1. At a Glance – The Cement Stock That’s Cheaper Than Its Own Cement Bags
At ₹188 per share and a market cap of ₹847 crore, NCL Industries Ltd is trading at 0.95x book value — yes, below its own accounting net worth of ₹198 per share. Stock P/E stands at 12.8 versus industry P/E of 30.9. Dividend yield? A respectable 1.60%.
Latest Q3 FY26 numbers:
- Revenue: ₹343 crore
- PAT: ₹13.26 crore
- QoQ profit jump: 295%
Sounds dramatic? It is. But before you scream “multibagger”, remember — this company’s 3-year ROE is just 6.86% and last year ROE was a sleepy 3.41%.
Sales growth (3-year CAGR): -4%
Profit growth (3-year CAGR): -33%
Debt: ₹259 crore
ROCE: 6.71%
And yet, the company just commissioned a new cement grinding unit and expanded capacity to 4.00 MTPA from 3.30 MTPA.
So what is this? A turnaround story? A value trap? Or simply a boring cement company that wakes up only when margins cooperate?
Let’s put on our hard hats and enter the kiln.
2. Introduction – Meet the Nagarjuna Family of Businesses
Founded in 1979, NCL Industries is not just a cement company. It’s a “cement-plus” business.
It makes:
- Cement (under Nagarjuna brand)
- Ready Mix Concrete
- Cement Bonded Particle Boards (Bison Panels)
- Ready-made doors
- Hydropower
Yes, you read that right. Cement + Boards + Doors + Hydro. It’s like Ambuja Cements decided to open a plywood shop and then thought, “Why not generate electricity also?”
Its revenue mix FY24:
- Cement: 84%
- Boards: 8%
- RMC: 6%
- Doors: 1.6%
- Energy: 0.06%
Translation: Cement is king. Everything else is side character.
The company has 2,000+ dealers and supplies to big infra names like Tata Projects, Shapoorji Pallonji, L&T, ITC, IRCTC, NTPC, BHEL, etc.
Sounds solid.
But here’s the twist — despite all this, stock returns:
- 1 year: -0.58%
- 3 years: 1.89%
- 5 years: 2.42%
So market clearly isn’t impressed.
Question: Are investors sleeping? Or does market know something you don’t?
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Let’s simplify.
1️ Cement – The Main Money Machine
Installed capacity:
- Clinker: ~2.6 MTPA
- Cement: ~2.7 MTPA
- Recently expanded to 4.00 MTPA after commissioning 0.66 MTPA
