1. At a Glance

Refex Industries started as an eco-friendly refrigerant gas trader and somehow ended up running India’s largest organized ash & coal handling business — because why stick to one niche when you can inhale multiple industries? Q1 FY26 revenue was ₹395 Cr (-35% YoY thanks to monsoon-hit ash operations), PAT ₹20.37 Cr (-30% YoY). Margins held at ~10%. Debt has crept to ₹286 Cr, and debtor days have ballooned to 100 — because in the power sector, payments move slower than coal trains.

2. Introduction

Some companies are born in a sector and stay loyal. Refex? Not so much. They began with refrigerant gases (R-134a, R-410a — basically the stuff keeping your AC cool), then in 2018 decided India needed a professional, large-scale ash handling service. Now they manage 50,000 MT of ash disposal daily across 19+ power plants, plus coal handling.

Their core clients — NTPC, UltraTech, Adani, ACC — are big names with big wallets (and sometimes big delays in paying). While FY24 saw huge order wins, Q1 FY26 hit a speed bump due to seasonal factors. Monsoons slow down ash disposal and coal transport, and when your revenue mix is 90%+ from that segment, quarterly numbers can look like a washed-out cricket match.

Despite the seasonality, Refex has compounded sales at 30% CAGR over five years and profits at 33%. ROE stands at 18.9%, ROCE at 20.9% — healthy, but working capital stress is creeping in.

Investors here are essentially betting that India’s dependence on coal power (and therefore ash) will remain high for the next decade. And given our renewable targets versus actual execution, that’s