Neelamalai Agro Industries Limited

Consumer Defensive — Farm Products · NSE

₹3,200.10−₹49.90 (−1.54%)

DalalBaazaar Score

60 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

Moderate

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

In simple words: Reasonable but unspectacular business quality, but sales are shrinking. 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

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Neelamalai Agro Industries Limited cultivates, manufactures, sells, and exports tea in India and internationally. The company operates Katary and Sutton estates located in the Nilgiris District in Tamil Nadu.

IndustryFarm Products

SectorConsumer Defensive

Employees446

Annual revenue₹25 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹25 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹117 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹126 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 446 employees supports ₹5.6 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹5.6 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.

Compared side by side in Peers ↓

What is its competitive advantage?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 9.2% 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 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 +1% while net margin moved +3% 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+1%

Margin effect+3%

DalalBaazaar Score

60/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue CAGR of only 0.2% — barely ahead of inflation
✗ Profit CAGR of only 1.2%

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

57/ 100

Average

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.

A reasonable business at a reasonable price — neither the quality nor the valuation stands out in either direction.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

5.4x

Sector Median

43.3x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Against its sector it trades 87% below the peer median of 43.3x.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Cheap

43.3x median of 4 peers · -87%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

6.4x

PEG

4.63

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 114.8% to 125.7% over 3 years.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention1

Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 11.9% to 9.2% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

3 items require attention · 3 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.
🔴Profit up while operating cash flow fallsFinancial
Reported profit rose but cash generated by operations declined — worth checking whether earnings are being supported by non-cash items or working capital.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 92% against revenue up 1% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from 114.8% to 125.7%. 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 87% 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 92% against revenue up 1%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 0.2% a year is close to the rate prices rise, so the business is gaining little ground in real terms. That leaves the share price dependent on a re-rating rather than on earnings growth.
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

1EBITDA margin holds above 124%✓ 125.7%
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.
3Revenue growth stays above 4% a year✗ 0.2% CAGR
Latest reported year was -0.3%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
4ROCE stays above 8%✓ 9.2%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

5 / 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
✓ 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

Price history

Quick Metrics

4 good · 5 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹199 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

5.4x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

0.61x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹590.76

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

8.9%

Moderate

Moderate capital efficiency

ROCE

9.2%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

Revenue Growth (YoY)

-0.3%

Shrinking

Sales are contracting

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

-₹7 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

-8.6%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

144.5%

Good

Strong bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

3.96

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.03

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

18%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

RSI (14)

25.4

Oversold zone

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹25 Cr	₹25 Cr	₹23 Cr	₹25 Cr	+0.2%
EBITDA	₹28 Cr	₹20 Cr	₹23 Cr	₹31 Cr	+3.3%
EBITDA Margin	114.8%	80.6%	102.0%	125.7%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹28 Cr	₹39 Cr	₹23 Cr	₹29 Cr	+1.2%
EPS	₹452.09	₹627.41	₹372.95	₹468.15	+1.2%
ROE	11.4%	14.1%	7.7%	8.9%	—
ROCE	11.9%	14.8%	7.7%	9.2%	—
Free Cash Flow	-₹3 Cr	-₹6 Cr	-₹8 Cr	-₹7 Cr	—

🟡 Revenue has been broadly flat over 3 years (0.2% a year).

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 3.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 114.8% to 125.7% over 3 years (+11.0 pts).

🟡 PAT (Net Profit) has been broadly flat over 3 years (1.2% a year).

🟡 EPS has been broadly flat over 3 years (1.2% a year).

🔴 ROE has fallen from 11.4% to 8.9% over 3 years (-2.5 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 11.9% to 9.2% over 3 years (-2.7 pts).

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹338 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹11 Cr

Total Debt

—

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹4 Cr

Capex

-₹3 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

80.7%

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

6 general

Neelamalai Agro Industries (NEAGI.NS) Slips 5% to ₹3309.4 as Stock Retests Lower Range - Fair Value Gap

siam.in, 02 Oct

NEAGI Stock Price and Chart — NSE:NEAGI

TradingView, 21 Apr

Neelamalai Agro Industries Ltd. Lower Circuit: Price and Key Data

Univest, 01 Oct

Neelamalai Agro Industries (NSEI:NEAGI) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 22 Apr

Debt Free Agro Products Stocks - List Of Top Stocks

Alice Blue, 19 Feb

Neelamalai Agro Industries Ltd. Key Financial Ratios – Valuation, Profitability & More

Value Research, 29 Aug

Watch Items

Revenue growth is negative (-0.3%) on the latest reported period — check if this is one-off or a trend.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.
1 metric couldn't be retrieved for this stock — this is more common for smaller or thinly-covered listings.
RSI is in oversold territory — could mean either a bargain or a stock still falling for good reason. Check the 'why' before assuming reversal.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Valuation

MiddlingProfitability

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

2 of 4 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive; Revenue growth stays above 4% a year · see Key things to watch ↑