Chandra Prabhu International Ltd.

Energy — Thermal Coal · BSE

₹10.64+₹0.20 (+1.92%)

DalalBaazaar Score

45 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

Moderate

Driven by micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity.

In simple words: The business is earning a fairly low return on the money invested in it, but sales are shrinking. Whether sales start growing again is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:45 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

The 60-second version of Chandra Prabhu International Ltd. — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Chandra Prabhu International Ltd. engages in the trading of coal, synthetic rubber, chemicals, and metals in India. The company operates through three segments: Coal trading, Metal Trading, Hiring charges of Agricultural Equipments.

IndustryThermal Coal

SectorEnergy

Employees16

Annual revenue₹605 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹605 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹0 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹1 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 16 employees supports ₹37.83 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹37.83 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LTD, OIL AND NATURAL GAS CORP., BHARAT PETROLEUM CORP LT, INDIAN OIL CORP LTD. 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 12.0% 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 ROE15.4%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved -16% while net margin moved -57% 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-16%

Margin effect-57%

DalalBaazaar Score

45/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue has contracted at 5.6% a year
✗ Profit has declined at 28.7% a year
✗ Latest-year revenue growth of -16.1% is below the longer-term trend — momentum is fading

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

37/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

88/ 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

3.1x

3Y Median

13.7x

40 monthly readings · mean 23.2x · range 5.5x–65.7x

Sector Median

6.9x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 77% below its 3y median of 13.7x. 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 6.9x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

13.7x median over 40 months · -77%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

6.9x median of 4 peers · -54%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

7.4x

PEG

0.14

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Cash flow has turned positive
Free cash flow moved from negative to positive over 3 years.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 17.2% to 5.6% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 25.5% to 12.0% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

2 items require attention · 1 high · 1 watch

🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 59% against revenue up -16% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.
🟡Profit is decliningFinancial
Net profit is down 64% over 3 years.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Priced below its own history
The stock trades 77% 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 4.0x 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 59% against revenue up -16%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 17.2% to 5.6%. 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.
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.

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

1EBITDA margin holds above -1%✓ 1.4%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 4.0x
Already stretched, so this is a reduction target rather than a level to hold. Around 3x is where lenders typically start attaching conditions.
3Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 2.4x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
4Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹33 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
5ROCE stays above 9%✓ 12.0%
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

5 good · 4 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹30 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

3.1x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

0.56x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹3.4

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

5.6%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

12.0%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

0.63x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

-16.1%

Shrinking

Sales are contracting

Profit Growth (YoY)

22.9%

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

₹33 Cr

Cash generative

Generates cash even after funding its capex

More Metrics

Operating Margin

1.2%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

1.6%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

1.48

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.26

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

21%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

10.3 / 10.6

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

53.4

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹718 Cr	₹855 Cr	₹994 Cr	₹605 Cr	-5.6%
EBITDA	₹13 Cr	₹7 Cr	₹10 Cr	₹8 Cr	-13.6%
EBITDA Margin	1.8%	0.8%	1.0%	1.4%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹8 Cr	₹1 Cr	₹2 Cr	₹3 Cr	-28.7%
EPS	₹2.89	₹0.28	₹0.85	₹1.05	-28.6%
ROE	17.2%	1.7%	4.8%	5.6%	—
ROCE	25.5%	13.5%	18.7%	12.0%	—
Total Debt	₹30 Cr	₹57 Cr	₹81 Cr	₹33 Cr	+3.7%
Free Cash Flow	-₹8 Cr	-₹19 Cr	-₹19 Cr	₹33 Cr	—

🔴 Revenue has shrunk at 5.6% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has shrunk at 13.6% a year over 3 years.

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 1.4% over 3 years.

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 28.7% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EPS has shrunk at 28.6% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 17.2% to 5.6% over 3 years (-11.7 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 25.5% to 12.0% over 3 years (-13.5 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 3.7% a year over 3 years.

🟢 Free Cash Flow has turned positive, from -₹8 Cr to ₹33 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹103 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹51 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹1 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹33 Cr

Capex

-₹0 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

58.8%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

18 Sept 2023

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LTD	21.9x	8.3%
OIL AND NATURAL GAS CORP.	6.4x	11.7%
BHARAT PETROLEUM CORP LT	7.3x	17.1%
INDIAN OIL CORP LTD	5.3x	15.4%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Chandra Prabhu International Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 30 Aug

Chandra Prabhu International Q1 Results: Net profit turns positive, rises 151% YoY

scanx.trade, 29 JulResults

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

Chandra Prabhu International Ltd. Financials – Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss, Cash Flow

Value Research, 29 Aug

Chandra Prabhu International sets e-voting cut-off for 41st AGM

scanx.trade, 31 Aug

CHANDRA PRABHU INTERNATIONAL L Share Price

Upstox, 18 Aug

Chandra Prabhu International appoints Vatsal Jain as CEO for five-year term

scanx.trade, 16 Sept

Watch Items

Revenue growth is negative (-16.1%) on the latest reported period — check if this is one-off or a trend.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongValuation

MiddlingFinancial Health

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

2 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x; Interest cover stays above 3x · see Key things to watch ↑