Centrum Capital Limited

Financial Services — Financial Conglomerates · NSE

₹19.70+₹0.72 (+3.79%)

DalalBaazaar Score

47 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Very High

Driven by short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets, negative free cash flow, the company is currently loss-making.

In simple words: The company is currently losing money, 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, 7:03 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Centrum Capital Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial services for institutions and individuals in India. It operates through Banking Business; Institutional Business; Wealth Management & Distribution; and Housing Finance Business segments.

IndustryFinancial Conglomerates

SectorFinancial Services

Employees5,000

Annual revenue₹3,143 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹3,143 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-4 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹23 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 5,000 employees supports ₹62.9 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹62.9 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are BAJAJ FINANCE LIMITED, HDFC BANK LTD, ICICI BANK LTD., STATE BANK OF INDIA. 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?Not assessable from these ratios

For a lender, returns on capital are shaped by leverage and funding cost rather than by pricing power, so the usual financial signature of an advantage does not apply. Judge this one on deposit franchise, cost of funds and asset quality — none of which are in this data.

Peer median ROE16.5%

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 +159% while net margin moved -64% 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+159%

Margin effect-64%

DalalBaazaar Score

47/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Return on equity is negative
✗ ROE has fallen by 19.1 points over the period

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

50/ 100

Average

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

Valuation

31/ 100

Expensive

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.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Not enough peers with a usable P/E

vs. generic bands

N/A

No P/E — the company is lossmaking

EV/EBITDA

21.7x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 19.8% to 23.5% over 3 years.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from 2.3% to 10.2%.

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from -25.2% to -44.4% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Short-term liquidity is tight
Current ratio of 0.64 — near-term obligations exceed near-term assets.

Red Flags

2 items require attention · 2 high

🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only 0.8x — little room if earnings dip.
🔴The company is lossmakingFinancial
Net profit of -₹138 Cr in the latest reported year.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from 19.8% to 23.5%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from -25.2% to -44.4%. 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

1Revenue growth stays above 28% a year✓ 37.3% CAGR
Latest reported year was 137.7%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 21%✓ 23.5%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Return on equity stays above 8%✗ -44.4%
For a lender this is the cleanest single read on whether the book is being grown profitably.
4Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 0.8x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.

Investment Checklist

4 / 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

2 good · 4 neutral · 5 weak

Market Cap

₹959 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

Not meaningful

Loss-making

Earnings are negative, so a P/E multiple can't be read here

P/B Ratio

3.08x

Fair

Moderate premium to the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹-4.8

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

-44.4%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

10.2%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

12.19x

High

High leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

137.7%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

26.3%

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

-₹2,045 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

-41.3%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

-20.1%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

0.64

Tight

Tight short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

-0.02

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

Near low

Near its 52-week low

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

20.2 / 22.2

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

31.3

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹1,214 Cr	₹2,036 Cr	₹2,693 Cr	₹3,143 Cr	+37.3%
EBITDA	₹241 Cr	₹609 Cr	₹1,017 Cr	₹738 Cr	+45.3%
EBITDA Margin	19.8%	29.9%	37.8%	23.5%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹150 Cr	-₹99 Cr	-₹187 Cr	-₹138 Cr	—
EPS	₹-3.6	₹-2.39	₹-4.51	₹-3.13	—
ROE	-25.2%	-22.5%	-67.1%	-44.4%	—
ROCE	2.3%	4.8%	7.1%	10.2%	—
Total Debt	₹2,653 Cr	₹4,364 Cr	₹16,597 Cr	₹16,058 Cr	+82.2%
Free Cash Flow	-₹4,115 Cr	₹18 Cr	₹2,118 Cr	-₹2,045 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 37.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 45.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 19.8% to 23.5% over 3 years (+3.7 pts).

🔴 ROE has fallen from -25.2% to -44.4% over 3 years (-19.1 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from 2.3% to 10.2% over 3 years (+7.9 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 82.2% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹21,483 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹20,165 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹987 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹1,814 Cr

Capex

-₹231 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

72.3%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

04 Sept 2019

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
BAJAJ FINANCE LIMITED	30.2x	17.8%
HDFC BANK LTD	15.9x	13.8%
ICICI BANK LTD.	18.1x	16.5%
STATE BANK OF INDIA	10.3x	15.2%

Recent News

1 positive1 negative4 general

Centrum Capital Ltd. (CENTRUM) 52 Week Low Streak: Second Straight Session Near Yearly Low

Univest, 16 Oct

Centrum Capital (NSEI:CENTRUM) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 13 Oct

JBCG Advisory lifts stake in Centrum Capital to 13.88% via warrant exercise

scanx.trade, 13 Oct

Centrum Capital allots 1.17 crore shares to promoter entity as warrant conversion continues

BusinessLine, 08 Oct

Centrum Capital Q2 2026 Earnings: Revenue Rises 16.68% YoY to ₹3,142.56 Crore Even as EPS Prints at ₹-3.13

https://www.siam.in/, 06 OctResults

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

Centrum Capital promoter pledges 4.81 crore shares to lenders

scanx.trade, 12 OctOwnership

🔴Potentially negativePromoter selling or pledging is a signal worth understanding, though the reason is often personal rather than about the business.

Watch Items

Trading very close to its 52-week low — worth checking whether this reflects a temporary setback or a structural problem.
This is a financial-sector business: borrowing is its raw material, not leverage in the usual sense. Debt/Equity and ROCE here aren't comparable to a manufacturer's — read them alongside NIM, GNPA and capital adequacy from the company's own disclosures.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongGrowth

MiddlingBusiness Quality

WeakFinancial Health · Profitability · Valuation · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

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.

2 of 4 tripwires tripped — Return on equity stays above 8%; Interest cover stays above 3x · see Key things to watch ↑