Vista Pharmaceuticals Limited

Healthcare — Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic · BSE

₹6.27+₹0.16 (+2.62%)

DalalBaazaar Score

39 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Very High

Driven by short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets, negative free cash flow, the company is currently loss-making.

In simple words: The company is currently losing money, but sales are shrinking. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:45 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Vista Pharmaceuticals Limited manufactures and sells pharmaceutical, medical, and veterinary preparations in India and internationally. It offers over the counter and prescription generic drugs consisting of tablets, capsules, and liquids covering various therapeutic categories.

IndustryDrug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic

SectorHealthcare

Annual revenue₹5 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹5 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-223 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹-265 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

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 -39.2% 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 has been driving growth?

Growth has come mainly from selling more, rather than from keeping more of each sale. Over 3 years revenue moved +438% while net margin moved -60% 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+438%

Margin effect-60%

DalalBaazaar Score

39/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Return on equity is negative
✗ ROE has fallen by 17.7 points over the period

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

38/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

36/ 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

No P/E — the company is lossmaking

EV/EBITDA

—

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from -331.6% to -264.9% over 3 years.
Very low debt
Debt/Equity of 0.27x leaves the balance sheet with plenty of headroom.

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from -15.4% to -33.1% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from -10.9% to -39.2% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

6 items require attention · 3 high · 3 watch

🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only -13.7x — little room if earnings dip.
🔴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.
🔴The company is lossmakingFinancial
Net profit of -₹12 Cr in the latest reported year.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from -4.5x to -13.7x.
🟡Shareholders have been dilutedOwnership
Shares outstanding are up 64% over 3 years — each existing share owns a smaller slice of the company.
🟡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 -331.6% to -264.9%. 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 -15.4% to -33.1%. 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
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

1Revenue growth stays above 56% a year✓ 75.2% CAGR
Latest reported year was -97.4%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above -267%✓ -264.9%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹5 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Interest cover stays above 3x✗ -13.7x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
5ROCE stays above 8%✗ -39.2%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

3 / 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

2 good · 2 neutral · 7 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

0.85x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹-1.92

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

-16.6%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

-39.2%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.27x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

-97.4%

Shrinking

Sales are contracting

Profit Growth (YoY)

-159.5%

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

-₹5 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

-2584.2%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

-89.2%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

0.92

Adequate

Adequate, but no real cushion

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.05

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

18%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

6.2 / 6.2

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

47.0

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹1 Cr	₹10 Cr	₹10 Cr	₹5 Cr	+75.2%
EBITDA	-₹3 Cr	-₹3 Cr	-₹4 Cr	-₹14 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	-331.6%	-28.8%	-35.6%	-264.9%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹6 Cr	-₹5 Cr	-₹5 Cr	-₹12 Cr	—
EPS	₹-1.54	₹-1.03	₹-0.79	₹-1.96	—
ROE	-15.4%	-11.2%	-10.2%	-33.1%	—
ROCE	-10.9%	-9.1%	-9.0%	-39.2%	—
Total Debt	₹10 Cr	₹8 Cr	₹7 Cr	₹10 Cr	+0.1%
Free Cash Flow	-₹3 Cr	-₹6 Cr	-₹7 Cr	-₹5 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 75.2% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from -331.6% to -264.9% over 3 years (+66.8 pts).

🔴 ROE has fallen from -15.4% to -33.1% over 3 years (-17.7 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from -10.9% to -39.2% over 3 years (-28.3 pts).

🟡 Total Debt has been broadly flat over 3 years (0.1% a year).

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹55 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹19 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹4 Cr

Capex

-₹1 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

77.5%

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

Top 14 Pharma Stocks To Buy In India October 2026

Samco, 17 Oct

Vista Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Peer Comparison – Compare with Others

Value Research, 31 Aug

Vista Pharmaceuticals Ltd Forms Strategic Joint Venture with Pleiades Therapeutics for Global Drug Development

scanx.trade, 03 FebPartnership

🟡Mixed / dependsA partnership, whose value depends entirely on terms that a headline will not carry. Worth reading the filing before assuming either way.

Vista Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Key Financial Ratios – Valuation, Profitability & More

Value Research, 02 Sept

Chiesi Group Acquires KalVista Pharmaceuticals for $1.9 Billion

CHEManager, 16 Jun

Vista Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 04 Sept

Watch Items

Revenue growth is negative (-97.4%) on the latest reported period — check if this is one-off or a trend.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongGrowth

MiddlingValuation

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Profitability · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Weak on the fundamentals

Poor scores on business quality without a price low enough to compensate. There is no obvious argument for owning this over a stronger company at a similar valuation. 3 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 ↑