Camex Limited

Basic Materials — Specialty Chemicals · BSE

₹58.50−₹1.42 (−2.37%)

DalalBaazaar Score

58 / 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, 6:07 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 Camex Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Camex Limited manufactures, imports, exports, and trades in dyes, chemicals and intermediates, fiber glasses, metals, coal minerals, and others in India and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Dyes & Chemicals and Fiber Glass.

IndustrySpecialty Chemicals

SectorBasic Materials

Employees75

Annual revenue₹149 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹149 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹2 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹4 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 75 employees supports ₹1.98 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

EBITDA margin4.1%

Net margin2.2%

Revenue / employee₹1.98 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.

ASIAN PAINTS LIMITEDP/E 46.9x · ROE 22.3%

PIDILITE INDUSTRIES LTDP/E 57.8x · ROE 24.4%

SRF LTDP/E 33.8x · ROE 15.4%

UPL LIMITEDP/E 21.5x · ROE 6.1%

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%

ROE7.0%

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 +14% while net margin moved +368% 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+14%

Margin effect+368%

DalalBaazaar Score

58/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✓ Beta of 0.23 — historically steadier than the index
✗ Micro Cap: thinner liquidity and sharper drawdowns are normal
✗ Profits have swung sharply from year to year — earnings are hard to forecast
✗ Negative free cash flow means dependence on external funding

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

58/ 100

Average

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

Valuation

73/ 100

Cheap

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

A reasonable business at a reasonable price — neither the quality nor the valuation stands out in either direction.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

15.5x

3Y Median

18.4x

40 monthly readings · mean 32.8x · range 10.2x–108.8x

Sector Median

40.4x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 16% below its 3y median of 18.4x. 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 62% below the peer median of 40.4x.

vs. its own history

Fair

18.4x median over 40 months · -16%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

40.4x median of 4 peers · -62%

vs. generic bands

Fair

15x–35x

P/E (Trailing)

15.5x

P/B

1.30x

EV/EBITDA

11.1x

PEG

0.21

Dividend Yield

None

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well5

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 1.5% to 4.1% over 3 years.
Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from 1.6% to 7.0%.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from 3.9% to 10.5%.
Very low debt
Debt/Equity of 0.17x leaves the balance sheet with plenty of headroom.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Debt is rising
Total debt is up 66% over 3 years — worth checking what it funded.
Free cash flow is negative
The business is not currently covering its capital spending from operations.

Red Flags

3 items require attention · 2 high · 1 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 66% over 3 years, from ₹5 Cr to ₹8 Cr.
🔴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.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹8 Cr in the latest year.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from 1.5% to 4.1%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 62% 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?

Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 4.3% 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.
Earnings are hard to forecast
Profit has swung sharply from year to year, so any single year — good or bad — is a weak guide to the next. Cyclical earnings deserve lower multiples for that reason.
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 2%✓ 4.1%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹8 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3Revenue growth stays above 4% a year✓ 4.3% CAGR
Latest reported year was 18.8%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 1.3x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 8%✓ 10.5%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

7 / 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

₹60 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

15.5x

Fair

Fairly valued against the generic band

P/B Ratio

1.30x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹3.78

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

7.0%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

10.5%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

0.17x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

18.8%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

61.2%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

None

No dividend yield reported — usually means no payout, but verify if one was recently initiated

Free Cash Flow

-₹8 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

CMP

₹58.5

Operating Margin

5.6%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

2.4%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

3.00

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.23

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

89%

Near high

Near its 52-week high

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

54.6 / 47.3

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

59.0

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹131 Cr	₹140 Cr	₹132 Cr	₹149 Cr	+4.3%
EBITDA	₹2 Cr	₹6 Cr	₹5 Cr	₹6 Cr	+46.7%
EBITDA Margin	1.5%	4.5%	3.9%	4.1%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹1 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹2 Cr	₹3 Cr	+74.5%
EPS	₹0.6	₹3.37	₹1.86	₹3.18	+74.5%
ROE	1.6%	8.5%	4.4%	7.0%	—
ROCE	3.9%	11.1%	9.4%	10.5%	—
Total Debt	₹5 Cr	₹8 Cr	₹1 Cr	₹8 Cr	+18.4%
Free Cash Flow	-₹3 Cr	₹5 Cr	₹1 Cr	-₹8 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 4.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 46.7% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 1.5% to 4.1% over 3 years (+2.6 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 74.5% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EPS has grown at 74.5% a year over 3 years.

🟢 ROE has risen from 1.6% to 7.0% over 3 years (+5.4 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from 3.9% to 10.5% over 3 years (+6.5 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 18.4% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹71 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹25 Cr

Total Debt

₹8 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹3 Cr

Capex

-₹5 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

74.4%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

08 Sept 2014

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

2 positive1 mixed3 general

Nahata Khushii Rajesh buys Camex shares, stake rises to 0.31%

scanx.trade, 22 SeptPrice 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.

Camex Ltd. Key Financial Ratios – Valuation, Profitability & More

Value Research, 30 Aug

Camex Ltd. Peer Comparison – Compare with Others

Value Research, 31 Aug

Anand Bafna sells 1.22% stake in Camex via open market

scanx.trade, 04 Sept

HAL board approves final dividend of ₹10 per share for FY26; check record date, share price details

Upstox, 29 JunCapital return

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

Camex Ltd FY26 Profit Surges 75% On Insurance Payout, Debt Climbs

Whalesbook, 12 MayResults

🟢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

🟡Business QualityAdequate10.2/20

🟢Financial HealthStrong13/20

🟢GrowthStrong13.1/20

🟡ProfitabilityModerate7.1/15

🟢ValuationAttractive10.6/15

🔴RiskHigh4/10

Unremarkable in both directions

A reasonable business at a reasonable price. Nothing here is alarming and nothing is compelling, which usually means the decision rests on things this data cannot see — the industry's direction, management's intent, and what else is available to you. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

This thesis breaks if

✓EBITDA margin holds above 2%4.1%
✗Free cash flow remains positive-₹8 Cr
✓Revenue growth stays above 4% a year4.3% CAGR
✓Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x1.3x
✓ROCE stays above 8%10.5%