Apana Logistics Limited

Industrials — Integrated Freight & Logistics · BSE

₹17.45−₹0.91 (−4.96%)

DalalBaazaar Score

72 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

REASONABLE

Risk

High

Driven by 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, 6:58 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Apana Logistics Limited provides logistics support services for handling and transportation of containers in India. The company offers container handling services in container freight stations/inland container depots/ports.

IndustryIntegrated Freight & Logistics

SectorIndustrials

Employees62

Annual revenue₹31 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹31 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹19 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹37 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 62 employees supports ₹49.8 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹49.8 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD., SIEMENS LTD, ABB INDIA 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?The numbers suggest a real one

ROCE has stayed above 15% in every year available and stands at 37.4%. Returns that high normally get competed away; when they persist, something is protecting them, and its ROE of 33.8% against a peer median of 15.2% is consistent with that. What that something is — brand, scale, switching costs, regulation — the accounts cannot tell you.

Peer median ROE15.2%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +14% while net margin moved +297% 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+14%

Margin effect+297%

DalalBaazaar Score

72/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ 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

76/ 100

Good

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

Valuation

88/ 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

5.2x

Sector Median

88.8x

median of 3 sector peers

🟢Against its sector it trades 94% below the peer median of 88.8x.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Cheap

88.8x median of 3 peers · -94%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

3.2x

PEG

0.08

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well5

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 12.0% to 37.5% over 3 years.
Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from 14.7% to 28.9%.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from 20.0% to 37.4%.
High return on capital employed
ROCE of 37.4% 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

3 items require attention · 3 high

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 256% over 3 years, from ₹2 Cr to ₹6 Cr.
🔴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.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 182% against revenue up 14% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Capital compounds at a high rate
ROCE of 37.4% 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 12.0% to 37.5%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 94% below the sector median. Either the market sees a problem the numbers do not show, or the discount closes.
Self-funding with balance-sheet headroom
Positive free cash flow of ₹2 Cr alongside low debt means growth, buybacks or dividends need no outside money — and a downturn can be absorbed rather than refinanced.
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?

Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 182% against revenue up 14%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 4.4% 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
3 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 35%✓ 37.5%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Revenue growth stays above 4% a year✓ 4.4% CAGR
Latest reported year was 43.9%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
3Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹2 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 0.5x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 34%✓ 37.4%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

9 / 10 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

Price history

Quick Metrics

8 good · 2 neutral · 1 weak

Market Cap

₹31 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

5.2x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

1.02x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹3.35

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

33.8%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

37.4%

Strong

Earns comfortably above its likely cost of capital

Debt/Equity

0.31x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

43.9%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

88.8%

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

-₹1 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

ROA

19.3%

Good

Assets are working hard

Operating Margin

32.9%

Good

Healthy core-business profitability

Net Margin

19.0%

Good

Strong bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.39

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

52W Range Position

Near low

Near its 52-week low

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹27 Cr	₹20 Cr	₹21 Cr	₹31 Cr	+4.4%
EBITDA	₹3 Cr	₹5 Cr	₹6 Cr	₹12 Cr	+52.6%
EBITDA Margin	12.0%	24.3%	29.6%	37.5%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹1 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹6 Cr	+65.2%
EPS	₹0.74	₹1.72	₹1.77	—	—
ROE	14.7%	25.3%	21.6%	28.9%	—
ROCE	20.0%	21.9%	24.4%	37.4%	—
Total Debt	₹2 Cr	₹9 Cr	₹8 Cr	₹6 Cr	+52.7%
Free Cash Flow	₹2 Cr	-₹7 Cr	₹5 Cr	₹2 Cr	+4.2%

🟢 Revenue has grown at 4.4% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 52.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 12.0% to 37.5% over 3 years (+25.5 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 65.2% a year over 3 years.

🟢 ROE has risen from 14.7% to 28.9% over 3 years (+14.3 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from 20.0% to 37.4% over 3 years (+17.4 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 52.7% a year over 3 years.

🟢 Free Cash Flow has grown at 4.2% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹37 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹17 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹6 Cr

Capex

-₹4 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

67.5%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD.	30.1x	15.2%
SIEMENS LTD	88.8x	10.5%
ABB INDIA LIMITED	92.6x	19.1%

Recent News

6 general

Compare with

Equitymaster, 16 Oct

Apana Logistics Limited Share Price

Upstox, 12 Sept

Apana Logistics IPO Listing Today: Check Share Price

Univest, 15 Sept

Apana Logistics shares to list today: Check GMP and other key details

The Economic Times, 15 Sept

Apana Logistics Limited IPO to Open on September 7, 2026; Issue Price Fixed at Rs. 60 Per Share

ThePrint, 07 Sept

Compare with

Equitymaster, 16 Oct

Watch Items

Trading very close to its 52-week low — worth checking whether this reflects a temporary setback or a structural problem.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability · Valuation

MiddlingFinancial 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. 3 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

All 5 tripwires holding · see Key things to watch ↑