Alembic Ltd: 117-Year-Old Veteran Flips From Pills to Penthouses
1. At a Glance
Alembic Ltd, founded in 1907, has aged like a whisky bottle but trades like a midcap realty script. Once the proud flag-bearer of Alembic Pharma, it now earns most of its money selling flats in Vadodara instead of APIs. FY25 profits hit ₹316 Cr on just ₹221 Cr sales (thank you dividends from Alembic Pharma), giving a deceptively cheap PE of 8.2. But strip away the pharma stake, and you’re basically buying a real-estate company with a side hustle in windmills.
2. Introduction
Alembic is that family scion who was once a doctor, then decided to become a builder because “property hi asli daulat hai.” After demerging the formulations business into Alembic Pharma (now the crown jewel of the group), Alembic Ltd was left with two side gigs:
A small API division, selling bulk drugs on job-work basis.
A real estate division in Vadodara and Bengaluru.
The realty arm has since exploded, with ~80% of FY24 revenue from property sales. From Samsara to Urban Forest, Alembic now markets gated communities with art districts and skate parks. Because nothing screams “legacy pharma” like a skateboard ramp.
Meanwhile, the API segment has shrunk due to pricing pressures and limited molecules. But the real sugar in the tea is dividends—₹45 Cr last year—from their 28.4% stake in Alembic Pharma, worth ~₹6,800 Cr on market value vs. book value of ₹87 Cr. In simple terms: the stake is the mansion, the real estate business is the rented basement.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Alembic Ltd now juggles three hats:
Real Estate (80%): Residential projects like Veda-II, Kiara, and Alembic City in Vadodara. Bengaluru project Urban Forest is also delivering. They lease office space to corporates across IT, BFSI, and retail. There’s even an Alembic Art District—part museum, part Instagram background.
APIs (20%): A limited range of molecules (Fluoxetine, Estolate, Biphenyl Valine Oxalate). Mostly contract and job-work, margins under pressure.
Investments & Dividends: Stakes in Alembic Pharma (28.4%) and Paushak (19%). These throw off fat dividend cheques, bailing out the P&L whenever real estate slows.
Power Assets: 5 MW windmills and 6 MW captive plants. Cute, but irrelevant at group scale.
So yeah—basically a builder who gets pocket money from a pharma giant sibling.
4. Financials Overview
Source table
Metric
Latest Qtr (Jun’25)
YoY Qtr (Jun’24)
Prev Qtr (Mar’25)
YoY %
QoQ %
Revenue
₹49.8 Cr
₹51.0 Cr
₹60.0 Cr
-2.0%
-17%
EBITDA
₹20.0 Cr
₹20.0 Cr
₹27.0 Cr
0%
-26%
PAT
₹61.6 Cr
₹56.0 Cr
₹68.0 Cr
+10%
-9%
EPS (₹)
2.40
2.17
2.67
+10%
-10%
Commentary: Core revenue is small, but PAT is fat—because dividends count as income. Strip that away, Alembic looks less like a pharma powerhouse, more like a small builder in Vadodara with strong family contacts.
5. Valuation – Fair Value Range Only
P/E Method: EPS ₹12.3, CMP ₹101 → PE 8.2. Real estate peers trade at 25–40x. But Alembic’s
