BASF India Limited

Basic Materials — Specialty Chemicals · NSE

₹3,399.00+₹23.00 (+0.68%)

DalalBaazaar Score

47 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

High

Driven by high debt relative to equity, negative free cash flow, small-cap size, which brings sharper price swings.

In simple words: Reasonable but unspectacular business quality, with both sales and profits growing well. Debt is 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 BASF India Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

BASF India Limited provides chemicals, materials, industrial solutions, nutrition and care, and agricultural solutions in India and internationally.

IndustrySpecialty Chemicals

SectorBasic Materials

Employees1,337

Annual revenue₹14,930 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹14,930 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹3 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹4 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 1,337 employees supports ₹11.17 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹11.17 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED, PIDILITE INDUSTRIES LTD, SRF LTD, UPL 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 14.0% 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 is the outlook?

1 analysts covering the stock expect revenue to grow about 8.6% and earnings to grow about 2.2% in the year to 2028. These are estimates by people who follow the company, not a forecast for the wider industry.

Est. revenue growth+8.6%

Est. earnings growth+2.2%

Analysts1

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 +10% while net margin moved -5% 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+10%

Margin effect-5%

DalalBaazaar Score

47/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue CAGR of only 3.1% — barely ahead of inflation
✗ Profit CAGR of only 1.4%

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

42/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

63/ 100

Fair

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

Weak on business quality and not cheap enough to compensate.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

23.6x

3Y Median

35.5x

40 monthly readings · mean 38.2x · range 27.1x–67.0x

Sector Median

40.4x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 34% below its 3y median of 35.5x. 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 42% below the peer median of 40.4x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

35.5x median over 40 months · -34%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

40.4x median of 4 peers · -42%

vs. generic bands

Fair

15x–35x

EV/EBITDA

23.2x

PEG

16.79

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 14.9% to 10.6% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 19.5% to 14.0% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

3 items require attention · 1 high · 2 watch

🔴High leverageFinancial
Debt/Equity of 3.35x — earnings must service borrowings before shareholders see anything.
🟡Debt is increasingFinancial
Total debt is up 25% over 3 years.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹316 Cr in the latest year.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Priced below its own history
The stock trades 34% 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 42% 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?

Leverage amplifies any setback
Debt/Equity of 3.35x. Interest is payable whether or not the business has a good year.
Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 3.1% 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 14.9% to 10.6%. 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
Small 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 2%✓ 4.0%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹316 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3Revenue growth stays above 4% a year✗ 3.1% CAGR
Latest reported year was 24.5%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 0.2x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 11%✓ 14.0%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

6 / 12 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
✓ Analyst consensus isn't majority-sell
✗ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

3 good · 6 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹14,713 Cr

Small Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

23.6x

Fair

Fairly valued against the generic band

P/B Ratio

3.72x

Fair

Moderate premium to the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹144.2

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

10.6%

Moderate

Moderate capital efficiency

ROCE

14.0%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

3.35x

High

High leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

24.5%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

162.2%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

0.74%

Modest

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

Free Cash Flow

-₹316 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

19.5x

Improving

Below the trailing multiple — the street expects earnings to grow into the price

Operating Margin

9.6%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

4.0%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.69

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.38

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

19%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

3463.3 / 3705.0

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

33.9

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹13,628 Cr	₹13,751 Cr	₹14,768 Cr	₹14,930 Cr	+3.1%
EBITDA	₹711 Cr	₹954 Cr	₹902 Cr	₹603 Cr	-5.3%
EBITDA Margin	5.2%	6.9%	6.1%	4.0%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹403 Cr	₹563 Cr	₹479 Cr	₹420 Cr	+1.4%
EPS	₹93.1	₹130.1	₹110.7	₹97.1	+1.4%
ROE	14.9%	17.5%	13.2%	10.6%	—
ROCE	19.5%	22.7%	17.4%	14.0%	—
Total Debt	₹106 Cr	₹156 Cr	₹190 Cr	₹133 Cr	+7.8%
Free Cash Flow	₹439 Cr	₹706 Cr	₹171 Cr	-₹316 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 3.1% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has shrunk at 5.3% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 5.2% to 4.0% over 3 years (-1.2 pts).

🟡 PAT (Net Profit) has been broadly flat over 3 years (1.4% a year).

🟡 EPS has been broadly flat over 3 years (1.4% a year).

🔴 ROE has fallen from 14.9% to 10.6% over 3 years (-4.3 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 19.5% to 14.0% over 3 years (-5.6 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 7.8% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹439 Cr to -₹316 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹8,436 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹4,478 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹869 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹110 Cr

Capex

-₹206 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

9.4%

Insider Holding

73.8%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹25

Ex-Dividend Date

30 Jul 2026

Analyst Consensus

Recommendations

0 Buy · 1 Hold · 0 Sell

Target Price (Mean)

₹4,350

+28.0% vs CMP

Target Range

₹4,350 – ₹4,350

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED	46.9x	22.3%
PIDILITE INDUSTRIES LTD	57.8x	24.4%
SRF LTD	33.8x	15.4%
UPL LIMITED	21.5x	6.1%

Recent News

1 positive2 mixed3 general

BASF India (NSEI:BASF) Stock Forecast & Analyst Predictions

Simply Wall Street, 05 OctAnalyst view

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

BASF India gets ESG rating of 74 in Leader category for FY26

scanx.trade, 16 Oct

BASF Forecast — Price Target — Prediction for 2027

TradingView, 26 JunAnalyst view

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

BASF India Stock Signals to Watch This Week

Univest, 23 Sept

BASF India Slips 1.13% to ₹3,746: Stock Hovers Between ₹3,558.7 Support and ₹3,933.3 Resistance - Stock Surge Alerts

siam.in, 09 Sept

Multibagger Chemical Stock Jumps 7% on Tuesday After Reporting Strong Q1 FY27 Results; PAT Surges 146% YoY, Revenue Rises 30%

Dalal Street Investment Journal, 04 AugResults

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

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongValuation

MiddlingFinancial Health · Risk

WeakBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability

Points for each in the Score ↑

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

2 of 5 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive; Revenue growth stays above 4% a year · see Key things to watch ↑