🧊 At a Glance
ICE Make Refrigeration Ltd isn’t your average chiller manufacturer. It’s a ₹1,200 Cr smallcap riding the cold chain wave, serving everyone from pharma exporters to dairy giants. But with a 5-year profit CAGR of 28%, a solid ROE of ~20%, and an OPM near double digits — is it justifying its premium valuation of 52x earnings? Let’s refrigerate the hype and serve it chilled.
1. 🪝 Introduction with Hook
Picture this: you’re an ice cream brand in Gujarat. You’ve got mango pulp, 43° heat, and zero chill (literally). Who you gonna call?
ICE Make Refrigeration, of course.
From mobile pre-coolers for veggies to blast chillers for vaccines — ICE has carved a niche in industrial refrigeration. And while its products cool down India’s supply chain, its stock has been anything but chill — shooting up nearly 6x in 3 years, before cooling off a bit.
But here’s the million-rupee question:
Is this stock still a freezer-level buy? Or are investors about to get frostbite?
2. 🏭 Business Model: WTF Do They Even Do?
ICE Make is a custom cooling solutions company serving industries like:
- ❄️ Dairy & Ice Cream: Bulk milk coolers, cold rooms
- 🥦 Food Processing: Blast chillers, pre-coolers
- 💉 Pharma: Vaccine freezers, controlled chambers
- 🚚 Logistics: Reefer trucks, mobile cold rooms
- 🍖 Meat & Poultry: Freezing tunnels, chillers
Product-wise split:
- Cold Rooms
- Refrigerated Vehicles
- Industrial Cooling Solutions
- Retail Display Freezers
- Solar Cold Rooms (new vertical)
They offer turnkey cold chain solutions — meaning: from design → to equipment → to after-sales. ICE = end-to-end.
3. 📊 Financials Overview – Profit, Margins, ROE, Growth
| Metric | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (₹ Cr) | 131 | 200 | 303 | 370 | 472 |
| Net Profit (₹ Cr) | 4 | 8 | 21 | 27 | 23 |
| EBITDA Margin | 8% | 7% | 10% | 11% | 9% |
| ROE | 2.8% | 5.1% | 13.3% | 16.9% | 19.6% |
| ROCE | 12% | 18% | 36% | 34% | 20.6% |
📌 TL;DR:
- Sales CAGR (5Y): 28%
- Profit CAGR (5Y): 28%
- ROE consistently ~20% since FY23
- OPM has improved, but volatile
4. 💸 Valuation – Is It Cheap, Meh, or Crack?
At ₹775, the stock trades at:
- P/E: 52.7x (🔥 high for a B2B manufacturing co.)
- P/B: 9.5x (also 🔥)
- Market Cap: ₹1,224 Cr
- PEG Ratio (based on 5Y profit CAGR): ~1.9 — not cheap
💡 Fair Value Range Estimation (based on 25-30x P/E on normalized EPS of ₹14–15):
👉 ₹375 – ₹450 per share
Anything above ₹750 assumes ICE Make will evolve into India’s Blue Star for B2B cold chain — a tall ask unless they scale 2x revenue without OPM drop.
5. 🔥 What’s Cooking – News, Triggers, Drama
Recent triggers:
- 🏗️ Capex Spike: FY25 saw asset addition of ~₹85 Cr → fixed assets doubled. New plants? New verticals?
- 🌱 Solar Cold Chain focus: Tapping remote agri markets where grid power fails.
- 🤝 Institutional interest rising: DII holding has crept in, now ~0.87%
- 📉 Q4FY25 profit down 13% YoY: Despite strong top line, margins compressed
🚨 No red flags yet, but margin compression and increasing working capital days = worth watching.
6. 🧾 Balance Sheet – How Much Debt, How Many Dreams?
| Metric | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Net Worth (₹ Cr) | 109 | 129 |
| Total Borrowings (₹ Cr) | 24 | 83 |
| Debt-to-Equity | 0.22x | 0.64x |
| Asset Base (₹ Cr) | 209 | 365 |
🧊 Observation: Debt has tripled in FY25. Why? Possibly funding the massive increase in fixed assets.
If they can convert this capex into profitable revenue, cool. If not, things could get chilly.
7. 💰 Cash Flow – Sab Number Game Hai
| Metric | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| CFO (₹ Cr) | 10 | 30 |
| CFI (Capex) (₹ Cr) | -22 | -84 |
| CFF (Debt Raising) (₹ Cr) | 16 | 49 |
| Net Cash Flow (₹ Cr) | 4 | -5 |
They’re clearly in expansion mode, and cash flows are being pumped into physical assets. Positive: CFO up 3x in FY25. Negative: FCF still negative.
8. 📉 Ratios – Sexy or Stressy?
| Ratio | FY25 |
|---|---|
| Inventory Days | 112 |
| Debtor Days | 73 |
| Cash Conversion Cycle | 67 Days |
| ROCE | 20.6% |
| ROA | 8.08% |
🔎 Slightly elevated working capital (esp. inventory buildup), but ROCE still solid.
9. 💸 P&L Breakdown – Show Me the Money
- FY25 sales at ₹472 Cr (up 27% YoY)
- Net profit ₹23 Cr (down 15% YoY)
- OPM compressed to 9% from 11%
- EPS: ₹14.72
- Dividend payout: ~15%
🧊 Clearly a year of aggressive investment, sacrificing short-term margins for long-term scale.
10. 🧍 Peer Comparison – Who Else in the Game?
| Company | Mcap (₹ Cr) | P/E | ROCE | OPM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ICE Make | 1,224 | 52.7 | 20.6% | 9% |
| Blue Star | 24,000+ | 62.0 | 21% | 8–10% |
| Voltas | 35,000+ | 100+ | 14% | 6% |
| Snowman Log. | 900 | NA | 2% | – |
➡️ ICE has Blue Star-type ROCE in a smaller B2B niche — but isn’t as diversified.
11. 🧑💼 Miscellaneous – Shareholding, Promoters
- Promoter Holding: 74.41%
- DIIs: 0.87% (recent entry)
- Public: ~24.4%
- ~25,000 shareholders (steadily rising)
🧠 Promoter integrity seems fine — zero pledging, consistent dividend payouts, regular disclosures.
12. 🧠 EduInvesting Verdict™
ICE Make is that overachieving student in a small school — scoring 90s, joining debates, and winning robotics championships. But now they’re applying to IIT with an essay titled “I’m already a unicorn.”
Pros:
✅ High-growth niche business
✅ Strong ROE/ROCE
✅ Steady sales growth, credible expansion
Cons:
⚠️ Lofty valuation
⚠️ Margin compression despite scale
⚠️ Rising debt and capex risks
🧮 Fair Value Range: ₹375–₹450 (25–30x on ₹15 EPS)
👀 Keep an eye if EPS expands without OPM drop — else, it’s a frosty valuation with no kulfi inside.
✍️ Written by Prashant | 📅 June 28, 2025
Tags: ICE Make Refrigeration, cold chain stocks, refrigeration companies, smallcap multibagger, industrial cooling, capex stocks, Voltas competitor, SME multibagger,
