National Oxygen Limited

Basic Materials — Specialty Chemicals · BSE

₹58.23+₹0.59 (+1.02%)

DalalBaazaar Score

19 / 100

🔴 Poor

Verdict

HIGH RISK

Risk

Very High

Driven by negative shareholders' equity — the company owes more than it owns, short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets, negative free cash flow.

In simple words: The company owes more than it owns — years of losses have wiped out its net worth, but sales are shrinking. Solvency — whether it can keep funding itself at all — is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 6:57 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

National Oxygen Limited engages in the manufacture and sale of industrial gases in liquid and gaseous forms in India. The company offers liquid and gaseous oxygen, nitrogen, and medical oxygen, as well as dissolved acetylene gas.

IndustrySpecialty Chemicals

SectorBasic Materials

Annual revenue₹23 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹23 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹8 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹-49 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED, PIDILITE INDUSTRIES LTD, SRF LTD, UPL 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?Some evidence

ROCE of 17.4% is above what capital typically costs, which suggests some pricing power, though not yet the sustained, wide gap that marks a durable advantage.

Peer median ROE22.3%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved -51% while net margin moved -576% 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-51%

Margin effect-576%

DalalBaazaar Score

19/ 100

Poor

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Shareholders' equity is negative — accumulated losses exceed the capital in the business

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

18/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

30/ 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.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

17.3x

Sector Median

40.4x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Against its sector it trades 57% below the peer median of 40.4x.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Cheap

40.4x median of 4 peers · -57%

vs. generic bands

N/A

Multiples unreliable — equity base is negative

EV/EBITDA

—

PEG

—

Red Flags

5 items require attention · 4 high · 1 watch

🔴Negative shareholders' equityFinancial
Liabilities exceed assets — accumulated losses have wiped out the company's net worth.
🔴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.
🔴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.
🔴Significant margin compressionFinancial
EBITDA margin has fallen 57.0 points, from 8.5% to -48.5%.
🟡Short-term liquidity is tightFinancial
Current ratio of 0.44 — near-term obligations exceed near-term assets.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Cheaper than its peers
It trades 57% below the sector median. Either the market sees a problem the numbers do not show, or the discount closes.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Solvency comes before everything else
Liabilities exceed assets. Until net worth is rebuilt, the equity is a claim on a business that owes more than it owns, and further losses or a funding squeeze can leave shareholders with nothing.
Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from 8.5% to -48.5%. 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
4 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 -51%✓ -48.5%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹6 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 2.4x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.

Investment Checklist

4 / 10 checks passed

✗ Shareholders' equity is positive (assets exceed liabilities)
✓ 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
✗ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

2 good · 5 neutral · 4 weak

Market Cap

₹29 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

17.3x

Fair

Fairly valued against the generic band

P/B Ratio

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

EPS (TTM)

₹3.37

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

Not meaningful

Negative equity

Return on equity can't be read when equity itself is negative

ROCE

17.4%

Distorted

Distorted by the negative net worth — read this alongside the solvency flag, not on its own

Debt/Equity

Not meaningful

Negative equity

Shareholders' equity is negative, so this ratio can't be read

Revenue Growth (YoY)

-59.9%

Shrinking

Sales are contracting

Profit Growth (YoY)

126.2%

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

-₹6 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

-58.8%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

8.9%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

0.44

Tight

Tight short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.47

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

17%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

56.3 / 57.4

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

57.7

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹47 Cr	₹45 Cr	₹41 Cr	₹23 Cr	-21.3%
EBITDA	₹4 Cr	₹2 Cr	-₹2 Cr	-₹11 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	8.5%	3.5%	-5.6%	-48.5%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹1 Cr	-₹3 Cr	-₹7 Cr	₹2 Cr	—
EPS	₹-1.65	₹-6.6	₹-13.89	₹3.64	—
ROCE	2.7%	-7.1%	-31.0%	17.4%	—
Total Debt	₹17 Cr	₹20 Cr	₹22 Cr	₹20 Cr	+5.0%
Free Cash Flow	₹1 Cr	-₹3 Cr	-₹0 Cr	-₹6 Cr	—

🔴 Revenue has shrunk at 21.3% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has turned negative, from ₹4 Cr to -₹11 Cr.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 8.5% to -48.5% over 3 years (-57.0 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has turned positive, from -₹1 Cr to ₹2 Cr.

🟢 EPS has turned positive, from ₹-1.65 to ₹3.64.

🟢 ROCE has risen from 2.7% to 17.4% over 3 years (+14.8 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 5.0% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹1 Cr to -₹6 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹28 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹34 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹1 Cr

Capex

-₹5 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

75.7%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

18 Sept 2013

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED	46.9x	22.3%
PIDILITE INDUSTRIES LTD	57.8x	24.4%
SRF LTD	33.8x	15.4%
UPL LIMITED	21.5x	6.1%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

National Oxygen Ltd. Peer Comparison – Compare with Others

Value Research, 29 Aug

National Oxygen Ltd Q1 Results: Net loss widens to ₹2.01 crore on plant shutdown

scanx.trade, 12 AugResults

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

Oxygen Market Size, Share & Growth Report, 2034

Market Data Forecast, 01 Jul

National Oxygen Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 30 Aug

Petro Carbon And Chemicals Ltd. Share Price in Focus Today

Univest, 17 Aug

ANTELOPUS SELAN ENERGY LTD Stock/Share price , NSE/BSE Forecast News and Live Quotes

Equitymaster, 23 Sept

Watch Items

Revenue growth is negative (-59.9%) 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.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Growth · Profitability · Valuation · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Avoid until solvency is resolved

National Oxygen Limited owes more than it owns. Whatever the operating numbers show, the equity is a residual claim on a business with negative net worth, and that question has to be settled before any of the rest is worth weighing. 4 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

2 of 3 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x · see Key things to watch ↑