Aban Offshore Limited

Energy — Oil & Gas Drilling · NSE

₹16.03−₹0.32 (−1.96%)

DalalBaazaar Score

21 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

HIGH RISK

Risk

Very High

Driven by negative shareholders' equity — the company owes more than it owns, short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets, negative free cash flow.

In simple words: The company owes more than it owns — years of losses have wiped out its net worth, with both sales and profits growing well. Solvency — whether it can keep funding itself at all — is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:00 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

The 60-second version of Aban Offshore Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Aban Offshore Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore drilling and production services for exploration, development, and production of oil and gas in India and internationally.

IndustryOil & Gas Drilling

SectorEnergy

Annual revenue₹410 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹410 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-129 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹64 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LTD, OIL AND NATURAL GAS CORP., BHARAT PETROLEUM CORP LT, INDIAN OIL CORP LTD. These are the companies its valuation and returns are measured against elsewhere in this report.

Compared side by side in Peers ↓

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +3% while net margin moved -53% relative to itself. What this cannot tell you is which products, customers or geographies did the work — that lives in the segment disclosures of the annual report.

Revenue effect+3%

Margin effect-53%

DalalBaazaar Score

21/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Shareholders' equity is negative — accumulated losses exceed the capital in the business

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

21/ 100

Weak

How good the business is, ignoring the share price entirely.

Valuation

30/ 100

Expensive

What you are being asked to pay, ignoring how good the business is.

Weak on business quality and not cheap enough to compensate.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Not enough peers with a usable P/E

vs. generic bands

N/A

Multiples unreliable — equity base is negative

EV/EBITDA

64.8x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from -6.0% to 64.4% over 3 years.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

Nothing stands out as clearly deteriorating on the years of data available.

Red Flags

8 items require attention · 4 high · 4 watch

🔴Negative shareholders' equityFinancial
Liabilities exceed assets — accumulated losses have wiped out the company's net worth.
🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only 0.1x — little room if earnings dip.
🔴Profit up while operating cash flow fallsFinancial
Reported profit rose but cash generated by operations declined — worth checking whether earnings are being supported by non-cash items or working capital.
🔴The company is lossmakingFinancial
Net profit of -₹529 Cr in the latest reported year.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 0.2x to 0.1x.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹106 Cr in the latest year.
🟡Inventory building faster than salesFinancial
Inventory up 36% against revenue up 3% — stock may not be moving.
🟡Short-term liquidity is tightFinancial
Current ratio of 0.02 — near-term obligations exceed near-term assets.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from -6.0% to 64.4%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Solvency comes before everything else
Liabilities exceed assets. Until net worth is rebuilt, the equity is a claim on a business that owes more than it owns, and further losses or a funding squeeze can leave shareholders with nothing.
The debt load needs earnings to hold up
Debt is 64.7x EBITDA. At that level a downturn in earnings turns a manageable balance sheet into a refinancing problem, and lenders get paid before shareholders.
Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 1.1% a year is close to the rate prices rise, so the business is gaining little ground in real terms. That leaves the share price dependent on a re-rating rather than on earnings growth.
Size brings its own risk
Micro Cap businesses are thinly traded, so exits are harder in a falling market and single events move the price more than they would for a larger company.
Several serious flags at once
4 high-severity checks triggered. Individually each has an explanation; together they raise the chance that something structural is wrong rather than a one-off.

🟡 Key Things to WatchMeasurable tripwires, set against where this company stands today

1EBITDA margin holds above 62%✓ 64.4%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 64.7x
Already stretched, so this is a reduction target rather than a level to hold. Around 3x is where lenders typically start attaching conditions.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹106 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 0.1x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
5Revenue growth stays above 4% a year✗ 1.1% CAGR
Latest reported year was 44.4%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.

Investment Checklist

4 / 9 checks passed

✗ Shareholders' equity is positive (assets exceed liabilities)
✗ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✗ Generates positive free cash flow
✗ Adequate short-term liquidity (Current Ratio ≥ 1.0)
✓ Revenue growing year-over-year
✓ Profit growing year-over-year
✓ Not trading at an extreme valuation (P/E < 40x)
✓ Not buying right at the 52-week high
✗ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

2 good · 4 neutral · 5 weak

Market Cap

₹94 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

Not meaningful

Loss-making

Earnings are negative, so a P/E multiple can't be read here

P/B Ratio

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

EPS (TTM)

₹-32.94

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

Not meaningful

Negative equity

Return on equity can't be read when equity itself is negative

ROCE

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

Debt/Equity

Not meaningful

Negative equity

Shareholders' equity is negative, so this ratio can't be read

Revenue Growth (YoY)

44.4%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

40.5%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

None

No dividend yield reported — usually means no payout, but verify if one was recently initiated

Free Cash Flow

-₹106 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

0.3x

Operating Margin

47.1%

Good

Healthy core-business profitability

Net Margin

-41.8%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

0.02

Tight

Tight short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

-0.54

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

11%

Near low

Near its 52-week low

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

15.7 / 16.1

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

64.7

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹397 Cr	₹400 Cr	₹476 Cr	₹410 Cr	+1.1%
EBITDA	-₹24 Cr	₹90 Cr	₹450 Cr	₹264 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	-6.0%	22.5%	94.6%	64.4%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹1,091 Cr	-₹1,318 Cr	-₹889 Cr	-₹529 Cr	—
EPS	₹-186.9	₹-225.81	₹-152.4	—	—
Total Debt	₹15,135 Cr	₹15,308 Cr	₹15,697 Cr	₹17,084 Cr	+4.1%
Free Cash Flow	₹130 Cr	-₹89 Cr	₹138 Cr	-₹106 Cr	—

🟡 Revenue has been broadly flat over 3 years (1.1% a year).

🟢 EBITDA has turned positive, from -₹24 Cr to ₹264 Cr.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from -6.0% to 64.4% over 3 years (+70.4 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 4.1% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹130 Cr to -₹106 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹1,756 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹29,996 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹68 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹16 Cr

Capex

-₹122 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

47.2%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

14 Sept 2015

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LTD	21.9x	8.3%
OIL AND NATURAL GAS CORP.	6.4x	11.7%
BHARAT PETROLEUM CORP LT	7.3x	17.1%
INDIAN OIL CORP LTD	5.3x	15.4%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Aban Offshore discloses ₹281 crore suspended preference shares

scanx.trade, 16 Oct

Aban Offshore reports consolidated net profit of Rs 83.72 crore in the June 2026 quarter

Business Standard, 26 SeptResults

🟡Mixed / dependsA results event. The figures on this page update once the new statements reach the data feed, which usually lags the announcement.

Prudent ARC top bidder for Aban Offshore debt

The Economic Times, 17 Jun

Centre Clears ₹84,000 Cr Push for Deep‑Sea Oil Exploration

HDFC Sky, 03 Aug

Aban Offshore Upper Circuit Today: Price, Data and Peers

Univest, 08 Oct

Aban Offshore NCLAT hearing deferred to July 13, 2026

scanx.trade, 13 Jul

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.
2 metrics couldn't be retrieved for this stock — this is more common for smaller or thinly-covered listings.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Growth · Profitability · Valuation · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Avoid until solvency is resolved

Aban Offshore Limited owes more than it owns. Whatever the operating numbers show, the equity is a residual claim on a business with negative net worth, and that question has to be settled before any of the rest is worth weighing. 4 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

4 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x; Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x; Revenue growth stays above 4% a year · see Key things to watch ↑