Vedanta Iron and Steel Limited

Basic Materials — Steel · NSE

₹29.48+₹0.16 (+0.55%)

DalalBaazaar Score

24 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

HIGH RISK

Risk

Very High

Driven by negative shareholders' equity — the company owes more than it owns, short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets, negative free cash flow.

In simple words: The company owes more than it owns — years of losses have wiped out its net worth, though profits are falling even as sales grow. Solvency — whether it can keep funding itself at all — is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 6:58 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Vedanta Iron and Steel Limited engages in the exploration, mining, and processing of iron ore in India and West Africa. It offers iron ores, TMT bars, ductile iron pipes, wire rods, steel billets, metallurgical coke, pig iron, and cement.

IndustrySteel

SectorBasic Materials

Annual revenue₹13,341 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹13,341 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-22 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹14 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are TATA STEEL LIMITED, JSW STEEL LIMITED, JINDAL STEEL LIMITED, STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA. These are the companies its valuation and returns are measured against elsewhere in this report.

Compared side by side in Peers ↓

DalalBaazaar Score

24/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Shareholders' equity is negative — accumulated losses exceed the capital in the business

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

25/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

30/ 100

Expensive

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

Weak on business quality and not cheap enough to compensate.

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

Multiples unreliable — equity base is negative

EV/EBITDA

14.7x

PEG

—

Red Flags

5 items require attention · 2 high · 3 watch

🔴Negative shareholders' equityFinancial
Liabilities exceed assets — accumulated losses have wiped out the company's net worth.
🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only -0.2x — little room if earnings dip.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 0.6x to -0.2x.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹0 Cr in the latest year.
🟡Short-term liquidity is tightFinancial
Current ratio of 0.27 — near-term obligations exceed near-term assets.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

No clear supporting case emerges from the available numbers.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Solvency comes before everything else
Liabilities exceed assets. Until net worth is rebuilt, the equity is a claim on a business that owes more than it owns, and further losses or a funding squeeze can leave shareholders with nothing.
The debt load needs earnings to hold up
Debt is 9.1x EBITDA. At that level a downturn in earnings turns a manageable balance sheet into a refinancing problem, and lenders get paid before shareholders.
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

1EBITDA margin holds above 12%✓ 14.2%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 9.1x
Already stretched, so this is a reduction target rather than a level to hold. Around 3x is where lenders typically start attaching conditions.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹0 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Interest cover stays above 3x✗ -0.2x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.

Investment Checklist

4 / 9 checks passed

✗ Shareholders' equity is positive (assets exceed liabilities)
✓ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✗ Generates positive free cash flow
✗ 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

₹11,528 Cr

Small 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

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

EPS (TTM)

₹-6.72

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

Not meaningful

Negative equity

Return on equity can't be read when equity itself is negative

ROCE

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

Debt/Equity

Not meaningful

Negative equity

Shareholders' equity is negative, so this ratio can't be read

Revenue Growth (YoY)

12.3%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-237.4%

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

-₹0 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

9.9%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

64.2%

Good

Strong bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

0.27

Tight

Tight short-term liquidity

52W Range Position

41%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

30.8 / 33.9

Bearish alignment (short < long)

RSI (14)

33.7

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (3-Year)

Metric	FY24	FY25	FY26	2Y CAGR
Revenue	—	₹13,717 Cr	₹13,341 Cr	—
EBITDA	—	₹2,284 Cr	₹1,900 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	—	16.7%	14.2%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	—	-₹861 Cr	-₹2,905 Cr	—
EPS	—	₹-2.2	₹-7.43	—
Total Debt	—	₹15,239 Cr	₹17,361 Cr	—
Free Cash Flow	—	-₹0 Cr	-₹0 Cr	—

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 16.7% to 14.2% over 2 years (-2.4 pts).

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹19,065 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹26,040 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹1,033 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹0 Cr

Capex

—

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

12.3%

Insider Holding

58.4%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
TATA STEEL LIMITED	19.8x	10.8%
JSW STEEL LIMITED	12.0x	24.7%
JINDAL STEEL LIMITED	39.1x	5.3%
STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA	16.5x	7.1%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Vedanta Iron & Steel Share Price: 6 Upper Circuits, 28% Jump: Why Investors Are Chasing Vedanta Demerger Stock

Goodreturns, 17 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.

Vedanta Iron And Steel Ltd. Key Financial Ratios – Valuation, Profitability & More

Value Research, 31 Aug

Compare KIRL.FERROUS with

Equitymaster, 18 Oct

Vedanta Share Price - Live NSE: VEDL Stock Price & Chart

Upstox, 16 Oct

Stocks to buy for long term: Vedanta Iron and Steel, Vedanta Oil and Gas or Vedanta Power: Which is better? Target, SL

Livemint, 26 Sept

Vedanta Iron & Steel Hits Fresh Record High, Extends Post-Listing Rally; Other Vedanta Stocks Gain

India Infoline, 02 Jul

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.
2 metrics couldn't be retrieved for this stock — this is more common for smaller or thinly-covered listings.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

MiddlingGrowth

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Profitability · Valuation · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Avoid until solvency is resolved

Vedanta Iron and Steel Limited owes more than it owns. Whatever the operating numbers show, the equity is a residual claim on a business with negative net worth, and that question has to be settled before any of the rest is worth weighing. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

3 of 4 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x; Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x · see Key things to watch ↑