Ajanta Soya Limited

Consumer Defensive — Packaged Foods · BSE

₹20.82−₹0.47 (−2.21%)

DalalBaazaar Score

55 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

High

Driven by high debt relative to equity, negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity.

In simple words: The business is earning a fairly low return on the money invested in it, with modest growth. Debt is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:01 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Ajanta Soya Limited engages in the manufacture and sale of vanaspati and refined oils in India. It offers edible vegetable oils, including soyabean, palm, sunflower, rice bran, mustard, groundnut, and cottonseed oil, as well as specialty fats.

IndustryPackaged Foods

SectorConsumer Defensive

Employees121

Annual revenue₹1,308 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹1,308 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹1 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹1 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 121 employees supports ₹10.81 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹10.81 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?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 8.7% 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 ROE51.0%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +6% while net margin moved +254% 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+6%

Margin effect+254%

DalalBaazaar Score

55/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✓ Beta of 0.16 — historically steadier than the index
✗ 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

84/ 100

Cheap

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.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

11.7x

3Y Median

84.4x

40 monthly readings · mean 62.7x · range 4.9x–127.1x

Sector Median

51.7x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 86% below its 3y median of 84.4x. 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 77% below the peer median of 51.7x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

84.4x median over 40 months · -86%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

51.7x median of 4 peers · -77%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

12.9x

PEG

0.21

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well3

Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from 1.8% to 5.0%.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from 4.9% to 8.7%.
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 · 2 high · 2 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 656% over 3 years, from ₹1 Cr to ₹8 Cr.
🔴High leverageFinancial
Debt/Equity of 4.91x — earnings must service borrowings before shareholders see anything.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 13.9x to 4.8x.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹40 Cr in the latest year.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Priced below its own history
The stock trades 86% 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 77% 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?

Leverage amplifies any setback
Debt/Equity of 4.91x. Interest is payable whether or not the business has a good year.
Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 1.9% 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.
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
2 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 -1%✓ 1.0%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹40 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3Revenue growth stays above 4% a year✗ 1.9% CAGR
Latest reported year was 5.9%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 0.6x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 8%✓ 8.7%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

5 / 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

4 good · 4 neutral · 3 weak

Market Cap

₹168 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

11.7x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

0.98x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹1.78

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

5.0%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

8.7%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

4.91x

High

High leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

5.9%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

340.9%

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

-₹40 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

3.0%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

1.1%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

2.49

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.16

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

26%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

21.7 / 22.6

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

39.9

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹1,236 Cr	₹1,022 Cr	₹1,330 Cr	₹1,308 Cr	+1.9%
EBITDA	₹7 Cr	₹9 Cr	₹39 Cr	₹14 Cr	+24.4%
EBITDA Margin	0.6%	0.9%	2.9%	1.0%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹2 Cr	₹4 Cr	₹27 Cr	₹8 Cr	+55.3%
EPS	₹0.28	₹0.5	₹3.37	₹1.04	+54.9%
ROE	1.8%	3.1%	17.1%	5.0%	—
ROCE	4.9%	6.3%	23.4%	8.7%	—
Total Debt	₹1 Cr	₹0 Cr	₹0 Cr	₹8 Cr	+96.3%
Free Cash Flow	-₹26 Cr	₹17 Cr	₹13 Cr	-₹40 Cr	—

🟡 Revenue has been broadly flat over 3 years (1.9% a year).

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 24.4% a year over 3 years.

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 1.0% over 3 years.

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 55.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EPS has grown at 54.9% a year over 3 years.

🟢 ROE has risen from 1.8% to 5.0% over 3 years (+3.2 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from 4.9% to 8.7% over 3 years (+3.8 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 96.3% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹252 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹84 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹33 Cr

Capex

-₹7 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

62.6%

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

1 positive2 mixed2 negative1 general

Ajanta Soya Q1 FY27 Results: Revenue Rs 330 Cr, PAT Rs 7 Cr

Univest, 14 AugResults

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

Ajanta Soya CFO Anil Kumar Rana resigns effective Oct 11

scanx.trade, 11 OctManagement

🔴Potentially negativeA senior departure, and an auditor's resignation especially, is worth understanding before anything else in this report.

CKG Family Trust Increases Stake in Ajanta Soya with 3.45 Lakh Share Acquisition

scanx.trade, 30 MarM&A

🟡Mixed / dependsAcquisitions change the balance sheet before they change the earnings. Look at what was paid, how it was funded, and whether debt rose.

Ajanta Soya FY26 net profit falls 69% to ₹837.53 lakh

scanx.trade, 30 MayResults

🔴Potentially negativeReported deterioration, which feeds the growth and margin inputs on this page directly.

Dolly Khanna portfolio stock hits upper circuit after stock split

Livemint, 16 JunCapital return

🟢Potentially positiveCash or shares returned to holders. A buyback is only good value if the shares were cheap when bought.

Ajanta Soya (BSE:519216) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 02 Dec

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongGrowth · Valuation

MiddlingProfitability

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · 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. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

2 of 5 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive; Revenue growth stays above 4% a year · see Key things to watch ↑