SYMBIOTEC PHARMALAB LTD

Healthcare — Drug Manufacturers - General · NSE

₹1,272.10+₹17.20 (+1.37%)

DalalBaazaar Score

56 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

High

Driven by short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets, negative free cash flow, small-cap size, which brings sharper price swings.

In simple words: Reasonable but unspectacular business quality, though profits are falling even as sales grow. 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 SYMBIOTEC PHARMALAB LTD — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Symbiotec Pharmalab Limited develops, manufactures, and markets active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in India. The company provides cortico-steroid and hormone (Steroid) APIs; nutraceuticals; and other services. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in Indore, India.

IndustryDrug Manufacturers - General

SectorHealthcare

Employees1,915

Annual revenue₹869 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹869 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹13 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹28 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 1,915 employees supports ₹45.4 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹45.4 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are SUN PHARMACEUTICAL IND L, DR. REDDY S LABORATORIES, CIPLA LTD, DIVI S LABORATORIES 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 14.3% 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 ROE14.5%

What is the outlook?

1 analysts covering the stock expect revenue to grow about 30.9% and earnings to grow about 51.8% in the year to 2028. These are estimates by people who follow the company, not a forecast for the wider industry.

Est. revenue growth+30.9%

Est. earnings growth+51.8%

Analysts1

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +59% while net margin moved +194% 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+59%

Margin effect+194%

DalalBaazaar Score

56/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ P/E of 87.0x is demanding — it needs sustained high growth to justify
✗ P/B of 6.94x is a steep premium to book

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

65/ 100

Good

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

Valuation

33/ 100

Expensive

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

A good business, but the price already reflects that. The quality is real; the question is whether you are overpaying for it today.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

87.0x

Sector Median

33.3x

median of 4 sector peers

⚠️Against its sector it trades 161% above the peer median of 33.3x.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Expensive

33.3x median of 4 peers · +161%

vs. generic bands

Expensive

Above 35x

EV/EBITDA

35.5x

PEG

1.29

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well4

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 13.1% to 27.7% over 3 years.
Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from 3.8% to 9.6%.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from 5.7% to 14.3%.
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

3 items require attention · 2 high · 1 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 78% over 3 years, from ₹220 Cr to ₹391 Cr.
🔴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.
🟡Short-term liquidity is tightFinancial
Current ratio of 0.92 — near-term obligations exceed near-term assets.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from 13.1% to 27.7%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.
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?

A premium to the sector to defend
It trades 161% above the peer median. That premium needs a reason that persists, or it closes.
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
Small 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

1Revenue growth stays above 13% a year✓ 16.8% CAGR
Latest reported year was 7.4%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 26%✓ 27.7%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹51 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 1.6x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 11%✓ 14.3%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

5 / 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
✓ Analyst consensus isn't majority-sell

Price history

Quick Metrics

2 good · 5 neutral · 4 weak

Market Cap

₹8,174 Cr

Small Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

87.0x

Expensive

Expensive — verify against sector peers

P/B Ratio

6.94x

Rich

Steep premium to book — needs high, durable returns to justify

EPS (TTM)

₹14.63

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

9.6%

Moderate

Moderate capital efficiency

ROCE

14.3%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

0.34x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

7.4%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-58.9%

Falling

Profits are shrinking

Dividend Yield

None

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

Free Cash Flow

-₹51 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

38.4x

Improving

Below the trailing multiple — the street expects earnings to grow into the price

Operating Margin

10.7%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

10.6%

Good

Strong bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

0.92

Adequate

Adequate, but no real cushion

52W Range Position

90%

Near high

Near its 52-week high

Technical Snapshot

RSI (14)

77.8

Overbought zone

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹546 Cr	₹716 Cr	₹752 Cr	₹869 Cr	+16.8%
EBITDA	₹71 Cr	₹177 Cr	₹206 Cr	₹241 Cr	+50.0%
EBITDA Margin	13.1%	24.7%	27.4%	27.7%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹23 Cr	₹100 Cr	₹97 Cr	₹110 Cr	+67.3%
EPS	₹3.65	₹15.59	₹15.06	—	—
ROE	3.8%	14.0%	11.9%	9.6%	—
ROCE	5.7%	14.6%	14.7%	14.3%	—
Total Debt	₹220 Cr	₹251 Cr	₹544 Cr	₹391 Cr	+21.1%
Free Cash Flow	-₹155 Cr	-₹22 Cr	-₹261 Cr	-₹51 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 16.8% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 50.0% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 13.1% to 27.7% over 3 years (+14.6 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 67.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 ROE has risen from 3.8% to 9.6% over 3 years (+5.8 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from 5.7% to 14.3% over 3 years (+8.5 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 21.1% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹1,781 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹631 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹10 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹175 Cr

Capex

-₹226 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

27.5%

Insider Holding

49.3%

Analyst Consensus

Recommendations

1 Buy · 0 Hold · 0 Sell

Target Price (Mean)

₹1,540

+21.1% vs CMP

Target Range

₹1,540 – ₹1,540

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
SUN PHARMACEUTICAL IND L	34.9x	14.5%
DR. REDDY S LABORATORIES	31.0x	8.8%
CIPLA LTD	31.8x	9.8%
DIVI S LABORATORIES LTD	83.0x	17.5%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Symbiotec Pharmalab shares jump 6% as subsidiary secures distribution rights for injectable product in US

Upstox, 01 OctPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move, which is not by itself a change in the business. Worth finding the cause before reading it as either good or bad.

Compare with

Equitymaster, 16 Oct

Symbiotec Pharmalab shares make flat debut on exchanges; should you buy, sell or hold?

Moneycontrol.com, 01 Sept

Symbiotec Pharmalab shares list at 1% discount to IPO price

The Economic Times, 01 Sept

Symbiotec Pharmalab IPO listing: Shares list at a 1% discount on BSE; should investors buy more, book profits, or hold?

Livemint, 01 Sept

Symbiotec Pharmalab makes tepid market debut, lists at par with IPO price

Business Standard, 01 Sept

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.
RSI is in overbought territory — momentum entries here carry more short-term pullback risk.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongBusiness Quality · Growth

MiddlingFinancial Health · Profitability

WeakValuation · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Good business, demanding price

The quality is real and the price already reflects it. Buying here is a bet that the business keeps compounding for long enough to grow into the multiple — which good businesses often do, but it removes the margin for error that a lower price would have given you. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

1 of 5 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive · see Key things to watch ↑