North Eastern Carrying Corporation Limited

Industrials — Trucking · NSE

₹19.23−₹0.50 (−2.53%)

DalalBaazaar Score

46 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Moderate

Driven by 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 North Eastern Carrying Corporation Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

North Eastern Carrying Corporation Limited provides logistics and transportation services in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, and Bangladesh. It offers goods/small parcels, full truck load, bulk movements, over dimensional consignments, and warehousing services.

IndustryTrucking

SectorIndustrials

Employees436

Annual revenue₹308 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹308 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹3 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹6 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 436 employees supports ₹70.7 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹70.7 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD., SIEMENS LTD, ABB INDIA 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 7.8% 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.

Peer median ROE15.2%

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 +33% 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+33%

DalalBaazaar Score

46/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ ROCE of 7.8% is below 10% — capital is not working hard
✗ ROCE has fallen by 5.6 points — returns are eroding
✗ EBITDA margin of 6.5% is thin — little cushion if costs rise
✗ Net margin of 2.5% is slim
• Revenue has compounded at 0.2% a year, which is the base these returns are earned on

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

41/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

61/ 100

Fair

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

Weak on business quality and not cheap enough to compensate.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

24.3x

3Y Median

23.6x

40 monthly readings · mean 24.4x · range 10.5x–42.1x

Sector Median

88.8x

median of 3 sector peers

🟡Currently trading close to its 3y median of 23.6x — the market is paying about what it usually pays for this company.

🟢Against its sector it trades 73% below the peer median of 88.8x.

vs. its own history

Fair

23.6x median over 40 months · +3%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

88.8x median of 3 peers · -73%

vs. generic bands

Fair

15x–35x

EV/EBITDA

15.8x

PEG

2.36

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

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

🔴 What Needs Attention1

Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 13.4% to 7.8% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

2 items require attention · 1 high · 1 watch

🔴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.
🟡Shareholders have been dilutedOwnership
Shares outstanding are up 85% over 3 years — each existing share owns a smaller slice of the company.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Cheaper than its peers
It trades 73% 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?

The debt load needs earnings to hold up
Debt is 6.2x EBITDA. At that level a downturn in earnings turns a manageable balance sheet into a refinancing problem, and lenders get paid before shareholders.
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.

🟡 Key Things to WatchMeasurable tripwires, set against where this company stands today

1EBITDA margin holds above 4%✓ 6.5%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 6.2x
Already stretched, so this is a reduction target rather than a level to hold. Around 3x is where lenders typically start attaching conditions.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹24 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 2.3x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
5Revenue growth stays above 4% a year✗ 0.2% CAGR
Latest reported year was 9.4%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.

Investment Checklist

6 / 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

₹201 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

24.3x

Fair

Fairly valued against the generic band

P/B Ratio

0.74x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹0.79

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

3.4%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

7.8%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.55x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

9.4%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

0.0%

Modest

Slow profit growth

Dividend Yield

None

No dividend yield reported — usually means no payout, but verify if one was recently initiated

Free Cash Flow

-₹24 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

4.9%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

2.5%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

2.61

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.48

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

64%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

19.2 / 17.8

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

52.7

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹306 Cr	₹335 Cr	₹329 Cr	₹308 Cr	+0.2%
EBITDA	₹19 Cr	₹21 Cr	₹23 Cr	₹20 Cr	+0.9%
EBITDA Margin	6.3%	6.2%	6.8%	6.5%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹6 Cr	₹8 Cr	₹10 Cr	₹8 Cr	+10.3%
EPS	₹1.15	₹0.84	₹1.03	₹0.78	-12.1%
ROE	5.5%	4.1%	4.7%	3.4%	—
ROCE	13.4%	9.0%	8.8%	7.8%	—
Total Debt	₹119 Cr	₹103 Cr	₹106 Cr	₹124 Cr	+1.5%
Free Cash Flow	-₹18 Cr	-₹49 Cr	-₹26 Cr	-₹24 Cr	—

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

🟡 EBITDA has been broadly flat over 3 years (0.9% a year).

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 6.5% over 3 years.

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 10.3% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EPS has shrunk at 12.1% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 5.5% to 3.4% over 3 years (-2.1 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 13.4% to 7.8% over 3 years (-5.6 pts).

🟡 Total Debt has been broadly flat over 3 years (1.5% a year).

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹372 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹145 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹10 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹9 Cr

Capex

-₹15 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

69.5%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD.	30.1x	15.2%
SIEMENS LTD	88.8x	10.5%
ABB INDIA LIMITED	92.6x	19.1%

Recent News

6 general

North Eastern Carrying Corporation Ltd is Rated Hold

MarketsMojo, 17 Oct

Is North Eastern Carrying Corporation the Best Stock in Its Sector? A Look at the Numbers

Univest, 05 Oct

Insiders Rewarded With ₹13m Addition To Investment As North Eastern Carrying Stock Hits ₹1.8b

Simply Wall Street, 11 Jun

North Eastern Carrying Corp. wins ₹78.19 crore Tata Steel transport order

scanx.trade, 30 Sept

NECC Ltd NECCLTD Convertible Warrants Allotment October 2026

Kalkine India, 01 Oct

NECC AGM minutes: Shareholders approve ₹50 crore debt-to-equity conversion

scanx.trade, 28 Sept

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongValuation

MiddlingFinancial Health · Growth

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. 1 high-severity red flag sits above this conclusion and should be read first.

4 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x; Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x; Revenue growth stays above 4% a year · see Key things to watch ↑