The Indian Card Clothing Company Limited

Consumer Cyclical — Textile Manufacturing · NSE

₹191.98+₹2.83 (+1.50%)

DalalBaazaar Score

50 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

High

Driven by moderate debt load, negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity.

In simple words: The business is earning a fairly low return on the money invested in it, with modest growth. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:01 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

The Indian Card Clothing Company Limited manufactures and sells card clothing in India. It operates through Card Clothing and Realty segments.

IndustryTextile Manufacturing

SectorConsumer Cyclical

Employees202

Annual revenue₹41 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹41 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹9 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹-11 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 202 employees supports ₹20.1 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹20.1 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD., TITAN COMPANY LIMITED, TRENT LTD, AVENUE SUPERMARTS 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 1.7% 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 ROE25.9%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved -32% while net margin moved +50% 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-32%

Margin effect+50%

DalalBaazaar Score

50/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue has contracted at 12.2% a year
✗ Profit CAGR of only 0.5%

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

48/ 100

Average

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

Valuation

62/ 100

Fair

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

19.0x

3Y Median

22.4x

40 monthly readings · mean 22.6x · range 1.0x–51.6x

Sector Median

69.2x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 15% below its 3y median of 22.4x. 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 72% below the peer median of 69.2x.

vs. its own history

Fair

22.4x median over 40 months · -15%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

69.2x median of 4 peers · -72%

vs. generic bands

Fair

15x–35x

EV/EBITDA

—

PEG

36.45

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Debt is being paid down
Total debt is down 85% over 3 years.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

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

Red Flags

2 items require attention · 2 high

🔴Free cash flow negative for 4 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 19.5 points, from 9.0% to -10.5%.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Deleveraging frees up earnings
Debt is down 85% over 3 years. Every rupee of interest not paid drops to the bottom line, so profit can grow even if revenue does not.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 72% 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?

Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from 9.0% to -10.5%. If the trend continues, profit falls even on flat sales — and margin decline rarely reverses quickly.
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.
Several serious flags at once
2 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

1EBITDA margin holds above -13%✓ -10.5%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹20 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3ROCE stays above 8%✗ 1.7%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.
4Interest cover stays above 4x✓ 6.2x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
5Valuation vs its own median of 22.4x✓ 19.0x today
A re-rating above its own history needs a reason; without one it is just a higher price.

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

3 good · 5 neutral · 3 weak

Market Cap

₹114 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

19.0x

Fair

Fairly valued against the generic band

P/B Ratio

0.33x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹10.08

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

1.1%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

1.7%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.93x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

1.3%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

99.0%

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

-₹20 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

-41.6%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

14.2%

Good

Strong bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

9.41

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.50

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

31%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

193.2 / 205.4

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

39.6

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹60 Cr	₹47 Cr	₹40 Cr	₹41 Cr	-12.2%
EBITDA	₹5 Cr	-₹1 Cr	-₹8 Cr	-₹4 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	9.0%	-3.0%	-19.7%	-10.5%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹4 Cr	₹8 Cr	₹92 Cr	₹4 Cr	+0.5%
EPS	₹6.16	₹13.41	₹154.63	₹6.26	+0.5%
ROE	1.5%	3.2%	27.2%	1.1%	—
ROCE	2.1%	3.4%	29.5%	1.7%	—
Total Debt	₹21 Cr	₹25 Cr	₹17 Cr	₹3 Cr	-46.6%
Free Cash Flow	-₹3 Cr	-₹4 Cr	-₹33 Cr	-₹20 Cr	—

🔴 Revenue has shrunk at 12.2% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has turned negative, from ₹5 Cr to -₹4 Cr.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 9.0% to -10.5% over 3 years (-19.5 pts).

🟡 PAT (Net Profit) has been broadly flat over 3 years (0.5% a year).

🟡 EPS has been broadly flat over 3 years (0.5% a year).

🟡 ROE has held roughly flat at 1.1% over 3 years.

🟡 ROCE has held roughly flat at 1.7% over 3 years.

🟢 Total Debt has shrunk at 46.6% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹367 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹24 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹7 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹16 Cr

Capex

-₹4 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

69.3%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

07 Jul 2022

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD.	25.2x	13.4%
TITAN COMPANY LIMITED	68.5x	36.7%
TRENT LTD	87.2x	25.9%
AVENUE SUPERMARTS LIMITED	69.9x	12.7%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Indian Card Clothing NSE:INDIANCARD Reg 74(5) Q2 FY27 Certificate

Kalkine India, 16 OctResults

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

Indian Card Clothing Company Bull Case vs Bear Case for 2026

Univest, 11 Sept

The Indian Card Clothing Company Ltd. Share Price Live Today

CNBC TV18, 03 Jan

Indian Card Clothing Company Ltd is Rated Strong Sell

MarketsMojo, 09 Oct

Indian Card Clothing files FY26 annual report, sets AGM date

scanx.trade, 02 Sept

Indian Card Clothing Company Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 02 Sept

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongFinancial Health · Valuation

MiddlingBusiness Quality · Profitability

WeakGrowth · Risk

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. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

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