Asian Hotels (North) Limited

Consumer Cyclical — Lodging · NSE

₹323.00−₹5.00 (−1.52%)

DalalBaazaar Score

47 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Very High

Driven by short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets, negative free cash flow, the company is currently loss-making.

In simple words: The company is currently losing money, though profits are falling even as sales grow. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:49 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

The 60-second version of Asian Hotels (North) Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Asian Hotels (North) Limited engages in the hospitality/hotel business in India.

IndustryLodging

SectorConsumer Cyclical

Employees816

Annual revenue₹341 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹341 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-30 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹14 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 816 employees supports ₹41.8 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹41.8 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD., TITAN COMPANY LIMITED, TRENT LTD, AVENUE SUPERMARTS 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?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 2.3% 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 ROE25.9%

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 +33% while net margin moved -10% 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+33%

Margin effect-10%

DalalBaazaar Score

47/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Return on equity is negative
✓ ROE has improved by 41.1 points over the period

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

48/ 100

Average

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

Valuation

30/ 100

Expensive

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.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Not enough peers with a usable P/E

vs. generic bands

N/A

No P/E — the company is lossmaking

EV/EBITDA

32.2x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Debt is being paid down
Total debt is down 69% over 3 years.
Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from -52.2% to -11.1%.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

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

Red Flags

7 items require attention · 2 high · 5 watch

🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only 0.2x — little room if earnings dip.
🔴The company is lossmakingFinancial
Net profit of -₹102 Cr in the latest reported year.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 3.1x to 0.2x.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹159 Cr in the latest year.
🟡Margins are compressingFinancial
EBITDA margin is down 4.3 points over 3 years.
🟡Shareholders have been dilutedOwnership
Shares outstanding are up 119% over 3 years — each existing share owns a smaller slice of the company.
🟡Short-term liquidity is tightFinancial
Current ratio of 0.60 — near-term obligations exceed near-term assets.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Deleveraging frees up earnings
Debt is down 69% over 3 years. Every rupee of interest not paid drops to the bottom line, so profit can grow even if revenue does not.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from 18.3% to 13.9%. If the trend continues, profit falls even on flat sales — and margin decline rarely reverses quickly.
The debt load needs earnings to hold up
Debt is 7.0x EBITDA. At that level a downturn in earnings turns a manageable balance sheet into a refinancing problem, and lenders get paid before shareholders.
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 8% a year✓ 10.1% CAGR
Latest reported year was 10.4%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 12%✓ 13.9%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 7.0x
Already stretched, so this is a reduction target rather than a level to hold. Around 3x is where lenders typically start attaching conditions.
4Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹159 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
5Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 0.2x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.

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

3 good · 2 neutral · 6 weak

Market Cap

₹1,377 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

Not meaningful

Loss-making

Earnings are negative, so a P/E multiple can't be read here

P/B Ratio

1.26x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹-53.82

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

-11.1%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

2.3%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.36x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

10.4%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-154.6%

Falling

Profits are shrinking

Dividend Yield

None

No dividend yield reported — usually means no payout, but verify if one was recently initiated

Free Cash Flow

-₹159 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

12.1%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

-26.5%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

0.60

Tight

Tight short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.07

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

43%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

353.0 / 344.8

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

19.6

Oversold zone

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹256 Cr	₹298 Cr	₹318 Cr	₹341 Cr	+10.1%
EBITDA	₹47 Cr	₹62 Cr	₹65 Cr	₹47 Cr	+0.6%
EBITDA Margin	18.3%	20.7%	20.5%	13.9%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹85 Cr	-₹87 Cr	₹187 Cr	-₹102 Cr	—
EPS	₹-43.6	₹-44.98	₹96.26	₹-44.05	—
ROE	-52.2%	-116.8%	71.4%	-11.1%	—
ROCE	2.3%	4.4%	63.3%	2.3%	—
Total Debt	₹1,082 Cr	₹1,052 Cr	₹550 Cr	₹334 Cr	-32.4%
Free Cash Flow	₹42 Cr	₹72 Cr	₹431 Cr	-₹159 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 10.1% a year over 3 years.

🟡 EBITDA has been broadly flat over 3 years (0.6% a year).

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 18.3% to 13.9% over 3 years (-4.3 pts).

🟢 ROE has risen from -52.2% to -11.1% over 3 years (+41.1 pts).

🟡 ROCE has held roughly flat at 2.3% over 3 years.

🟢 Total Debt has shrunk at 32.4% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹42 Cr to -₹159 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹1,692 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹772 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹184 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹156 Cr

Capex

-₹3 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

2.4%

Insider Holding

85.5%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

25 Sept 2014

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD.	25.2x	13.4%
TITAN COMPANY LIMITED	68.5x	36.7%
TRENT LTD	87.2x	25.9%
AVENUE SUPERMARTS LIMITED	69.9x	12.7%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Asian Hotels (North) Ltd. Share Price Rise and Valuation

Univest, 31 AugPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move, which is not by itself a change in the business. Worth finding the cause before reading it as either good or bad.

Asian Hotels (North) Ltd is Rated Sell

MarketsMojo, 13 Oct

Asian Hotels (North) resolves defaults, reports FY26 loss

scanx.trade, 22 May

Asian Hotels (North) Ltd. Key Financial Ratios – Valuation, Profitability & More

Value Research, 31 Aug

Asian Hotels (North): 7 Stock Signals to Watch

Univest, 22 Sept

Asian Hotels (North) appoints Sunil Upadhyay as CFO effective Oct 5, 2026

scanx.trade, 05 Oct

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.
RSI is in oversold territory — could mean either a bargain or a stock still falling for good reason. Check the 'why' before assuming reversal.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongGrowth

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

3 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x; Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x · see Key things to watch ↑