Orient Bell Limited

Industrials — Building Products & Equipment · NSE

₹398.00−₹6.50 (−1.61%)

DalalBaazaar Score

39 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

High

Driven by high debt relative to equity, 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 both sales and profits growing well. Debt is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 8:26 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Orient Bell Limited manufactures, trades in, and sells ceramic, wall, and floor tiles in India and internationally. The company also offers bathroom, kitchen, room, marble, vitrified, flexi, and subway tiles. It sells its products through channel partners.

IndustryBuilding Products & Equipment

SectorIndustrials

Employees781

Annual revenue₹687 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹687 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹2 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹6 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 781 employees supports ₹88.0 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹88.0 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 5.2% 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 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 -2% while net margin moved -44% 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-2%

Margin effect-44%

DalalBaazaar Score

39/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue has contracted at 0.6% a year
✗ Profit has declined at 17.9% a year

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

34/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

70/ 100

Cheap

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

Optically cheap, but the underlying business scores poorly. Cheap-and-weak is what a value trap looks like from the outside — the low price may be deserved.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

27.8x

3Y Median

153.2x

40 monthly readings · mean 204.3x · range 22.7x–610.9x

Sector Median

88.8x

median of 3 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 82% below its 3y median of 153.2x. 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 69% below the peer median of 88.8x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

153.2x median over 40 months · -82%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

88.8x median of 3 peers · -69%

vs. generic bands

Fair

15x–35x

EV/EBITDA

15.1x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Cash flow has turned positive
Free cash flow moved from negative to positive over 3 years.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 7.2% to 3.8% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 9.2% to 5.2% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

3 items require attention · 2 high · 1 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 260% over 3 years, from ₹9 Cr to ₹31 Cr.
🔴High leverageFinancial
Debt/Equity of 9.49x — earnings must service borrowings before shareholders see anything.
🟡Profit is decliningFinancial
Net profit is down 45% over 3 years.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Priced below its own history
The stock trades 82% below its own median multiple. If the business performs as it has and simply re-rates back to normal, that gap is return on its own.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 69% 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?

Leverage amplifies any setback
Debt/Equity of 9.49x. Interest is payable whether or not the business has a good year.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 7.2% 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.
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 4%✓ 5.8%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹42 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 0.8x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
4ROCE stays above 8%✗ 5.2%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.
5Interest cover stays above 4x✓ 5.8x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.

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

4 good · 4 neutral · 3 weak

Market Cap

₹585 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

27.8x

Fair

Fairly valued against the generic band

P/B Ratio

1.78x

Fair

Moderate premium to the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹14.31

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

3.8%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

5.2%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

9.49x

High

High leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

42.6%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

337.0%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

0.25%

Modest

Small cash return — most of the return has to come from the price

Free Cash Flow

₹42 Cr

Cash generative

Generates cash even after funding its capex

More Metrics

Operating Margin

5.9%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

2.8%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

1.68

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.22

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

77%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

403.3 / 386.2

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

47.3

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹700 Cr	₹669 Cr	₹667 Cr	₹687 Cr	-0.6%
EBITDA	₹45 Cr	₹20 Cr	₹27 Cr	₹40 Cr	-3.9%
EBITDA Margin	6.5%	3.0%	4.0%	5.8%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹22 Cr	₹1 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹12 Cr	-17.9%
EPS	₹15.29	₹0.62	₹1.93	₹8.43	-18.0%
ROE	7.2%	0.3%	0.9%	3.8%	—
ROCE	9.2%	0.8%	2.2%	5.2%	—
Total Debt	₹9 Cr	₹45 Cr	₹46 Cr	₹31 Cr	+53.3%
Free Cash Flow	-₹26 Cr	-₹25 Cr	₹27 Cr	₹42 Cr	—

🟡 Revenue has been broadly flat over 3 years (-0.6% a year).

🔴 EBITDA has shrunk at 3.9% a year over 3 years.

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 5.8% over 3 years.

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 17.9% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EPS has shrunk at 18.0% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 7.2% to 3.8% over 3 years (-3.5 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 9.2% to 5.2% over 3 years (-4.0 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 53.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 Free Cash Flow has turned positive, from -₹26 Cr to ₹42 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹524 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹195 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹10 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹48 Cr

Capex

-₹6 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

4.7%

Insider Holding

71.2%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹1

Ex-Dividend Date

24 Jul 2026

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

1 positive4 mixed1 general

Orient Bell reports consolidated net profit of Rs 8.32 crore in the June 2026 quarter

Business Standard, 11 AugResults

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

Orient Bell Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 29 Aug

Orient Bell reappoints directors, declares ₹1 dividend at 49th AGM

scanx.trade, 11 AugCapital return

🟢Potentially positiveCash or shares returned to holders. A buyback is only good value if the shares were cheap when bought.

Orient Bell EBITDA margins expand 254 bps to 7.1% in Q4 FY26

Sahi, 19 MayResults

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

Orient Bell Share Price Target 2027: Base and Bull Targets Built on FY26 Earnings

Univest, 09 OctAnalyst view

🟡Mixed / dependsBroker commentary — an opinion about the price rather than new information about the business.

Orient Bell Schedules Analyst And Investor Meeting On August 27

Sahi, 24 AugAnalyst view

🟡Mixed / dependsBroker commentary — an opinion about the price rather than new information about the business.

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

MiddlingFinancial Health · Valuation

WeakBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Cheap, but for a reason

The low price is the whole case here, and the business underneath scores poorly. Cheap-and-weak is what a value trap looks like from the outside — it needs a specific reason the numbers are about to improve, not just the observation that they are low. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

1 of 5 tripwires tripped — ROCE stays above 8% · see Key things to watch ↑