Cresto Techno Limited

Communication Services — Entertainment · NSE

₹20.30−₹0.39 (−1.88%)

DalalBaazaar Score

38 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Very High

Driven by negative free cash flow, the company is currently loss-making, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity.

In simple words: The company is currently losing money, but sales are shrinking. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:02 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Cresto Techno Limited designs and develops Ignitium Energy OS, an operating system for energy infrastructure management. The company's platform manages fuel, electricity, solar, storage, electric vehicles, and hydrogen. It serves India's energy infrastructure sector.

IndustryEntertainment

SectorCommunication Services

Employees26

Annual revenue₹23 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹23 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-9 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹-6 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 26 employees supports ₹88.8 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹88.8 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED, VODAFONE IDEA 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 -14.1% 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 ROE20.2%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +19% 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+19%

Margin effect-64%

DalalBaazaar Score

38/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Return on equity is negative
✓ ROE has improved by 46.9 points over the period

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

38/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

29/ 100

Expensive

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

Weak on business quality and not cheap enough to compensate.

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

—

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well3

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from -25.8% to -5.8% over 3 years.
Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from -63.4% to -16.6%.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from -73.1% to -14.1%.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

Nothing stands out as clearly deteriorating on the years of data available.

Red Flags

4 items require attention · 2 high · 2 watch

🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only -122.5x — little room if earnings dip.
🔴The company is lossmakingFinancial
Net profit of -₹2 Cr in the latest reported year.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 4.8x to -122.5x.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹3 Cr in the latest year.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from -25.8% to -5.8%. 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?

Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 6.0% 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 -8%✓ -5.8%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹3 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3Interest cover stays above 3x✗ -122.5x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
4Revenue growth stays above 5% a year✓ 6.0% CAGR
Latest reported year was -19.9%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
5ROCE stays above 8%✗ -14.1%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

4 / 10 checks passed

✗ Strong return on equity (ROE ≥ 15%)
✗ Strong return on capital employed (ROCE ≥ 15%)
✗ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✗ Generates positive free cash flow
✓ 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

0 good · 4 neutral · 7 weak

Market Cap

₹21 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

2.34x

Fair

Moderate premium to the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹-1.85

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

-20.3%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

-14.1%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

Revenue Growth (YoY)

-19.9%

Shrinking

Sales are contracting

Profit Growth (YoY)

-1082.6%

Falling

Profits are shrinking

Dividend Yield

None

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

Free Cash Flow

-₹3 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

ROA

-8.4%

Weak

Assets generate little profit

Operating Margin

-16.8%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

-8.6%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

4.35

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

-0.12

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

42%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

20.7 / 17.9

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

39.8

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹19 Cr	₹22 Cr	₹26 Cr	₹23 Cr	+6.0%
EBITDA	-₹5 Cr	₹1 Cr	₹1 Cr	-₹1 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	-25.8%	4.7%	2.5%	-5.8%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹5 Cr	-₹0 Cr	₹0 Cr	-₹2 Cr	—
EPS	₹-4.5	—	₹0.19	—	—
ROE	-63.4%	-0.0%	2.7%	-16.6%	—
ROCE	-73.1%	2.0%	2.4%	-14.1%	—
Total Debt	—	₹1 Cr	₹0 Cr	—	—
Free Cash Flow	₹1 Cr	-₹0 Cr	₹0 Cr	-₹3 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 6.0% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from -25.8% to -5.8% over 3 years (+20.0 pts).

🟢 ROE has risen from -63.4% to -16.6% over 3 years (+46.9 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from -73.1% to -14.1% over 3 years (+59.0 pts).

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹1 Cr to -₹3 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹15 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹3 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹5 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹3 Cr

Capex

—

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

15 Feb 2021

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED	39.8x	20.2%
VODAFONE IDEA LIMITED	3.6x	—

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Cresto Techno (NSEI:CRESTO) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 11 Sept

CRESTO TECHNO LTD. Stock/Share price , NSE/BSE Forecast News and Live Quotes

Equitymaster, 28 Sept

Cresto Techno Q4 Results 2026 - Find Cresto Techno Q4 Earnings Result | CRESTO Q4 results

Livemint, 17 SeptResults

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

Silly Monks Entertainment Profit and Loss Reports

The Economic Times, 17 Sept

Latest Shareholding Pattern of CRESTO TECHNO LTD.

Equitymaster, 30 Sept

Compare with

Equitymaster, 08 Oct

Watch Items

Revenue growth is negative (-19.9%) 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.
1 metric couldn't be retrieved for this stock — this is more common for smaller or thinly-covered listings.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Growth · Profitability · Valuation · Risk

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

3 of 5 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x; ROCE stays above 8% · see Key things to watch ↑