Yash Chemex Limited

Basic Materials — Specialty Chemicals · BSE

₹51.10−₹2.90 (−5.37%)

DalalBaazaar Score

47 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Moderate

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

In simple words: The business is earning a fairly low return on the money invested in it, 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, 7:46 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Yash Chemex Limited, together with its subsidiary, Yasons Chemex Care Limited, trades in chemical products in India. The company manufactures and sells, direct, acid, reactive, and basic dyes. It also offers intermediates, pigments, speciality chemicals, and solvents.

IndustrySpecialty Chemicals

SectorBasic Materials

Employees4

Annual revenue₹144 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹144 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹1 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹3 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 4 employees supports ₹36.01 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹36.01 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED, PIDILITE INDUSTRIES LTD, SRF LTD, UPL 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 7.2% 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 ROE22.3%

What has been driving growth?

Sales and margins have both contributed to where profit is now. Over 3 years revenue moved +69% while net margin moved -57% 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+69%

Margin effect-57%

DalalBaazaar Score

47/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ ROCE of 7.2% is below 10% — capital is not working hard
✗ ROCE has fallen by 7.2 points — returns are eroding
✗ EBITDA margin of 3.2% is thin — little cushion if costs rise
✗ Net margin of 1.7% is slim
• Revenue has compounded at 19.1% a year, which is the base these returns are earned on

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

43/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

73/ 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

23.8x

3Y Median

24.3x

40 monthly readings · mean 25.6x · range 17.6x–52.2x

Sector Median

40.4x

median of 4 sector peers

🟡Currently trading close to its 3y median of 24.3x — the market is paying about what it usually pays for this company.

🟢Against its sector it trades 41% below the peer median of 40.4x.

vs. its own history

Fair

24.3x median over 40 months · -2%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

40.4x median of 4 peers · -41%

vs. generic bands

Fair

15x–35x

EV/EBITDA

14.5x

PEG

0.75

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

Very low debt
Debt/Equity of 0.25x leaves the balance sheet with plenty of headroom.

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 9.6% to 4.9% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 14.3% to 7.2% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

4 items require attention · 4 watch

🟡Debt is increasingFinancial
Total debt is up 43% over 3 years.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹1 Cr in the latest year.
🟡Profit is decliningFinancial
Net profit is down 28% over 3 years.
🟡Margins are compressingFinancial
EBITDA margin is down 3.7 points over 3 years.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Cheaper than its peers
It trades 41% below the sector median. Either the market sees a problem the numbers do not show, or the discount closes.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from 7.0% to 3.2%. If the trend continues, profit falls even on flat sales — and margin decline rarely reverses quickly.
The debt load needs earnings to hold up
Debt is 3.3x EBITDA. At that level a downturn in earnings turns a manageable balance sheet into a refinancing problem, and lenders get paid before shareholders.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 9.6% to 4.9%. 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.

🟡 Key Things to WatchMeasurable tripwires, set against where this company stands today

1Revenue growth stays above 14% a year✓ 19.1% CAGR
Latest reported year was -42.9%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 1%✓ 3.2%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 3.3x
Already stretched, so this is a reduction target rather than a level to hold. Around 3x is where lenders typically start attaching conditions.
4Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹1 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
5Interest cover stays above 3x✓ 3.6x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.

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

4 good · 3 neutral · 4 weak

Market Cap

₹52 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

23.8x

Fair

Fairly valued against the generic band

P/B Ratio

1.24x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹2.15

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

4.9%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

7.2%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.25x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

-42.9%

Shrinking

Sales are contracting

Profit Growth (YoY)

31.6%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

None

No dividend yield reported — usually means no payout, but verify if one was recently initiated

Free Cash Flow

-₹1 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

9.7%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

1.7%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

2.35

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.23

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

16%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

52.7 / 50.9

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

37.9

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹85 Cr	₹95 Cr	₹95 Cr	₹144 Cr	+19.1%
EBITDA	₹6 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹5 Cr	₹5 Cr	-7.8%
EBITDA Margin	7.0%	2.9%	5.7%	3.2%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹3 Cr	-₹0 Cr	₹2 Cr	₹2 Cr	-10.2%
EPS	₹2.73	₹-0.27	₹2.01	₹1.97	-10.3%
ROE	9.6%	-0.8%	5.5%	4.9%	—
ROCE	14.3%	2.1%	8.9%	7.2%	—
Total Debt	₹11 Cr	₹10 Cr	₹14 Cr	₹15 Cr	+12.7%
Free Cash Flow	₹1 Cr	-₹18 Cr	₹0 Cr	-₹1 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 19.1% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has shrunk at 7.8% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 7.0% to 3.2% over 3 years (-3.7 pts).

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 10.2% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EPS has shrunk at 10.3% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 9.6% to 4.9% over 3 years (-4.6 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 14.3% to 7.2% over 3 years (-7.2 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 12.7% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹1 Cr to -₹1 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹97 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹35 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹0 Cr

Capex

-₹1 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

69.4%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

26 Feb 2019

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED	46.9x	22.3%
PIDILITE INDUSTRIES LTD	57.8x	24.4%
SRF LTD	33.8x	15.4%
UPL LIMITED	21.5x	6.1%

Recent News

6 general

Compare with

Equitymaster, 17 Oct

Yash Chemex 20th AGM: all 7 resolutions passed unanimously

scanx.trade, 30 Sept

Yash Chemex Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 04 Sept

Yash Chemex promoter Paxal Shah acquires 2,600 shares on BSE

scanx.trade, 24 Sept

Yash Chemex promoter Paxal Shah buys 1600 shares on BSE

scanx.trade, 25 Aug

Yash Chemex (BSE:539939) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 01 Dec

Watch Items

Revenue growth is negative (-42.9%) 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

StrongFinancial Health · Valuation

WeakBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability · 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.

2 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x; Free cash flow remains positive · see Key things to watch ↑