Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited

Basic Materials — Agricultural Inputs · NSE

₹51.45−₹0.69 (−1.32%)

DalalBaazaar Score

47 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

High

Driven by short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets, negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity.

In simple words: Strong business and financial position, 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, 6:59 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited engages in the manufacturing and selling alkali chemicals in India. The company offers ammonium chloride fertilizer, light and dense soda ash, carbon dioxide, and sodium bicarbonate.

IndustryAgricultural Inputs

SectorBasic Materials

Employees310

Annual revenue₹338 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹338 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹11 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹20 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 310 employees supports ₹1.09 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹1.09 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are TATA STEEL LIMITED, JSW STEEL LIMITED, ULTRATECH CEMENT LIMITED, ASIAN PAINTS 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 14.7% 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 ROE22.3%

What has been driving growth?

Sales and margins have both contributed to where profit is now. Over 3 years revenue moved -34% while net margin moved -45% 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-34%

Margin effect-45%

DalalBaazaar Score

47/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue has contracted at 12.8% a year
✗ Profit has declined at 28.7% a year
✗ Profit fell 32.1% in the latest year

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

44/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

69/ 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

18.8x

Sector Median

28.7x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Against its sector it trades 35% below the peer median of 28.7x.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Cheap

28.7x median of 4 peers · -35%

vs. generic bands

Fair

15x–35x

EV/EBITDA

11.0x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 16.8% to 20.1% 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 1046.3% to 20.2% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 28.3% to 14.7% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

5 items require attention · 3 high · 2 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 3032% over 3 years, from ₹4 Cr to ₹120 Cr.
🔴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.
🔴Inventory building faster than salesFinancial
Inventory up 39% against revenue up -34% — stock may not be moving.
🟡Profit is decliningFinancial
Net profit is down 64% over 3 years.
🟡Short-term liquidity is tightFinancial
Current ratio of 0.45 — 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 16.8% to 20.1%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 35% 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?

Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 1046.3% to 20.2%. 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.
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
3 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 18%✓ 20.1%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹10 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 1.8x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
4ROCE stays above 12%✓ 14.7%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

5 / 10 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

Price history

Quick Metrics

2 good · 7 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹627 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

18.8x

Fair

Fairly valued against the generic band

P/B Ratio

3.47x

Fair

Moderate premium to the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹2.74

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

20.2%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

14.7%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

0.66x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

6.0%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-32.1%

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

-₹10 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

10.6%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

9.8%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

0.45

Tight

Tight short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.18

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

Near low

Near its 52-week low

Technical Snapshot

RSI (14)

33.9

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹510 Cr	₹318 Cr	₹309 Cr	₹338 Cr	-12.8%
EBITDA	₹86 Cr	₹78 Cr	₹69 Cr	₹68 Cr	-7.5%
EBITDA Margin	16.8%	24.6%	22.2%	20.1%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹101 Cr	₹70 Cr	₹62 Cr	₹37 Cr	-28.7%
EPS	₹8.3	₹5.7	₹5.1	₹3	-28.8%
ROE	1046.3%	87.9%	44.0%	20.2%	—
ROCE	28.3%	26.0%	23.4%	14.7%	—
Total Debt	₹4 Cr	₹8 Cr	₹98 Cr	₹120 Cr	+215.2%
Free Cash Flow	₹4 Cr	-₹4 Cr	-₹84 Cr	-₹10 Cr	—

🔴 Revenue has shrunk at 12.8% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has shrunk at 7.5% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 16.8% to 20.1% over 3 years (+3.3 pts).

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 28.7% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EPS has shrunk at 28.8% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 1046.3% to 20.2% over 3 years (-1026.0 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 28.3% to 14.7% over 3 years (-13.5 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 215.2% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹4 Cr to -₹10 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹621 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹440 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹124 Cr

Capex

-₹134 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

91.2%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
TATA STEEL LIMITED	19.8x	10.8%
JSW STEEL LIMITED	12.0x	24.7%
ULTRATECH CEMENT LIMITED	37.6x	11.1%
ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED	46.9x	22.3%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

TUTIALKA Share/Stock Price Live, NSE

TechGraph, 09 Oct

Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd. Key Financial Ratios – Valuation, Profitability & More

Value Research, 02 Sept

Tuticorin Alkali shareholders approve all resolutions at 53rd AGM

scanx.trade, 28 Sept

TUTIALKA Share Price rises 9.05%; valuation, sector view

Univest, 26 AugPrice 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.

Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 31 Aug

Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals and Fertilizers - Concurrent Losers: 13 smallcap stocks decline for 5 consecutive sessions

The Economic Times, 20 Dec

Watch Items

Trading very close to its 52-week low — worth checking whether this reflects a temporary setback or a structural problem.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

MiddlingBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Profitability · Valuation

WeakGrowth · 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. 3 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

1 of 4 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive · see Key things to watch ↑