Aelea Commodities Limited

Consumer Defensive — Packaged Foods · BSE

₹140.00−₹1.45 (−1.03%)

DalalBaazaar Score

67 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

REASONABLE

Risk

High

Driven by moderate debt load, negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity.

In simple words: Strong business and financial position, with both sales and profits growing well. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 6:51 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Aelea Commodities Limited trades in agri-commodities in India and internationally. It engages in the trading of sugar, wheat flour, rice, and maida products.

IndustryPackaged Foods

SectorConsumer Defensive

Employees84

Annual revenue₹382 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹382 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹6 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹10 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 84 employees supports ₹4.54 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹4.54 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are NESTLE INDIA LIMITED, BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD, TATA CONSUMER PRODUCT LTD, DABUR INDIA LTD. 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?Some evidence

ROCE of 26.6% is above what capital typically costs, which suggests some pricing power, though not yet the sustained, wide gap that marks a durable advantage.

Peer median ROE51.0%

What has been driving growth?

Sales and margins have both contributed to where profit is now. Over 3 years revenue moved +257% while net margin moved +212% 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+257%

Margin effect+212%

DalalBaazaar Score

67/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

• Beta of 0.96 — moves roughly with the market
✗ Micro Cap: thinner liquidity and sharper drawdowns are normal
✗ 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

69/ 100

Good

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

Valuation

81/ 100

Cheap

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

A good business currently available at an undemanding price — the combination this framework is built to look for.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

13.4x

2Y Median

29.5x

29 monthly readings · mean 36.3x · range 19.6x–201.9x

Sector Median

51.7x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 55% below its 2y median of 29.5x. Cheaper than its own history, which is worth a reason too: the market may be pricing in something the backward-looking numbers do not show.

🟢Against its sector it trades 74% below the peer median of 51.7x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

29.5x median over 29 months · -55%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

51.7x median of 4 peers · -74%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

10.2x

PEG

0.11

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well5

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 5.8% to 10.0% over 3 years.
Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from 5.7% to 16.9%.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from 10.6% to 26.6%.
High return on capital employed
ROCE of 26.6% is the mark of a business that converts capital into profit efficiently.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

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

Red Flags

4 items require attention · 4 high

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 235% over 3 years, from ₹33 Cr to ₹112 Cr.
🔴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 456% against revenue up 257% — stock may not be moving.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Capital compounds at a high rate
ROCE of 26.6% means each rupee reinvested earns well above what capital costs. If the company can keep deploying at this rate, growth creates value rather than just consuming cash.
Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from 5.8% to 10.0%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.
Priced below its own history
The stock trades 55% below its own median multiple. If the business performs as it has and simply re-rates back to normal, that gap is return on its own.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 74% below the sector median. Either the market sees a problem the numbers do not show, or the discount closes.
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?

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 40% a year✓ 52.9% CAGR
Latest reported year was 120.2%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 8%✓ 10.0%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✗ 2.9x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
4Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹48 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
5ROCE stays above 24%✓ 26.6%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

9 / 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

6 good · 4 neutral · 1 weak

Market Cap

₹285 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

13.4x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

2.27x

Fair

Moderate premium to the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹10.46

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

18.7%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

26.6%

Strong

Earns comfortably above its likely cost of capital

Debt/Equity

0.89x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

120.2%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

1739.6%

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

-₹61 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

ROA

11.1%

Good

Assets are working hard

Operating Margin

10.9%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

5.6%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.40

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.96

Market-like

Moves roughly in line with the market

52W Range Position

30%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

146.9 / 146.9

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

36.3

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹107 Cr	₹132 Cr	₹179 Cr	₹382 Cr	+52.9%
EBITDA	₹6 Cr	₹22 Cr	₹8 Cr	₹38 Cr	+83.4%
EBITDA Margin	5.8%	16.5%	4.6%	10.0%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹2 Cr	₹11 Cr	₹1 Cr	₹21 Cr	+123.4%
EPS	₹0.94	₹5.63	—	—	—
ROE	5.7%	23.0%	1.1%	16.9%	—
ROCE	10.6%	27.0%	4.6%	26.6%	—
Total Debt	₹33 Cr	₹41 Cr	₹50 Cr	₹112 Cr	+49.7%
Free Cash Flow	-₹4 Cr	-₹8 Cr	-₹55 Cr	-₹48 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 52.9% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 83.4% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 5.8% to 10.0% over 3 years (+4.2 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 123.4% a year over 3 years.

🟢 ROE has risen from 5.7% to 16.9% over 3 years (+11.2 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from 10.6% to 26.6% over 3 years (+16.0 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 49.7% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹251 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹126 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹6 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹30 Cr

Capex

-₹18 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

69.2%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
NESTLE INDIA LIMITED	59.8x	79.9%
BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD	44.1x	51.0%
TATA CONSUMER PRODUCT LTD	59.3x	7.5%
DABUR INDIA LTD	34.7x	17.2%

Recent News

6 general

Compare Symphony with

Equitymaster, 18 Oct

AELEA COMMODITIES LIMITED Share Price

Upstox, 05 May

Aelea Commodities bulk deal: Ashish Kacholia bets Rs 9.3 crore on a microcap that is down 36% in a year

The Economic Times, 20 Mar

Compare with

Equitymaster, 16 Oct

Aelea Commodities appoints Gopal Sood as independent director

scanx.trade, 25 Aug

Aelea Commodities Limited Scripts a Historic Turnaround with Breakout Performance

Business Standard, 27 May

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongGrowth · Profitability · Valuation

MiddlingBusiness Quality · Financial Health

WeakRisk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Attractive on both counts

A good business currently available at an undemanding price — the combination this framework exists to look for. The work left is qualitative: whether the advantage the numbers imply is one you can identify and expect to last. 4 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

2 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x; Free cash flow remains positive · see Key things to watch ↑