CSB Bank Limited

Financial Services — Banks - Regional · NSE

₹311.00−₹0.05 (−0.02%)

DalalBaazaar Score

69 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

REASONABLE

Risk

Moderate

Driven by 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. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 8:27 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

CSB Bank Limited provides banking and financial services for small and mid-sized enterprises, large corporates and conglomerates, and domestic and non-resident individuals in India.

IndustryBanks - Regional

SectorFinancial Services

Employees8,184

Annual revenue₹2,896 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹2,896 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹22 reaches shareholders as profit. Each of its 8,184 employees supports ₹35.4 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹35.4 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are HDFC BANK LTD, ICICI BANK LTD., KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK LTD, AXIS BANK 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?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 ROE13.8%

What is the outlook?

3 analysts covering the stock expect revenue to grow about 22.2% and earnings to grow about 27.9% in the year to 2028. These are estimates by people who follow the company, not a forecast for the wider industry.

Est. revenue growth+22.2%

Est. earnings growth+27.9%

Analysts3

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 +76% while net margin moved -34% 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+76%

Margin effect-34%

DalalBaazaar Score

69/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✓ Revenue CAGR of 20.6% — compounding well above nominal GDP
✗ Profit CAGR of only 5.0%
✗ Profit is compounding slower than revenue — margins are being squeezed as the business grows

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

67/ 100

Good

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

Valuation

79/ 100

Cheap

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

A good business currently available at an undemanding price — the combination this framework is built to look for.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

8.1x

3Y Median

10.6x

40 monthly readings · mean 10.7x · range 8.5x–13.4x

Sector Median

17.0x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 23% below its 3y median of 10.6x. 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 52% below the peer median of 17.0x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

10.6x median over 40 months · -23%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

17.0x median of 4 peers · -52%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

—

PEG

1.63

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention1

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 17.1% to 12.9% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.

Red Flags

No automated checks triggered

None of the automated financial checks below were triggered on the years of data available. That is not the same as a clean bill of health — see what could not be checked.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Priced below its own history
The stock trades 23% 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 52% 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?

Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 17.1% to 12.9%. 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

1Revenue growth stays above 15% a year✓ 20.6% CAGR
Latest reported year was 16.9%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2Return on equity stays above 11%✓ 12.9%
For a lender this is the cleanest single read on whether the book is being grown profitably.
3Valuation vs its own median of 10.6x✓ 8.1x today
A re-rating above its own history needs a reason; without one it is just a higher price.

Investment Checklist

6 / 10 checks passed

✗ Strong return on equity (ROE ≥ 15%)
✓ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✗ Generates positive free cash flow
✗ Manageable leverage (Debt/Equity < 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

5 good · 5 neutral · 1 weak

Market Cap

₹5,285 Cr

Small Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

8.1x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

1.10x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹38.31

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

12.9%

Moderate

Moderate capital efficiency

ROCE

Not meaningful

N/A for lenders

Banks and NBFCs don't report capital employed the way other businesses do

Debt/Equity

1.46x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

16.9%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

26.5%

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

-₹505 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

5.5x

Improving

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

Operating Margin

30.6%

Good

Healthy core-business profitability

Net Margin

24.1%

Good

Strong bottom-line conversion

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.31

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

Near low

Near its 52-week low

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

317.1 / 321.5

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

32.8

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹1,650 Cr	₹2,061 Cr	₹2,448 Cr	₹2,896 Cr	+20.6%
PAT (Net Profit)	₹547 Cr	₹567 Cr	₹594 Cr	₹633 Cr	+5.0%
EPS	₹31.55	₹32.67	₹34.23	₹36.5	+5.0%
ROE	17.1%	14.9%	13.2%	12.9%	—
Total Debt	₹783 Cr	₹1,757 Cr	₹5,246 Cr	₹7,154 Cr	+109.1%
Free Cash Flow	₹2,136 Cr	₹1,665 Cr	-₹5,556 Cr	-₹505 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 20.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 5.0% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EPS has grown at 5.0% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 17.1% to 12.9% over 3 years (-4.1 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 109.1% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹2,136 Cr to -₹505 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹57,727 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹52,832 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹4,152 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹314 Cr

Capex

-₹191 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

18.4%

Insider Holding

52.3%

Analyst Consensus

Recommendations

2 Buy · 1 Hold · 1 Sell

Target Price (Mean)

₹393.5

+26.5% vs CMP

Target Range

₹355 – ₹439

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
HDFC BANK LTD	15.9x	13.8%
ICICI BANK LTD.	18.1x	16.5%
KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK LTD	21.9x	11.2%
AXIS BANK LIMITED	14.5x	13.4%

Recent News

3 mixed3 general

CSB Bank Share Price Update: Price Action and Fundamentals

Univest, 14 Oct

IDBI Bank shares jump 13%, CSB Bank also gains 6% after Fairfax approval; here's why

Business Today, 14 OctPrice 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.

IDBI Bank Shares Fall Nearly 5%, CSB Bank Rises After Cabinet Clears Fairfax Deal

NDTV Profit, 15 OctPrice 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.

Fairfax's IDBI Bank deal puts CSB Bank's ownership and future in focus

TradingView, 16 Oct

Fairfax’s IDBI Bank deal puts CSB Bank’s ownership and future in focus

Livemint, 16 Oct

CSB Bank shares drop nearly 2% after promoter Fairfax chosen to buy IDBI Bank stake

CNBC TV18, 14 OctPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move rather than a change in the business. If the figures on this page have not moved, the fall is either an opportunity or news they have yet to catch up with.

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

StrongBusiness Quality · Valuation

MiddlingFinancial Health · Growth · Profitability · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Attractive on both counts

A good business currently available at an undemanding price — the combination this framework exists to look for. The work left is qualitative: whether the advantage the numbers imply is one you can identify and expect to last.

All 3 tripwires holding · see Key things to watch ↑