Aspire & Innovative Advertising Limited

Sector n/a · NSE

₹108.50+₹2.55 (+2.41%)

DalalBaazaar Score

35 / 100

🔴 Weak

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, 6:05 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

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

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹176 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹1 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹3 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

EBITDA margin3.0%

Net margin1.5%

What is its competitive advantage?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 8.5% 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.

ROCE8.5%

ROE4.9%

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 -45% while net margin moved -12% 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-45%

Margin effect-12%

DalalBaazaar Score

35/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue has contracted at 18.1% a year
✗ Profit has declined at 21.6% a year
✗ Profit fell 34.1% in the latest year

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

33/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

18/ 100

Expensive

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

Weak on business quality and not cheap enough to compensate.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Not enough peers with a usable P/E

vs. generic bands

No P/E available

P/E (Trailing)

—

P/B

—

EV/EBITDA

34.7x

PEG

—

Dividend Yield

None

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

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

🔴 What Needs Attention5

Debt is rising
Total debt is up 102% 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 34.2% to 4.9% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 37.5% to 8.5% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.
Receivables growing faster than sales
Receivables are up 98% against revenue growth of -45% — customers are taking longer to pay.

Red Flags

6 items require attention · 2 high · 4 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 102% over 3 years, from ₹9 Cr to ₹18 Cr.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 98% against revenue up -45% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 7.8x to 4.1x.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹23 Cr in the latest year.
🟡Profit is decliningFinancial
Net profit is down 52% over 3 years.
🟡Shareholders have been dilutedOwnership
Shares outstanding are up 37% over 3 years — each existing share owns a smaller slice of the company.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

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?

The debt load needs earnings to hold up
Debt is 3.4x 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 98% against revenue up -45%. 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 34.2% to 4.9%. 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.
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

1EBITDA margin holds above 1%✓ 3.0%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 3.4x
Already stretched, so this is a reduction target rather than a level to hold. Around 3x is where lenders typically start attaching conditions.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹23 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4ROCE stays above 8%✓ 8.5%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.
5Interest cover stays above 4x✓ 4.1x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.

Investment Checklist

4 / 9 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
✓ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

1 good · 7 neutral · 3 weak

Market Cap

₹165 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

P/B Ratio

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

EPS (TTM)

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

ROE

4.9%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

8.5%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

0.34x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

5.6%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-34.1%

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

-₹23 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

CMP

₹108.5

Gross Margin

20.3%

Proxy

Operating margin unavailable — showing gross margin instead

Net Margin

1.5%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

2.18

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

14.3 / 13.9

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

55.0

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹321 Cr	₹384 Cr	₹167 Cr	₹176 Cr	-18.1%
EBITDA	₹8 Cr	₹14 Cr	₹6 Cr	₹5 Cr	-12.9%
EBITDA Margin	2.5%	3.6%	3.8%	3.0%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹5 Cr	₹9 Cr	₹4 Cr	₹3 Cr	-21.6%
EPS	₹3.5	₹8.38	₹2.53	—	—
ROE	34.2%	25.3%	7.9%	4.9%	—
ROCE	37.5%	31.0%	11.3%	8.5%	—
Total Debt	₹9 Cr	₹13 Cr	₹9 Cr	₹18 Cr	+26.4%
Free Cash Flow	-₹13 Cr	-₹8 Cr	₹0 Cr	-₹23 Cr	—

🔴 Revenue has shrunk at 18.1% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has shrunk at 12.9% a year over 3 years.

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 3.0% over 3 years.

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 21.6% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 34.2% to 4.9% over 3 years (-29.3 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 37.5% to 8.5% over 3 years (-29.0 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 26.4% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹95 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹43 Cr

Total Debt

₹18 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹1 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹23 Cr

Capex

-₹1 Cr

Recent News

6 general

ASPIRE & INNOVATIVE ADV L Share Price

Upstox, 15 Oct

Compare with

Equitymaster, 17 Oct

A Look At The Fair Value Of Aspire & Innovative Advertising Limited (NSE:ASPIRE)

Simply Wall Street, 04 Nov

Aspire & Innovative Advertising Ltd. Share Price Live Today

CNBC TV18, 28 Jul

SOLLFEGE SMART ELECTRONICS LTD. Stock/Share price , NSE/BSE Forecast News and Live Quotes

Equitymaster, 09 Oct

Aspire & Innovative Advertising (NSEI:ASPIRE) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 03 Apr

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.
Sector/industry classification unavailable — verify manually for peer comparison.
3 metrics couldn't be retrieved for this stock — this is more common for smaller or thinly-covered listings.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

🔴Business QualityWeak5.9/20

🟡Financial HealthAdequate11.8/20

🔴GrowthWeak2.4/20

🔴ProfitabilityWeak4.6/15

🟡ValuationFair7.5/15

🔴RiskHigh2.4/10

Weak on the fundamentals

Poor scores on business quality without a price low enough to compensate. There is no obvious argument for owning this over a stronger company at a similar valuation. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

This thesis breaks if

✓EBITDA margin holds above 1%3.0%
✗Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x3.4x
✗Free cash flow remains positive-₹23 Cr
✓ROCE stays above 8%8.5%
✓Interest cover stays above 4x4.1x