Aspinwall and Company Limited

Consumer Defensive — Farm Products · NSE

₹240.00+₹4.75 (+2.02%)

DalalBaazaar Score

48 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

High

Driven by negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity, falling profits.

In simple words: The business is earning a fairly low return on the money invested in it, 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, 6:08 pm

Caution warranted. Multiple fundamental metrics — flagged in red below — point to either valuation stretch, leverage risk, or weakening profitability. This doesn't mean avoid the stock outright, but it does mean the burden of proof is on the growth story to justify the current price.

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Aspinwall and Company Limited engages in logistics, speciality coffee, natural fiber products, and natural rubber businesses in India, the Americas, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Logistics, Coffee, and Plantation segments.

IndustryFarm Products

SectorConsumer Defensive

Employees704

Annual revenue₹412 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹412 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. Each of its 704 employees supports ₹58.6 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

EBITDA margin4.8%

Net margin3.2%

Revenue / employee₹58.6 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD., ITC LTD, NESTLE INDIA LIMITED, BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD. These are the companies its valuation and returns are measured against elsewhere in this report.

HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.P/E 42.5x · ROE 21.5%

ITC LTDP/E 16.6x · ROE 27.4%

NESTLE INDIA LIMITEDP/E 59.8x · ROE 79.9%

BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTDP/E 44.1x · ROE 51.0%

What is its competitive advantage?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 10.5% 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.

ROCE10.5%

ROE6.6%

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 +41% while net margin moved -67% 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+41%

Margin effect-67%

DalalBaazaar Score

48/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ ROE of 6.6% is weak
✗ ROE has fallen by 9.6 points over the period

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

42/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

75/ 100

Cheap

What you are being asked to pay, ignoring how good the business is.

Optically cheap, but the underlying business scores poorly. Cheap-and-weak is what a value trap looks like from the outside — the low price may be deserved.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

11.9x

3Y Median

14.0x

40 monthly readings · mean 13.7x · range 6.3x–22.4x

Sector Median

43.3x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 15% below its 3y median of 14.0x. 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 72% below the peer median of 43.3x.

vs. its own history

Fair

14.0x median over 40 months · -15%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

43.3x median of 4 peers · -72%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

P/E (Trailing)

11.9x

P/B

0.93x

EV/EBITDA

13.4x

PEG

—

Dividend Yield

2.71%

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention7

Margins are compressing
EBITDA margin has slipped from 8.1% to 4.8% over 3 years.
Debt is rising
Total debt is up 284% over 3 years — worth checking what it funded.
Free cash flow is negative
The business is not currently covering its capital spending from operations.
Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 16.2% to 6.6% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 20.2% to 10.5% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.
Receivables growing faster than sales
Receivables are up 116% against revenue growth of 41% — customers are taking longer to pay.
Inventory building faster than sales
Inventory is up 119% against revenue growth of 41% — stock may not be moving.

Red Flags

7 items require attention · 4 high · 3 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 284% over 3 years, from ₹22 Cr to ₹86 Cr.
🔴Free cash flow negative for 3 yearsFinancial
The business has not covered its capital spending from operations for several years running, which has to be funded externally.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 116% against revenue up 41% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.
🔴Inventory building faster than salesFinancial
Inventory up 119% against revenue up 41% — stock may not be moving.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 5.1x to 3.3x.
🟡Profit is decliningFinancial
Net profit is down 54% over 3 years.
🟡Margins are compressingFinancial
EBITDA margin is down 3.3 points over 3 years.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Cheaper than its peers
It trades 72% 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?

Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from 8.1% to 4.8%. 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 4.3x EBITDA. At that level a downturn in earnings turns a manageable balance sheet into a refinancing problem, and lenders get paid before shareholders.
Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 116% against revenue up 41%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 16.2% to 6.6%. Each rupee of equity earns less than it did, so profit growth increasingly depends on raising more capital rather than on the existing base working harder.
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 9% a year✓ 12.3% CAGR
Latest reported year was 25.8%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 3%✓ 4.8%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 4.3x
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✗ -₹31 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
5Interest cover stays above 3x✓ 3.3x
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

6 good · 2 neutral · 3 weak

Market Cap

₹188 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

11.9x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

0.93x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹20.11

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

6.6%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

10.5%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

0.40x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

25.8%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-9.4%

Falling

Profits are shrinking

Dividend Yield

2.71%

Healthy

Meaningful cash return while you hold the stock

Free Cash Flow

-₹31 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

CMP

₹240

Operating Margin

-0.4%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

3.6%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.84

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

-0.03

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

40%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

243.6 / 247.4

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

31.7

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹291 Cr	₹290 Cr	₹332 Cr	₹412 Cr	+12.3%
EBITDA	₹24 Cr	₹15 Cr	₹23 Cr	₹20 Cr	-5.9%
EBITDA Margin	8.1%	5.2%	7.0%	4.8%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹29 Cr	₹11 Cr	₹15 Cr	₹13 Cr	-22.8%
EPS	₹36.51	₹13.65	₹18.59	₹16.83	-22.8%
ROE	16.2%	5.8%	7.5%	6.6%	—
ROCE	20.2%	6.8%	10.1%	10.5%	—
Total Debt	₹22 Cr	₹29 Cr	₹75 Cr	₹86 Cr	+56.6%
Free Cash Flow	₹30 Cr	-₹8 Cr	-₹43 Cr	-₹31 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 12.3% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has shrunk at 5.9% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 8.1% to 4.8% over 3 years (-3.3 pts).

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 22.8% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EPS has shrunk at 22.8% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 16.2% to 6.6% over 3 years (-9.6 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 20.2% to 10.5% over 3 years (-9.7 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 56.6% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹30 Cr to -₹31 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹333 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹132 Cr

Total Debt

₹86 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹9 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹22 Cr

Capex

-₹9 Cr

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹6.5

Ex-Dividend Date

16 Jul 2026

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.	42.5x	21.5%
ITC LTD	16.6x	27.4%
NESTLE INDIA LIMITED	59.8x	79.9%
BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD	44.1x	51.0%

Recent News

2 mixed4 general

Aspinwall and Company: 7 Stock Signals to Watch

Univest, 22 Sept

Aspinwall and Company Share: Bull Case vs Bear Case for 2026

Univest, 09 Sept

Vintage Coffee to CCL Products: Coffee stocks surge on high global prices, supply concerns; what investors should know

Upstox, 25 Aug

Dividends and stock splits: TCS, Dabur, MRF among nearly 100 stocks turning ex-date this week. Do you own

The Economic Times, 12 Jul

Q1 results 2026: Power Grid to PB Fintech among companies to declare Q1 results today; full list here

Livemint, 05 AugResults

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

Aspinwall and Company Q1 Results FY27: Net Loss of Rs 70 Lakh for June 2026 Quarter

Univest, 06 AugResults

🟡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

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

🔴Business QualityWeak7.5/20

🟡Financial HealthAdequate11.8/20

🔴GrowthWeak7.7/20

🔴ProfitabilityWeak4.6/15

🟢ValuationAttractive11.7/15

🔴RiskHigh4.4/10

Cheap, but for a reason

The low price is the whole case here, and the business underneath scores poorly. Cheap-and-weak is what a value trap looks like from the outside — it needs a specific reason the numbers are about to improve, not just the observation that they are low. 4 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

This thesis breaks if

✓Revenue growth stays above 9% a year12.3% CAGR
✓EBITDA margin holds above 3%4.8%
✗Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x4.3x
✗Free cash flow remains positive-₹31 Cr
✓Interest cover stays above 3x3.3x