maintain our competitive edge. Well, every competitor has to have their own edges, but we are doing things differently as far as whether it is stewardship or whether it is digital marketing or whether it is marketing efforts, whether it is to work with our farmers – we do it differently. For example, we have just launched on, I think if I have not mistaken on 6th of June, we have launched 100-day program which is called Every Day Farmers Day and for 100 days, everyone has to be in the field, everyone has to, whether somebody from head office is going in that area, even that person has to be in the field that day and I think as of the last week, I have seen it was around 2 days or 3 days back, we had already made contact – one-to-one contact - under this every day farmers day program with almost 2,30,000 farmers.

- This is apart from our digital connect with millions of farmers, which is happening separately. So, we do have our own standards, we have our own market intelligence, we know how to counter the competition and our work in the field speaks the most. Somebody very correctly observed that sales are down in this year which we are reviewing. I think the

Chairman Sir very well illustrated in his speech as to what were the reasons and I am glad that we have come out of that situation without much harm. Of course, because now that it could have been worse, but I think due to various steps that the management took, I think the effect was far lesser than what we ourselves had anticipated. We could bounce back in

Q3 and really bounce back in Q4 to ensure the least impact of this very, very unusual year.

- Somebody asked - what is the total number of employees in our company? We have 1649 employees on our payroll and then of course we hire as and when required contract workers, the contract field workers. For the next few years, as we have done every single year, we plan to continue to fix the gap in our product portfolio. We also have a plan to introduce every year two or three good molecules. We are having currently we have at least two or three products from our parent company which is in the field for testing. One of those products we go for registration next year. Two other products may go the following year, but we are constantly in lookout for such newer chemistry, newer science, newer products, etc. and we continue to do that. We have a very robust plan for digital marketing.

We have various products in our R&D pipeline, which we are working on, which will come up with Dahej plant. I think work on almost three or four products is over and very encouraging and of course, as I said that, along with that, if there is any opportunity that comes by for inorganic growth we will surely go for it.

- Somebody asked on IT chemical, this is a very premium. I have mentioned this last time. So, now at least one thing has progressed that we have been connected with good offices of

Uzawa San and Katayama San and that planning and coordination team with IT chemical sector of Tokyo and we have had couple of rounds of meetings online with them. They asked exhaustive list of market information or intelligence from us, which we gathered and which in the first round has been given to them. So, what will happen is that, from this data the IT chemical sector will be able to decide whether it is worth its while to come to India or not.

I'm sure that they will see the benefit of entering India on the basis of data which we have submitted to them and maybe one day soon we can start this vertical in our company.

- Dr. Suresh Ramachandran – Whole-time Director Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd.:

- So, one more question was, last year we saw volatile pricing demand supply situation, has it stabilized or

- Mr. Chetan Shah – Managing Director, Sumitomo Chemicals India Ltd:

17

- Yeah, so the volatile situation which we saw last year, somebody wanted to know whether this has stabilized or whether this is going to see further turbulence or not? So, to answer that question, let me tell you that first of all, I have in my these many years of experience

I've never ever seen the type of turbulence that happened in 23-24. I think it required a very quick response from our side as to how to deal with that, which we did and which had very quickly gone off to the third quarter; we were, we could take the benefit of fresh purchases at the lower prices and the result of that was seen partly in third quarter fully in fourth quarter. Fortunately, this trend has continued. Prices are by and large stable. There are some factors outside of agrochemical sector like shipping or logistics or, you know, Red Sea problems or shortages of containers and shortages of liners availability. This is creating some sort of disturbance, but freight charges, of course, have kicked the roof. I think it has, in my opinion; it has gone up five times as compared to six months back. So, there are these kinds of disturbances, but I think we have been able to keep our head above the water and we feel that at least till the end of this calendar year, the thing should be quite stable. Even in terms of the pricing of the products, we are not seeing any drops or anything, if at all there are some products; prices are only on its way up. So, there is no issue as far as the stability is concerned. That is what I would say.

- Mr. Kunal Mittal – Sr. Vice President (Planning & Coordination Office) Sumitomo Chemical