Dhillon Freight Carrier Limited

Industrials — Trucking · BSE

₹29.50₹0.00 (0.00%)

DalalBaazaar Score

55 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

High

Driven by negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity, falling profits.

In simple words: Reasonable but unspectacular business quality, though profits are falling even as sales grow. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:00 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Dhillon Freight Carrier Limited provides supply chain and logistics solutions in India. It offers express parcels, full trucks, and warehousing services. The company also engages in multimodal transportation and secondary distribution in India.

IndustryTrucking

SectorIndustrials

Annual revenue₹25 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹25 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹5 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹14 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD., SIEMENS LTD, ABB INDIA 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 12.6% 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 ROE15.2%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved -16% while net margin moved +348% 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+348%

DalalBaazaar Score

55/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ 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

55/ 100

Average

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

Valuation

81/ 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

7.1x

1.2Y Median

7.9x

14 monthly readings · mean 7.7x · range 6.1x–10.2x

Sector Median

88.8x

median of 3 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 11% below its 1.2y median of 7.9x. 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 92% below the peer median of 88.8x.

vs. its own history

Fair

7.9x median over 14 months · -11%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

88.8x median of 3 peers · -92%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

3.9x

PEG

0.13

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 7.0% to 14.1% 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 23.9% to 9.5% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 21.5% to 12.6% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

3 items require attention · 1 high · 2 watch

🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 365% against revenue up -16% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.
🟡Debt is increasingFinancial
Total debt is up 48% over 3 years.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹7 Cr in the latest year.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from 7.0% to 14.1%. 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 92% 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?

Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 365% 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 23.9% to 9.5%. 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 12%✓ 14.1%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹7 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 1.9x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
4ROCE stays above 10%✓ 12.6%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.
5Interest cover stays above 4x✓ 6.9x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.

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

₹12 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

7.1x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

0.81x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹4.18

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

13.8%

Moderate

Moderate capital efficiency

ROCE

12.6%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

0.46x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

12.3%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-70.2%

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

-₹9 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

ROA

7.0%

Average

Average asset productivity

Operating Margin

8.8%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

5.3%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

2.45

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

52W Range Position

11%

Near low

Near its 52-week low

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

30.9 / 30.9

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

43.7

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹30 Cr	₹24 Cr	₹24 Cr	₹25 Cr	-5.6%
EBITDA	₹2 Cr	₹4 Cr	₹4 Cr	₹4 Cr	+19.2%
EBITDA Margin	7.0%	15.7%	16.7%	14.1%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹0 Cr	₹1 Cr	₹2 Cr	₹1 Cr	+55.7%
EPS	₹0.91	₹2.79	₹4.55	—	—
ROE	23.9%	31.2%	34.1%	9.5%	—
ROCE	21.5%	30.4%	39.2%	12.6%	—
Total Debt	₹4 Cr	₹5 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹6 Cr	+13.9%
Free Cash Flow	-₹1 Cr	₹0 Cr	₹3 Cr	-₹7 Cr	—

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

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 19.2% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 7.0% to 14.1% over 3 years (+7.1 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 55.7% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 23.9% to 9.5% over 3 years (-14.4 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 21.5% to 12.6% over 3 years (-8.9 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 13.9% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹22 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹7 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹4 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹3 Cr

Capex

-₹10 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

68.7%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD.	30.1x	15.2%
SIEMENS LTD	88.8x	10.5%
ABB INDIA LIMITED	92.6x	19.1%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Dhillon Freight Nine Monthly Results, Nine Monthly Earnings for Dhillon Freight

The Economic Times, 01 OctResults

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

Dhillon Freight Carrier AGM passes capital hike and preference share resolution

scanx.trade, 03 Oct

Dhillon Freight Carrier Limite Share Price

Upstox, 05 May

Compare with

Equitymaster, 08 Oct

Courier Freight Logistics Penny Stocks 2027: 5 Picks

Univest, 17 Sept

Dhillon Freight Carrier sets Sep 29 AGM for capital hike approval

scanx.trade, 01 Sept

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongFinancial Health · Valuation

MiddlingBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability

WeakRisk

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

1 of 5 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive · see Key things to watch ↑