Gillanders Arbuthnot and Company Limited

Consumer Defensive — Farm Products · NSE

₹106.99+₹3.23 (+3.11%)

DalalBaazaar Score

42 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Moderate

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

In simple words: The business is earning a fairly low return on the money invested in it, though profits are falling even as sales grow. The direction of profits is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 6:10 pm

Caution warranted. Multiple fundamental metrics — flagged in red below — point to either valuation stretch, leverage risk, or weakening profitability. This doesn't mean avoid the stock outright, but it does mean the burden of proof is on the growth story to justify the current price.

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Gillanders Arbuthnot and Company Limited engages in the textile, engineering, tea, and property businesses in India and internationally. The Textile segment manufactures and sells yarns in cotton, acrylic, polyster, viscose, man-made fibres, staple, and blends.

IndustryFarm Products

SectorConsumer Defensive

Employees6,454

Annual revenue₹428 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹428 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹2 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹8 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 6,454 employees supports ₹6.6 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

EBITDA margin7.7%

Net margin2.2%

Revenue / employee₹6.6 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD., ITC LTD, NESTLE INDIA LIMITED, BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD. These are the companies its valuation and returns are measured against elsewhere in this report.

HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.P/E 42.5x · ROE 21.5%

ITC LTDP/E 16.6x · ROE 27.4%

NESTLE INDIA LIMITEDP/E 59.8x · ROE 79.9%

BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTDP/E 44.1x · ROE 51.0%

What is its competitive advantage?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 6.8% 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.

ROCE6.8%

ROE3.7%

Peer median ROE51.0%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved -4% 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-4%

Margin effect-34%

DalalBaazaar Score

42/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue has contracted at 1.3% a year
✗ Profit has declined at 13.9% a year
✗ Profit fell 64.6% in the latest year

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

35/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

74/ 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

13.1x

3Y Median

13.1x

40 monthly readings · mean 13.8x · range 6.2x–25.9x

Sector Median

43.3x

median of 4 sector peers

🟡Currently trading close to its 3y median of 13.1x — the market is paying about what it usually pays for this company.

🟢Against its sector it trades 70% below the peer median of 43.3x.

vs. its own history

Fair

13.1x median over 40 months · -0%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

43.3x median of 4 peers · -70%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

P/E (Trailing)

13.1x

P/B

0.89x

EV/EBITDA

10.9x

PEG

—

Dividend Yield

None

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well0

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

🔴 What Needs Attention1

Receivables growing faster than sales
Receivables are up 141% against revenue growth of -4% — customers are taking longer to pay.

Red Flags

3 items require attention · 1 high · 2 watch

🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 141% against revenue up -4% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 3.6x to 2.1x.
🟡Profit is decliningFinancial
Net profit is down 36% over 3 years.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Cheaper than its peers
It trades 70% below the sector median. Either the market sees a problem the numbers do not show, or the discount closes.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

The debt load needs earnings to hold up
Debt is 4.1x 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 141% against revenue up -4%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
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 6%✓ 7.7%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 4.1x
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✗ 2.1x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
4Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹4 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
5ROCE stays above 8%✗ 6.8%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

7 / 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 · 3 neutral · 3 weak

Market Cap

₹228 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

13.1x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

0.89x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹8.17

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

3.7%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

6.8%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.58x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

3.4%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-64.6%

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

₹4 Cr

Cash generative

Generates cash even after funding its capex

More Metrics

CMP

₹106.99

Operating Margin

4.3%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

4.0%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.05

Adequate

Adequate, but no real cushion

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.36

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

59%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

106.8 / 102.0

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

47.3

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹444 Cr	₹358 Cr	₹440 Cr	₹428 Cr	-1.3%
EBITDA	₹31 Cr	-₹22 Cr	₹35 Cr	₹33 Cr	+1.9%
EBITDA Margin	7.1%	-6.0%	7.9%	7.7%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹15 Cr	-₹49 Cr	₹27 Cr	₹9 Cr	-13.9%
EPS	₹6.95	₹-22.78	₹12.52	₹4.43	-13.9%
ROE	5.4%	-22.4%	10.9%	3.7%	—
ROCE	8.3%	-12.1%	11.8%	6.8%	—
Total Debt	₹133 Cr	₹117 Cr	₹127 Cr	₹137 Cr	+1.0%
Free Cash Flow	₹37 Cr	₹28 Cr	-₹0 Cr	₹4 Cr	-53.4%

🟡 Revenue has been broadly flat over 3 years (-1.3% a year).

🟡 EBITDA has been broadly flat over 3 years (1.9% a year).

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 7.7% over 3 years.

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 13.9% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EPS has shrunk at 13.9% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 5.4% to 3.7% over 3 years (-1.7 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 8.3% to 6.8% over 3 years (-1.4 pts).

🟡 Total Debt has been broadly flat over 3 years (1.0% a year).

🔴 Free Cash Flow has shrunk at 53.4% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹553 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹295 Cr

Total Debt

₹137 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹3 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹14 Cr

Capex

-₹10 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

73.9%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

05 Aug 2014

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.	42.5x	21.5%
ITC LTD	16.6x	27.4%
NESTLE INDIA LIMITED	59.8x	79.9%
BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD	44.1x	51.0%

Recent News

1 positive2 mixed3 general

Gillanders Arbuthnot Share Price: Price Fall, Valuation

Univest, 28 SeptPrice 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.

Gillanders Arbuthnot & Company Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 30 Aug

Gillanders Arbuthnot Holds Ground Near ₹104.73: Consolidation Phase Continues for GILLANDERS.NS - Revenue Weighted

https://www.siam.in/, 03 Sept

Gillanders Arbuthnot & Company vs Nifty 50: Returns Compared

Univest, 25 Sept

Gillanders Arbuthnot Schedules Board Meeting on May 11, 2026 for Q4 FY26 Results and Dividend Consideration

scanx.trade, 11 MayCapital return

🟢Potentially positiveCash or shares returned to holders. A buyback is only good value if the shares were cheap when bought.

Gillanders Arbuthnot & Company Share Price Rises 11.31%

Univest, 17 AugPrice 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.

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

🔴Business QualityWeak7.5/20

🟡Financial HealthAdequate11.7/20

🔴GrowthWeak2.4/20

🔴ProfitabilityWeak4.5/15

🟢ValuationAttractive11.8/15

🔴RiskHigh4.4/10

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.

This thesis breaks if

✓EBITDA margin holds above 6%7.7%
✗Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x4.1x
✗Interest cover stays above 3x2.1x
✓Free cash flow remains positive₹4 Cr
✗ROCE stays above 8%6.8%