B & A Packaging India Limited

Consumer Cyclical — Packaging & Containers · BSE

₹202.00−₹8.00 (−3.81%)

DalalBaazaar Score

46 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

NEUTRAL

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, 6:04 pm

Mixed / neutral. No major red flags jump out, but nothing here screams "obviously cheap" either. This is a name that needs a peer comparison and a view on near-term earnings triggers before sizing a position.

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

The 60-second version of B & A Packaging India Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

B & A Packaging India Limited engages in the manufacture and sale of paper sacks, flexi-packaging products and trading of packet tea in India. The company provides paper sacks, such as baggage normal and AQC tea, and baggage high porous and high porous plus sacks.

IndustryPackaging & Containers

SectorConsumer Cyclical

Employees151

Annual revenue₹141 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹141 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹5 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹9 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 151 employees supports ₹93.6 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

EBITDA margin8.7%

Net margin5.0%

Revenue / employee₹93.6 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.

MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD.P/E 25.2x · ROE 13.4%

TITAN COMPANY LIMITEDP/E 68.5x · ROE 36.7%

TRENT LTDP/E 87.2x · ROE 25.9%

AVENUE SUPERMARTS LIMITEDP/E 69.9x · ROE 12.7%

What is its competitive advantage?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 9.8% 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.

ROCE9.8%

ROE7.9%

Peer median ROE25.9%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +8% while net margin moved -23% 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+8%

Margin effect-23%

DalalBaazaar Score

46/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue CAGR of only 2.7% — barely ahead of inflation
✗ Profit has declined at 5.7% a year

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

40/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

77/ 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

12.9x

3Y Median

11.8x

40 monthly readings · mean 12.6x · range 8.2x–21.7x

Sector Median

69.2x

median of 4 sector peers

🟡Currently trading close to its 3y median of 11.8x — the market is paying about what it usually pays for this company.

🟢Against its sector it trades 81% below the peer median of 69.2x.

vs. its own history

Fair

11.8x median over 40 months · +10%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

69.2x median of 4 peers · -81%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

P/E (Trailing)

12.9x

P/B

1.12x

EV/EBITDA

9.4x

PEG

0.32

Dividend Yield

0.50%

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Very low debt
Debt/Equity of 0.21x leaves the balance sheet with plenty of headroom.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention6

Margins are compressing
EBITDA margin has slipped from 13.3% to 8.7% over 3 years.
Debt is rising
Total debt is up 69% 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 13.3% to 7.9% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 21.5% to 9.8% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.
Receivables growing faster than sales
Receivables are up 30% against revenue growth of 8% — customers are taking longer to pay.

Red Flags

4 items require attention · 1 high · 3 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 69% over 3 years, from ₹11 Cr to ₹19 Cr.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹23 Cr in the latest year.
🟡Margins are compressingFinancial
EBITDA margin is down 4.6 points over 3 years.
🟡Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 30% against revenue up 8% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Cheaper than its peers
It trades 81% 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 13.3% to 8.7%. If the trend continues, profit falls even on flat sales — and margin decline rarely reverses quickly.
Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 30% against revenue up 8%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 2.7% a year is close to the rate prices rise, so the business is gaining little ground in real terms. That leaves the share price dependent on a re-rating rather than on earnings growth.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 13.3% to 7.9%. 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.

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

1EBITDA margin holds above 7%✓ 8.7%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹23 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3Revenue growth stays above 4% a year✗ 2.7% CAGR
Latest reported year was 20.2%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 1.5x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 8%✓ 9.8%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

6 / 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 · 3 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹100 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

12.9x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

1.12x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹15.64

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

7.9%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

9.8%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

0.21x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

20.2%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

40.3%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

0.50%

Modest

Small cash return — most of the return has to come from the price

Free Cash Flow

-₹23 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

CMP

₹202

Operating Margin

7.7%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

5.2%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

2.71

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

-0.19

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

54%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

201.6 / 201.9

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

47.7

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹131 Cr	₹128 Cr	₹130 Cr	₹141 Cr	+2.7%
EBITDA	₹17 Cr	₹18 Cr	₹16 Cr	₹12 Cr	-10.7%
EBITDA Margin	13.3%	14.0%	12.0%	8.7%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹8 Cr	₹11 Cr	₹10 Cr	₹7 Cr	-5.7%
EPS	₹17	₹23.08	₹19.82	₹14.24	-5.7%
ROE	13.3%	15.5%	11.9%	7.9%	—
ROCE	21.5%	19.7%	16.0%	9.8%	—
Total Debt	₹11 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹2 Cr	₹19 Cr	+19.2%
Free Cash Flow	₹4 Cr	₹18 Cr	₹1 Cr	-₹23 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 2.7% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has shrunk at 10.7% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 13.3% to 8.7% over 3 years (-4.6 pts).

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 5.7% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EPS has shrunk at 5.7% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 13.3% to 7.9% over 3 years (-5.4 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 21.5% to 9.8% over 3 years (-11.7 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 19.2% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹4 Cr to -₹23 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹133 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹44 Cr

Total Debt

₹19 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹3 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹1 Cr

Capex

-₹22 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

89.3%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹1

Ex-Dividend Date

16 Jul 2026

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

2 mixed4 general

B&A PACKAGING INDIA LIMITED Share Price

Upstox, 05 May

B&A Packaging India Ltd. Peer Comparison – Compare with Others

Value Research, 31 Aug

Utkal Speciality Industries India (NSEI:UTKAL) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 18 Jun

B&A Packaging sets 40th AGM for July 27, 2026

scanx.trade, 29 Jun

Huhtamaki India Reports Flat Q4 Revenue at ₹6.13B as Net Profit Dips 2.3% YoY

Sahi, 12 MayResults

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

MOLDTKPAC Forecast — Price Target — Prediction for 2027

TradingView, 25 JunAnalyst view

🟡Mixed / dependsBroker commentary — an opinion about the price rather than new information about the business.

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

🔴Business QualityWeak5.9/20

🟢Financial HealthStrong13/20

🔴GrowthWeak5/20

🔴ProfitabilityWeak5.8/15

🟢ValuationAttractive11.8/15

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

This thesis breaks if

✓EBITDA margin holds above 7%8.7%
✗Free cash flow remains positive-₹23 Cr
✗Revenue growth stays above 4% a year2.7% CAGR
✓Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x1.5x
✓ROCE stays above 8%9.8%