Hi-Green Carbon Limited

Sector n/a · NSE

₹167.35−₹2.65 (−1.56%)

DalalBaazaar Score

42 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

High

Driven by negative free cash flow, 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. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:03 pm

Understanding the Business

The 60-second version of Hi-Green Carbon 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 ₹139 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹2 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹18 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

What is its competitive advantage?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 7.0% 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.

What has been driving growth?

Sales and margins have both contributed to where profit is now. Over 3 years revenue moved +78% while net margin moved -84% 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+78%

Margin effect-84%

DalalBaazaar Score

42/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Micro Cap: thinner liquidity and sharper drawdowns are normal
✗ Negative free cash flow means dependence on external funding

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

43/ 100

Weak

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.

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

No P/E available

EV/EBITDA

18.9x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

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

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 50.9% to 3.8% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 60.4% to 7.0% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

5 items require attention · 3 high · 2 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 364% over 3 years, from ₹14 Cr to ₹63 Cr.
🔴Free cash flow negative for 3 yearsFinancial
The business has not covered its capital spending from operations for several years running, which has to be funded externally.
🔴Significant margin compressionFinancial
EBITDA margin has fallen 7.5 points, from 25.8% to 18.3%.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 8.6x to 5.9x.
🟡Profit is decliningFinancial
Net profit is down 72% over 3 years.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

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?

Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from 25.8% to 18.3%. If the trend continues, profit falls even on flat sales — and margin decline rarely reverses quickly.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 50.9% to 3.8%. 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
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
3 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

1Revenue growth stays above 16% a year✓ 21.2% CAGR
Latest reported year was 43.5%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 16%✓ 18.3%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✗ 2.5x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
4Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹37 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
5ROCE stays above 8%✗ 7.0%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

3 / 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

1 good · 6 neutral · 4 weak

Market Cap

₹418 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

3.8%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

7.0%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.70x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

43.5%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-69.2%

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

-₹37 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Gross Margin

24.6%

Proxy

Operating margin unavailable — showing gross margin instead

Net Margin

2.5%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

1.20

Adequate

Adequate, but no real cushion

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

123.6 / 126.2

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

57.1

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹78 Cr	₹68 Cr	₹97 Cr	₹139 Cr	+21.2%
EBITDA	₹20 Cr	₹18 Cr	₹20 Cr	₹25 Cr	+8.1%
EBITDA Margin	25.8%	26.7%	21.0%	18.3%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹12 Cr	₹10 Cr	₹11 Cr	₹3 Cr	-34.8%
EPS	₹4.94	₹4.66	₹4.45	—	—
ROE	50.9%	13.6%	12.8%	3.8%	—
ROCE	60.4%	16.8%	13.0%	7.0%	—
Total Debt	₹14 Cr	₹24 Cr	₹47 Cr	₹63 Cr	+66.8%
Free Cash Flow	₹4 Cr	-₹11 Cr	-₹42 Cr	-₹37 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 21.2% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 8.1% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 25.8% to 18.3% over 3 years (-7.5 pts).

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 34.8% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 50.9% to 3.8% over 3 years (-47.1 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 60.4% to 7.0% over 3 years (-53.4 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 66.8% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹4 Cr to -₹37 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹173 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹83 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹16 Cr

Capex

-₹53 Cr

Recent News

3 mixed3 general

Hi-Green Carbon Share Price News: Intraday Rise to Rs 146

Univest, 16 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.

Hi-Green Carbon Ltd Key Financial Ratios – Valuation, Profitability & More

Value Research, 04 Sept

Hi-Green Carbon Ltd. Share Price Rise Streak, Valuation

Univest, 12 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.

There Are Reasons To Feel Uneasy About Hi-Green Carbon's (NSE:HIGREEN) Returns On Capital

Simply Wall Street, 28 Dec

Hi-Green Carbon achieves 300 TPD capacity at Dhar plant

scanx.trade, 08 May

Hi-Green Carbon Share Price Fall: Fundamentals and Peers

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.

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

MiddlingFinancial Health · Growth · Valuation

WeakBusiness Quality · Profitability · 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. 3 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

3 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x; Free cash flow remains positive; ROCE stays above 8% · see Key things to watch ↑