Leo Dryfruits & Spices Trading Limited

Consumer Defensive — Farm Products · BSE

₹58.01₹0.00 (0.00%)

DalalBaazaar Score

60 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

High

Driven by negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity, falling profits.

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 Leo Dryfruits & Spices Trading Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Leo Dryfruits & Spices Trading Limited manufactures, process, trades, retails, and markets range of spices, dry fruits, and other grocery products in India.

IndustryFarm Products

SectorConsumer Defensive

Employees79

Annual revenue₹174 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹174 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹6 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹12 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 79 employees supports ₹2.21 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹2.21 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD., ITC LTD, NESTLE INDIA LIMITED, BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES 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?The numbers suggest a real one

ROCE has stayed above 15% in every year available and stands at 24.4%. Returns that high normally get competed away; when they persist, something is protecting them, and its ROE of 15.3% against a peer median of 51.0% is consistent with that. What that something is — brand, scale, switching costs, regulation — the accounts cannot tell you.

Peer median ROE51.0%

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 +378% while net margin moved -39% 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+378%

Margin effect-39%

DalalBaazaar Score

60/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Micro Cap: thinner liquidity and sharper drawdowns are normal
✗ Negative free cash flow means dependence on external funding

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

61/ 100

Average

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

Valuation

81/ 100

Cheap

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.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

9.8x

2Y Median

11.5x

23 monthly readings · mean 12.4x · range 7.1x–20.2x

Sector Median

43.3x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 14% below its 2y median of 11.5x. 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 77% below the peer median of 43.3x.

vs. its own history

Fair

11.5x median over 23 months · -14%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

43.3x median of 4 peers · -77%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

7.0x

PEG

0.23

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

High return on capital employed
ROCE of 24.4% is the mark of a business that converts capital into profit efficiently.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 72.7% to 14.2% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 47.6% to 24.4% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

4 items require attention · 4 high

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 140% over 3 years, from ₹15 Cr to ₹37 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.
🔴Significant margin compressionFinancial
EBITDA margin has fallen 5.0 points, from 16.6% to 11.5%.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 921% against revenue up 378% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Capital compounds at a high rate
ROCE of 24.4% means each rupee reinvested earns well above what capital costs. If the company can keep deploying at this rate, growth creates value rather than just consuming cash.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 77% 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?

Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from 16.6% to 11.5%. If the trend continues, profit falls even on flat sales — and margin decline rarely reverses quickly.
Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 921% against revenue up 378%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 72.7% to 14.2%. 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
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 51% a year✓ 68.5% CAGR
Latest reported year was 74.0%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 10%✓ 11.5%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹13 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 1.8x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 21%✓ 24.4%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

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

7 good · 2 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹104 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

9.8x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

1.40x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹5.89

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

15.3%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

24.4%

Strong

Earns comfortably above its likely cost of capital

Debt/Equity

0.50x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

74.0%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-21.4%

Falling

Profits are shrinking

Dividend Yield

0.86%

Modest

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

Free Cash Flow

-₹18 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

ROA

9.0%

Good

Assets are working hard

Operating Margin

9.2%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

6.0%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.94

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

52W Range Position

56%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

59.1 / 60.5

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

45.6

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹36 Cr	₹62 Cr	₹87 Cr	₹174 Cr	+68.5%
EBITDA	₹6 Cr	₹11 Cr	₹15 Cr	₹20 Cr	+49.3%
EBITDA Margin	16.6%	17.1%	17.6%	11.5%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹4 Cr	₹7 Cr	₹8 Cr	₹11 Cr	+42.6%
EPS	₹2.03	₹3.76	₹5.75	—	—
ROE	72.7%	19.7%	12.8%	14.2%	—
ROCE	47.6%	28.8%	21.3%	24.4%	—
Total Debt	₹15 Cr	₹9 Cr	₹21 Cr	₹37 Cr	+34.0%
Free Cash Flow	-₹9 Cr	-₹15 Cr	-₹32 Cr	-₹13 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 68.5% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 49.3% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 16.6% to 11.5% over 3 years (-5.0 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 42.6% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 72.7% to 14.2% over 3 years (-58.5 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 47.6% to 24.4% over 3 years (-23.2 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 34.0% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹148 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹73 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹6 Cr

Capex

-₹6 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

64.1%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹0.5

Ex-Dividend Date

29 Sept 2026

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD.	42.5x	21.5%
ITC LTD	16.6x	27.4%
NESTLE INDIA LIMITED	59.8x	79.9%
BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD	44.1x	51.0%

Recent News

1 positive1 mixed4 general

LEO DRYFRUITS & SPICES TRADING Share Price - Live VANDU Stock Price & Chart

Upstox, 05 May

Leo Dryfruits sets Sep 4 EGM for ₹38.5 crore warrant issuance

scanx.trade, 08 Aug

LEO DRYFRUITS & SPICES TRADING (VANDU) Share Price rises 10.95% today

Univest, 04 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.

Leo Dryfruits & Spices Trading Ltd Peer Comparison – Compare with Others

Value Research, 04 Sept

Leo Dryfruits Share Price Up After Haldiram Pact

HDFC Sky, 20 Mar

Last call for September dividend eligibility! Buy these 3 stocks - Amount per share, record date for payout | Check list

Livemint, 28 SeptCapital return

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

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongFinancial Health · Growth · Valuation

MiddlingBusiness Quality · Profitability

WeakRisk

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.

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