ARC Finance Ltd

Financial Services — Credit Services · BSE

₹0.46₹0.00 (0.00%)

DalalBaazaar Score

55 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Moderate

Driven by 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 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, 6:56 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

The 60-second version of ARC Finance Ltd — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

ARC Finance Ltd, a non-banking finance company, engages in the lending business in India. It offers loans and advances; and various financial services. The company also invests and trades in securities. It serves financial services sector.

IndustryCredit Services

SectorFinancial Services

Annual revenue₹28 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹28 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹3 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹5 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are BAJAJ FINANCE LIMITED, STATE BANK OF INDIA, HDFC BANK LTD, ICICI BANK 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?Not assessable from these ratios

For a lender, returns on capital are shaped by leverage and funding cost rather than by pricing power, so the usual financial signature of an advantage does not apply. Judge this one on deposit franchise, cost of funds and asset quality — none of which are in this data.

Peer median ROE16.5%

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 +20713% while net margin moved -99% 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+20713%

Margin effect-99%

DalalBaazaar Score

55/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ ROE of 0.7% is weak

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

55/ 100

Average

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

Valuation

47/ 100

Fair

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

46.0x

3Y Median

106.9x

40 monthly readings · mean 156.3x · range 11.8x–718.7x

Sector Median

17.0x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 57% below its 3y median of 106.9x. 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 171% above the peer median of 17.0x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

106.9x median over 40 months · -57%

vs. sector peers

Expensive

17.0x median of 4 peers · +171%

vs. generic bands

Expensive

Above 35x

EV/EBITDA

39.3x

PEG

1.52

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

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

2 items require attention · 1 high · 1 watch

🔴Significant margin compressionFinancial
EBITDA margin has fallen 3227.9 points, from 3232.8% to 4.9%.
🟡Shareholders have been dilutedOwnership
Shares outstanding are up 31% over 3 years — each existing share owns a smaller slice of the company.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Priced below its own history
The stock trades 57% 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.
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?

Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from 3232.8% to 4.9%. If the trend continues, profit falls even on flat sales — and margin decline rarely reverses quickly.
A premium to the sector to defend
It trades 171% above the peer median. That premium needs a reason that persists, or it closes.
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.

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

1Revenue growth stays above 369% a year✓ 492.6% CAGR
Latest reported year was 128.8%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 3%✓ 4.9%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Return on equity stays above 8%✗ 0.7%
For a lender this is the cleanest single read on whether the book is being grown profitably.
4Valuation vs its own median of 106.9x✓ 46.0x today
A re-rating above its own history needs a reason; without one it is just a higher price.

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

5 good · 2 neutral · 4 weak

Market Cap

₹40 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

46.0x

Expensive

Expensive — verify against sector peers

P/B Ratio

0.41x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹0.01

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

0.7%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

0.9%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.14x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

128.8%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

26.8%

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

-₹0 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

12.3%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

2.6%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

262.36

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.73

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

Near low

Near its 52-week low

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

0.5 / 0.5

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

33.3

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹0 Cr	₹9 Cr	₹23 Cr	₹28 Cr	+492.6%
EBITDA	₹4 Cr	₹1 Cr	₹5 Cr	₹1 Cr	-32.1%
EBITDA Margin	3232.8%	6.1%	20.5%	4.9%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹0 Cr	₹0 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹1 Cr	+30.3%
EPS	₹0.01	₹0	₹0.04	₹0.01	+3.1%
ROE	0.6%	0.5%	336.9%	0.7%	—
ROCE	—	54.4%	447.5%	0.9%	—
Total Debt	₹15 Cr	₹16 Cr	₹0 Cr	₹14 Cr	-1.6%
Free Cash Flow	-₹10 Cr	-₹12 Cr	-₹40 Cr	-₹0 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 492.6% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has shrunk at 32.1% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 3232.8% to 4.9% over 3 years (-3227.9 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 30.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EPS has grown at 3.1% a year over 3 years.

🟡 ROE has held roughly flat at 0.7% over 3 years.

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 54.4% to 0.9% over 3 years (-53.5 pts).

🟡 Total Debt has been broadly flat over 3 years (-1.6% a year).

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹114 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹15 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹1 Cr

Capex

-₹1 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

11.6%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
BAJAJ FINANCE LIMITED	30.2x	17.8%
STATE BANK OF INDIA	10.3x	15.2%
HDFC BANK LTD	15.9x	13.8%
ICICI BANK LTD.	18.1x	16.5%

Recent News

2 mixed4 general

ARC Finance Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 01 Oct

Compare BOM.OXYGEN with

Equitymaster, 08 Oct

ARC Finance Q1 FY27 Results: Revenue Rs 1 Cr, PAT Rs 0.17 Cr and Key Highlights

Univest, 12 AugResults

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

ARC Finance adopts FY26 financials, reappoints Shikha Singhal at 44th AGM

scanx.trade, 30 Sept

ARC Finance Ltd. Financials – Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss, Cash Flow

Value Research, 30 Aug

Investors Aren't Buying Northern Arc Capital Limited's (NSE:NORTHARC) Earnings

Simply Wall Street, 03 FebResults

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

Watch Items

Trading very close to its 52-week low — worth checking whether this reflects a temporary setback or a structural problem.
This is a financial-sector business: borrowing is its raw material, not leverage in the usual sense. Debt/Equity and ROCE here aren't comparable to a manufacturer's — read them alongside NIM, GNPA and capital adequacy from the company's own disclosures.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongFinancial Health

MiddlingGrowth · 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. 1 high-severity red flag sits above this conclusion and should be read first.

1 of 4 tripwires tripped — Return on equity stays above 8% · see Key things to watch ↑