Fonebox Retail Limited

Sector n/a · NSE

₹197.25−₹1.75 (−0.88%)

DalalBaazaar Score

61 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

Low

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

In simple words: Strong business and financial position, with both sales and profits growing well. Thin profit margins are the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 6:08 pm

Constructive picture on fundamentals. Profitability, leverage and growth metrics are broadly healthy on this snapshot. That said, valuation should still be checked against direct sector peers (not just the generic P/E bands used here) before treating this as a buy signal.

Understanding the Business

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

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹534 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹1 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹2 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

EBITDA margin2.0%

Net margin1.3%

What is its competitive advantage?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 11.1% 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.

ROCE11.1%

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 +173% while net margin moved +56% 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+173%

Margin effect+56%

DalalBaazaar Score

61/ 100

Good

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

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

68/ 100

Good

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

Valuation

35/ 100

Expensive

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

A good business, but the price already reflects that. The quality is real; the question is whether you are overpaying for it today.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Not enough peers with a usable P/E

vs. generic bands

No P/E available

P/E (Trailing)

—

P/B

—

EV/EBITDA

16.1x

PEG

—

Dividend Yield

None

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well4

Debt is being paid down
Total debt is down 100% over 3 years.
Cash flow has turned positive
Free cash flow moved from negative to positive over 3 years.
Very low debt
Debt/Equity of 0.01x leaves the balance sheet with plenty of headroom.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention3

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 72.6% to 16.5% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 22.6% to 11.1% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.
Inventory building faster than sales
Inventory is up 215% against revenue growth of 173% — stock may not be moving.

Red Flags

1 item require attention · 1 watch

🟡Inventory building faster than salesFinancial
Inventory up 215% against revenue up 173% — stock may not be moving.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Deleveraging frees up earnings
Debt is down 100% over 3 years. Every rupee of interest not paid drops to the bottom line, so profit can grow even if revenue does not.
Self-funding with balance-sheet headroom
Positive free cash flow of ₹10 Cr alongside low debt means growth, buybacks or dividends need no outside money — and a downturn can be absorbed rather than refinanced.
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 72.6% to 16.5%. 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

1Revenue growth stays above 30% a year✓ 39.7% CAGR
Latest reported year was 56.1%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 0%✓ 2.0%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹10 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 0.0x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 8%✓ 11.1%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

7 / 9 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
✓ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

5 good · 6 neutral · 0 weak

Market Cap

₹202 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

P/B Ratio

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

EPS (TTM)

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

ROE

16.5%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

11.1%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

0.01x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

56.1%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

49.6%

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

₹10 Cr

Cash generative

Generates cash even after funding its capex

More Metrics

CMP

₹197.25

Gross Margin

10.6%

Proxy

Operating margin unavailable — showing gross margin instead

Net Margin

1.3%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

2.99

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

148.5 / 120.9

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

49.6

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹196 Cr	₹297 Cr	₹342 Cr	₹534 Cr	+39.7%
EBITDA	₹4 Cr	₹6 Cr	₹7 Cr	₹11 Cr	+40.8%
EBITDA Margin	2.0%	2.1%	2.2%	2.0%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹2 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹5 Cr	₹7 Cr	+62.0%
EPS	₹1.56	₹4.51	₹4.43	—	—
ROE	72.6%	11.5%	13.2%	16.5%	—
ROCE	22.6%	11.2%	10.2%	11.1%	—
Total Debt	₹11 Cr	₹0 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹0 Cr	-92.6%
Free Cash Flow	-₹3 Cr	-₹1 Cr	₹6 Cr	₹10 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 39.7% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 40.8% a year over 3 years.

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 2.0% over 3 years.

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 62.0% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 72.6% to 16.5% over 3 years (-56.1 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 22.6% to 11.1% over 3 years (-11.5 pts).

🟢 Total Debt has shrunk at 92.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 Free Cash Flow has turned positive, from -₹3 Cr to ₹10 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹133 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹92 Cr

Total Debt

₹0 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹29 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹11 Cr

Capex

-₹1 Cr

Recent News

6 general

Fonebox Retail Ltd

Equitypandit, 04 Mar

Fonebox Retail (NSE: FONEBOX): Preferential Issue After Growth

Kalkine India, 06 Oct

Fonebox Retail (NSEI:FONEBOX) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 02 Feb

Fonebox Retail Limited SME IPO: Check price band, GMP, financials, risks, and listing date

Moneycontrol.com, 24 Jan

FoneBox Retail IPO: Price band set at ₹66-70 per share; check GMP, issue details, key dates

Livemint, 18 Jan

FONEBOX RETAIL LIMITED Share Price

Upstox, 03 Apr

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.
Sector/industry classification unavailable — verify manually for peer comparison.
3 metrics couldn't be retrieved for this stock — this is more common for smaller or thinly-covered listings.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

🔴Business QualityWeak7.5/20

🟢Financial HealthStrong17.6/20

🟢GrowthStrong18.5/20

🟡ProfitabilityModerate7.3/15

🟡ValuationFair7.5/15

🔴RiskHigh2.3/10

Good business, demanding price

The quality is real and the price already reflects it. Buying here is a bet that the business keeps compounding for long enough to grow into the multiple — which good businesses often do, but it removes the margin for error that a lower price would have given you.

This thesis breaks if

✓Revenue growth stays above 30% a year39.7% CAGR
✓EBITDA margin holds above 0%2.0%
✓Free cash flow remains positive₹10 Cr
✓Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x0.0x
✓ROCE stays above 8%11.1%