TCM Limited

Utilities — Utilities - Renewable · BSE

₹51.80+₹3.20 (+6.58%)

DalalBaazaar Score

43 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Very High

Driven by moderate debt load, negative free cash flow, the company is currently loss-making.

In simple words: The company is currently losing money, 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, 7:46 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

TCM Limited engages in the production and sales of cattle feeds in India. The company operates through the Trading, Manufacturing, Educational, and Real Estate segments. It trades and installs solar panels, auto care, and health care related products.

IndustryUtilities - Renewable

SectorUtilities

Employees39

Annual revenue₹20 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹20 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-29 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹-18 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 39 employees supports ₹50.6 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹50.6 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are NTPC LTD, POWER GRID CORP. LTD., TATA POWER CO 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 -12.6% 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 ROE13.7%

What has been driving growth?

Growth has come mainly from selling more, rather than from keeping more of each sale. Over 3 years revenue moved +169% while net margin moved -46% 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+169%

Margin effect-46%

DalalBaazaar Score

43/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Return on equity is negative
✗ ROE has fallen by 10.5 points over the period

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

45/ 100

Average

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

Valuation

29/ 100

Expensive

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.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Not enough peers with a usable P/E

vs. generic bands

N/A

No P/E — the company is lossmaking

EV/EBITDA

—

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from -48.4% to -17.9% over 3 years.

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from -13.0% to -23.5% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from -8.1% to -12.6% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

6 items require attention · 4 high · 2 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 1439% over 3 years, from ₹1 Cr to ₹22 Cr.
🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only -2.1x — little room if earnings dip.
🔴The company is lossmakingFinancial
Net profit of -₹6 Cr in the latest reported year.
🔴Inventory building faster than salesFinancial
Inventory up 606% against revenue up 169% — stock may not be moving.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 3.3x to -2.1x.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹6 Cr in the latest year.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from -48.4% to -17.9%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from -13.0% to -23.5%. 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
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

1Revenue growth stays above 29% a year✓ 39.0% CAGR
Latest reported year was 52.0%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above -20%✓ -17.9%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹6 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Interest cover stays above 3x✗ -2.1x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
5ROCE stays above 8%✗ -12.6%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

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

1 good · 4 neutral · 6 weak

Market Cap

₹39 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

Not meaningful

Loss-making

Earnings are negative, so a P/E multiple can't be read here

P/B Ratio

1.57x

Fair

Moderate premium to the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹-6.92

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

-23.5%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

-12.6%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.95x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

52.0%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-460.5%

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

-₹6 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

-23.3%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

-24.1%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

1.26

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

-0.01

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

34%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

50.8 / 46.6

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

50.3

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹7 Cr	₹32 Cr	₹26 Cr	₹20 Cr	+39.0%
EBITDA	-₹4 Cr	-₹2 Cr	₹3 Cr	-₹4 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	-48.4%	-5.6%	9.7%	-17.9%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹4 Cr	-₹2 Cr	₹2 Cr	-₹6 Cr	—
EPS	₹-5.97	₹-2.91	₹2.4	₹-7.78	—
ROE	-13.0%	-6.8%	5.3%	-23.5%	—
ROCE	-8.1%	-4.4%	6.6%	-12.6%	—
Total Debt	₹1 Cr	₹0 Cr	₹11 Cr	₹22 Cr	+148.8%
Free Cash Flow	-₹13 Cr	₹1 Cr	-₹11 Cr	-₹6 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 39.0% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from -48.4% to -17.9% over 3 years (+30.5 pts).

🔴 ROE has fallen from -13.0% to -23.5% over 3 years (-10.5 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from -8.1% to -12.6% over 3 years (-4.5 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 148.8% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹83 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹59 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹5 Cr

Capex

-₹1 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

7.4%

Insider Holding

61.9%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

10 Sept 1998

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
NTPC LTD	11.0x	13.7%
POWER GRID CORP. LTD.	14.6x	15.8%
TATA POWER CO LTD	29.3x	9.8%

Recent News

2 mixed4 general

TCM Group (CPSE:TCM) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 15 Oct

TCM Forecast — Price Target — Prediction for 2027

TradingView, 25 JunAnalyst view

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

TCM Signs Kalamassery JV MoU; Shares Jump 7.1% To ₹52.50

HDFC Sky, 18 SeptPrice 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.

TCM Ltd sets Sept 25 for 82nd AGM; e-voting opens Sept 22

scanx.trade, 31 Aug

Margin calls force liquidation of executives' holdings as Vietnamese stocks hit multi-year lows

Theinvestor, 27 Jul

TCM Group A/S: Major shareholder announcement

Yahoo Finance UK, 08 Dec

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongGrowth

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Profitability · Valuation · 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. 4 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

3 of 5 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x; ROCE stays above 8% · see Key things to watch ↑