Basant Agro Tech (India) Limited

Basic Materials — Agricultural Inputs · BSE

₹10.62−₹0.12 (−1.12%)

DalalBaazaar Score

41 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

High

Driven by moderate debt load, 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, 6:57 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

The 60-second version of Basant Agro Tech (India) Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Basant Agro Tech (India) Limited manufactures and sells farm inputs in India. The company operates through Seed, Fertilizer, and Others segments.

IndustryAgricultural Inputs

SectorBasic Materials

Employees368

Annual revenue₹562 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹562 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹1 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹5 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 368 employees supports ₹1.53 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹1.53 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are TATA STEEL LIMITED, JSW STEEL LIMITED, ULTRATECH CEMENT LIMITED, ASIAN PAINTS 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 9.6% 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 ROE22.3%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +3% while net margin moved -63% 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+3%

Margin effect-63%

DalalBaazaar Score

41/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue CAGR of only 1.1% — barely ahead of inflation
✗ Profit has declined at 27.5% a year

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

32/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

80/ 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

13.3x

3Y Median

24.9x

40 monthly readings · mean 24.0x · range 8.9x–47.5x

Sector Median

28.7x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 47% below its 3y median of 24.9x. 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 54% below the peer median of 28.7x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

24.9x median over 40 months · -47%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

28.7x median of 4 peers · -54%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

9.8x

PEG

1.24

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

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

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 10.8% to 3.8% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 14.3% to 9.6% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

6 items require attention · 3 high · 3 watch

🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only 1.9x — little room if earnings dip.
🔴Profit up while operating cash flow fallsFinancial
Reported profit rose but cash generated by operations declined — worth checking whether earnings are being supported by non-cash items or working capital.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 76% against revenue up 3% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.
🟡Debt is increasingFinancial
Total debt is up 48% over 3 years.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹41 Cr in the latest year.
🟡Profit is decliningFinancial
Net profit is down 62% over 3 years.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Priced below its own history
The stock trades 47% below its own median multiple. If the business performs as it has and simply re-rates back to normal, that gap is return on its own.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 54% 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?

The debt load needs earnings to hold up
Debt is 6.5x 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 76% against revenue up 3%. 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 1.1% 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 10.8% to 3.8%. 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 3%✓ 5.1%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 6.5x
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✗ -₹41 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 1.9x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
5Revenue growth stays above 4% a year✗ 1.1% CAGR
Latest reported year was 31.8%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.

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

5 good · 4 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹96 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

13.3x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

0.53x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹0.8

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

3.8%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

9.6%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

1.00x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

31.8%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

10.7%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

0.47%

Modest

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

Free Cash Flow

-₹41 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

3.3%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

1.2%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

1.42

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.32

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

26%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

11.0 / 11.4

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

32.2

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹545 Cr	₹399 Cr	₹458 Cr	₹562 Cr	+1.1%
EBITDA	₹35 Cr	₹27 Cr	₹26 Cr	₹29 Cr	-6.0%
EBITDA Margin	6.4%	6.8%	5.6%	5.1%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹18 Cr	₹4 Cr	₹4 Cr	₹7 Cr	-27.5%
EPS	₹2.03	₹0.43	₹0.46	₹0.77	-27.6%
ROE	10.8%	2.3%	2.3%	3.8%	—
ROCE	14.3%	9.3%	8.5%	9.6%	—
Total Debt	₹127 Cr	₹156 Cr	₹128 Cr	₹187 Cr	+13.9%
Free Cash Flow	-₹41 Cr	-₹17 Cr	₹40 Cr	-₹41 Cr	—

🟡 Revenue has been broadly flat over 3 years (1.1% a year).

🔴 EBITDA has shrunk at 6.0% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 6.4% to 5.1% over 3 years (-1.2 pts).

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 27.5% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EPS has shrunk at 27.6% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 10.8% to 3.8% over 3 years (-7.0 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 14.3% to 9.6% over 3 years (-4.7 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 13.9% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹485 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹301 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹1 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹34 Cr

Capex

-₹7 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

59.5%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹0.05

Ex-Dividend Date

23 Sept 2026

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
TATA STEEL LIMITED	19.8x	10.8%
JSW STEEL LIMITED	12.0x	24.7%
ULTRATECH CEMENT LIMITED	37.6x	11.1%
ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED	46.9x	22.3%

Recent News

2 positive2 mixed2 general

Basant Agro Tech Forms Death Cross, Signalling Potential Bearish Trend

MarketsMojo, 16 OctAnalyst view

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

Basant Agro Tech passes all AGM resolutions, declares 5% dividend

scanx.trade, 30 SeptCapital return

🟢Potentially positiveCash or shares returned to holders. A buyback is only good value if the shares were cheap when bought.

Basant Agro Tech Valuation Shifts to Very Attractive Amidst Mixed Market Returns

MarketsMojo, 16 Oct

Best Agrolife consolidated net profit rises 104.07% in the June 2026 quarter

Business Standard, 31 JulResults

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

Basant Agro Tech Share Price Rises 8.56% Today

Univest, 30 JulPrice 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.

Basant Agro Tech schedules 36th AGM for Sep 30, 2026

scanx.trade, 30 Sept

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongValuation

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Growth · Profitability · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

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. 3 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

4 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x; Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x; Revenue growth stays above 4% a year · see Key things to watch ↑