Abril Paper Tech Limited

Basic Materials — Paper & Paper Products · BSE

₹29.96₹0.00 (0.00%)

DalalBaazaar Score

47 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Very High

Driven by high debt relative to equity, negative free cash flow, the company is currently loss-making.

In simple words: The company is currently losing money, but sales are shrinking. Debt is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:45 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Abril Paper Tech Limited manufactures and trades in paper and paper products in India. The company offers sublimation heat transfer paper. It serves printing, garments, textile, hosiery, apparel, and home furnishings industries.

IndustryPaper & Paper Products

SectorBasic Materials

Employees16

Annual revenue₹65 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹65 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹2 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹4 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 16 employees supports ₹4.07 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹4.07 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are TATA STEEL LIMITED, JSW STEEL LIMITED, ULTRATECH CEMENT LIMITED, ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED. These are the companies its valuation and returns are measured against elsewhere in this report.

Compared side by side in Peers ↓

What is its competitive advantage?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 9.4% are at or below what the capital likely costs. That is the financial pattern of a business competing largely on price, where advantage has to come from execution rather than position.

Peer median ROE22.3%

What has been driving growth?

Growth has come mainly from selling more, rather than from keeping more of each sale. Over 3 years revenue moved +158% while net margin moved +50% 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+158%

Margin effect+50%

DalalBaazaar Score

47/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Micro Cap: thinner liquidity and sharper drawdowns are normal
✗ High leverage magnifies any downturn in earnings
✗ Profits have swung sharply from year to year — earnings are hard to forecast
✗ Negative free cash flow means dependence on external funding

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

50/ 100

Average

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

Valuation

44/ 100

Expensive

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

A reasonable business at a reasonable price — neither the quality nor the valuation stands out in either direction.

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

No P/E — the company is lossmaking

EV/EBITDA

10.4x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Debt is being paid down
Total debt is down 81% over 3 years.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 10.8% to 6.3% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 29.3% to 9.4% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

4 items require attention · 4 high

🔴High leverageFinancial
Debt/Equity of 2.58x — earnings must service borrowings before shareholders see anything.
🔴Free cash flow negative for 4 yearsFinancial
The business has not covered its capital spending from operations for several years running, which has to be funded externally.
🔴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.
🔴Inventory building faster than salesFinancial
Inventory up 1294% against revenue up 158% — stock may not be moving.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Deleveraging frees up earnings
Debt is down 81% over 3 years. Every rupee of interest not paid drops to the bottom line, so profit can grow even if revenue does not.
Earnings have proved durable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years. Consistency lowers the risk that any single bad year is structural rather than cyclical.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Leverage amplifies any setback
Debt/Equity of 2.58x. Interest is payable whether or not the business has a good year.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 10.8% to 6.3%. Each rupee of equity earns less than it did, so profit growth increasingly depends on raising more capital rather than on the existing base working harder.
Earnings are hard to forecast
Profit has swung sharply from year to year, so any single year — good or bad — is a weak guide to the next. Cyclical earnings deserve lower multiples for that reason.
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

1Revenue growth stays above 28% a year✓ 37.1% CAGR
Latest reported year was -2.3%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 2%✓ 3.6%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹8 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 0.3x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 8%✓ 9.4%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

3 / 11 checks passed

✗ Strong return on equity (ROE ≥ 15%)
✗ Strong return on capital employed (ROCE ≥ 15%)
✗ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✗ Generates positive free cash flow
✗ Manageable leverage (Debt/Equity < 1.0)
✓ 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

1 good · 4 neutral · 6 weak

Market Cap

₹24 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

1.01x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹-0.26

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

8.8%

Moderate

Moderate capital efficiency

ROCE

9.4%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

2.58x

High

High leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

-2.3%

Shrinking

Sales are contracting

Profit Growth (YoY)

-53.2%

Falling

Profits are shrinking

Dividend Yield

None

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

Free Cash Flow

-₹8 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

ROA

6.7%

Average

Average asset productivity

Operating Margin

2.4%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

2.3%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

14.12

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

52W Range Position

21%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

30.4 / 32.3

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

47.1

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹25 Cr	₹25 Cr	₹61 Cr	₹65 Cr	+37.1%
EBITDA	₹1 Cr	₹2 Cr	₹2 Cr	₹2 Cr	+27.1%
EBITDA Margin	4.5%	6.9%	3.3%	3.6%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹0 Cr	₹1 Cr	₹1 Cr	₹2 Cr	+57.0%
EPS	₹0.49	₹1.2	₹1.77	—	—
ROE	10.8%	13.0%	13.4%	6.3%	—
ROCE	29.3%	21.9%	18.1%	9.4%	—
Total Debt	₹3 Cr	—	₹1 Cr	₹1 Cr	-42.7%
Free Cash Flow	-₹3 Cr	-₹1 Cr	-₹3 Cr	-₹8 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 37.1% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 27.1% a year over 3 years.

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 3.6% over 3 years.

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 57.0% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 10.8% to 6.3% over 3 years (-4.5 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 29.3% to 9.4% over 3 years (-20.0 pts).

🟢 Total Debt has shrunk at 42.7% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹26 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹2 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹8 Cr

Capex

-₹0 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

64.1%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
TATA STEEL LIMITED	19.8x	10.8%
JSW STEEL LIMITED	12.0x	24.7%
ULTRATECH CEMENT LIMITED	37.6x	11.1%
ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED	46.9x	22.3%

Recent News

6 general

Abril Paper Tech to face CGST hearing on Oct 22 over tax notice

scanx.trade, 16 Oct

Compare SHREE BHAWANI with

Equitymaster, 17 Oct

Abril Paper Tech secures ₹8 crore working capital facility from ICICI Bank

scanx.trade, 16 Aug

Weak market debut: Abril Paper Tech shares list at 20% discount on BSE SME platform

Moneycontrol.com, 05 Sept

Sillverton Industries IPO 2026 ₹300 Cr Issue & Key Details

IndiaIPO, 30 Jan

Abril Paper Tech IPO Subscribed 1.35x on Day 1

IPO Watch, 29 Aug

Watch Items

Revenue growth is negative (-2.3%) on the latest reported period — check if this is one-off or a trend.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongGrowth

MiddlingFinancial Health · Valuation

WeakBusiness Quality · Profitability · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Unremarkable in both directions

A reasonable business at a reasonable price. Nothing here is alarming and nothing is compelling, which usually means the decision rests on things this data cannot see — the industry's direction, management's intent, and what else is available to you. 4 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

1 of 5 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive · see Key things to watch ↑