Ardee Industries Limited

Industrials — Metal Fabrication · NSE

₹47.84+₹0.26 (+0.55%)

DalalBaazaar Score

63 / 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, 7:46 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Ardee Industries Limited engages in the recovery and recycling of end-of-life energy storage products and non-ferrous scrap while claiming resources from waste streams.

IndustryMetal Fabrication

SectorIndustrials

Employees243

Annual revenue₹1,113 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹1,113 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹8 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹12 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 243 employees supports ₹4.58 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹4.58 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are TATA STEEL LIMITED, JSW STEEL LIMITED, HINDALCO INDUSTRIES LTD, VEDANTA 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 76.4%. Returns that high normally get competed away; when they persist, something is protecting them, and its ROE of 80.7% against a peer median of 18.7% is consistent with that. What that something is — brand, scale, switching costs, regulation — the accounts cannot tell you.

Peer median ROE18.7%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +171% while net margin moved +265% 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+171%

Margin effect+265%

DalalBaazaar Score

63/ 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

72/ 100

Good

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

Valuation

52/ 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

17.6x

Sector Median

12.2x

median of 4 sector peers

⚠️Against its sector it trades 45% above the peer median of 12.2x.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Expensive

12.2x median of 4 peers · +45%

vs. generic bands

Fair

15x–35x

EV/EBITDA

12.2x

PEG

0.15

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well6

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 5.0% to 12.4% over 3 years.
Cash flow has turned positive
Free cash flow moved from negative to positive over 3 years.
Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from 42.4% to 57.5%.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from 45.3% to 76.4%.
High return on capital employed
ROCE of 76.4% 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

2 items require attention · 2 high

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 127% over 3 years, from ₹81 Cr to ₹184 Cr.
🔴Inventory building faster than salesFinancial
Inventory up 378% against revenue up 171% — stock may not be moving.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Capital compounds at a high rate
ROCE of 76.4% 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 5.0% to 12.4%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.
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?

A premium to the sector to defend
It trades 45% 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.
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

1Revenue growth stays above 30% a year✓ 39.4% CAGR
Latest reported year was 54.7%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 10%✓ 12.4%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹17 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 1.3x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 73%✓ 76.4%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

7 / 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

5 good · 4 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹1,508 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

17.6x

Fair

Fairly valued against the generic band

P/B Ratio

8.27x

Rich

Steep premium to book — needs high, durable returns to justify

EPS (TTM)

₹2.72

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

80.7%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

76.4%

Strong

Earns comfortably above its likely cost of capital

Debt/Equity

1.25x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

54.7%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

154.5%

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

-₹11 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

ROA

27.2%

Good

Assets are working hard

Operating Margin

9.1%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

7.3%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.41

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

52W Range Position

Near low

Near its 52-week low

Technical Snapshot

RSI (14)

31.3

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹411 Cr	₹456 Cr	₹720 Cr	₹1,113 Cr	+39.4%
EBITDA	₹20 Cr	₹26 Cr	₹63 Cr	₹138 Cr	+89.0%
EBITDA Margin	5.0%	5.6%	8.8%	12.4%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹9 Cr	₹9 Cr	₹33 Cr	₹85 Cr	+114.6%
EPS	₹0.27	₹0.28	₹1.06	₹2.69	+114.6%
ROE	42.4%	30.6%	53.1%	57.5%	—
ROCE	45.3%	36.9%	63.2%	76.4%	—
Total Debt	₹81 Cr	₹142 Cr	₹166 Cr	₹184 Cr	+31.5%
Free Cash Flow	-₹36 Cr	-₹46 Cr	-₹17 Cr	₹17 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 39.4% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 89.0% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 5.0% to 12.4% over 3 years (+7.4 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 114.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EPS has grown at 114.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 ROE has risen from 42.4% to 57.5% over 3 years (+15.1 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from 45.3% to 76.4% over 3 years (+31.2 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 31.5% a year over 3 years.

🟢 Free Cash Flow has turned positive, from -₹36 Cr to ₹17 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹363 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹216 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹14 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹30 Cr

Capex

-₹12 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

5.4%

Insider Holding

72.7%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
TATA STEEL LIMITED	19.8x	10.8%
JSW STEEL LIMITED	12.0x	24.7%
HINDALCO INDUSTRIES LTD	12.3x	12.0%
VEDANTA LIMITED	10.4x	18.7%

Recent News

1 positive5 general

Ardee Industries Q1FY27 revenue up 35%; management guides 10-20% growth

scanx.trade, 18 OctResults

🟢Potentially positiveReported improvement. Check whether it came from volume, price or a one-off item before treating it as a trend.

ARDEE INDUSTRIES LIMITED Share Price

Upstox, 16 Oct

Ardee Industries Ltd. IPO Review - Ardee Industries Ltd. IPO Dates, Issue Price, Subscription and Allotment Status

The Economic Times, 13 Oct

Ardee Industries Ltd | Stock Share Price Live

MarketSmith India, 19 Aug

Ardee Industries shares make a strong D-St debut, list at 39% premium over IPO price

The Economic Times, 12 Aug

Ardee Industries makes strong debut, shares list at 39% premium

Business Standard, 12 Aug

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

MiddlingFinancial Health · Valuation

WeakRisk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Good business at a fair price

A sound business at a reasonable valuation. Suitable for a long-term holding, with the valuation and the direction of margins worth watching rather than the business itself. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

All 5 tripwires holding · see Key things to watch ↑