General information and entertainment, not investment advice. The author is not a SEBI-registered adviser or research analyst. No recommendation, no promised returns. Markets carry risk including loss of capital. Figures may not be current. Consult a registered adviser before acting.
1. At a Glance
Tejas Cargo, a five-year-old road logistics operator incorporated in 2021, posted ₹628 crore in FY26 revenue—up 25% year-on-year. The company floated an IPO in February 2025 at ₹106 crore in fresh issue.
The tension sits here: growth is accelerating (25% top-line expansion, 30% profit growth over three years), but margin compression is real. EBITDA margin moderated to 18.4% in FY26 from ~20% in the prior year, squeezed by market hiring costs, toll inflation, and insurance increases. Credit rater CARE downgraded the company in March 2026 citing non-cooperation—a red flag on transparency.
The stock trades at 44.6x trailing P/E against a peer median of 22.6x. At ₹390 a share (prices referenced are not live), it prices in significant upside, not today’s numbers.
The real story: Tejas is betting big on adjacent verticals (mining, coal, fly-ash, car carriers, freight forwarding) to escape the commodity tug-of-war in core FTL. Management expects these to grow from 5.5% of revenue in FY26 to 10–12% by FY27. A five-year bauxite extraction contract with CMDC and an eight-year EV supply agreement with Dalmia Cement anchor the pivot.
Does fleet scale and new verticals offset the margin squeeze and leverage creep? The balance sheet isn’t hiding—debt sits at ₹220 crore against equity of ₹193 crore (D/E of 1.14x, up from 0.92x a year prior). Unpacking that answer is the work ahead.
2. Introduction
Tejas Cargo India Limited started life as a proprietorship business, acquired and incorporated as a private company in March 2021. Two years later, it went public on the NSE SME platform (February 2025), listing at ₹106 per share with a fresh issue of ₹106 crore earmarked for fleet expansion, working capital, and debt repayment.
The timing of the IPO mattered: diesel prices were volatile, geopolitical churn threatened trade flows, and the 3PL sector was heating up. Management framed FY26 as a “landmark year”—building operational muscle, deploying IPO cash into asset acquisition, and testing new revenue streams beyond the core full-truck-load (FTL) business.
Fleet headcount tells the story. Tejas owned 1,020 vehicles by March 2024, 1,199 by March 2025, and swelled to 1,339 vehicles by March 2026 (adding 205 units, though 65 were sold or retired). More vehicles mean more trips, more utilization, more working capital pain.
The macroeconomic backdrop: India’s 3PL market is projected to grow at 6–14% CAGR and touch USD 48–70 billion by 2030. Infrastructure programs (Gati Shakti, Bharatmala, dedicated freight corridors) are shrinking transit times and boosting trip economics, especially in Central and Eastern industrial zones where Tejas’ customer base sits (steel, cement, power, mining).
Yet the company isn’t coasting on tailwinds alone. Margin pressure is acute. Market hiring (hiring third-party vehicles to fulfill client contracts) rose from 13% of revenue to 21% by FY26, a lever to avoid balance-sheet bloat but at a cost: market hiring margins compressed from 7.31% to 6.04% due to toll and insurance pass-through.
The bigger shift: Tejas is leaning hard into mining, coal logistics, fly-ash, and car carriers—verticals that barely existed two years ago. This isn’t diversification theater. It’s structural.
3. Business Model: WTF Do They Even Do?
Tejas operates three revenue buckets: owned fleet to corporate clients (60% of FY26 revenue), owned fleet to open market (5%), and hired vehicles fulfilling client contracts (35%).
The owned fleet to client model is the marquee play. Clients include SafeExpress, Blue Dart, Amazon, Flipkart, and industrial powerhouses in steel and cement. These relationships are sticky—claimed to span “more than five years” despite the corporate entity being newer. Over 90% of revenue comes from large corporates, a compliance moat; top 10 customer concentration has already fallen from 84% (FY24) to 73% (FY26), signaling wallet diversification.
The vehicles: 913 are container trucks, 218 are trailers. Average fleet age is 2.88 years (young, well-maintained). Owned fleet is predominantly debt-financed; borrowed capital sits at ₹220 crore. The company has 292 debt-free vehicles on its books (34 trailers, 258 container trucks)—24% of the owned fleet.
The turnaround on cash is glacial. Debtor days hit 68.8 days (FY26), meaning Tejas waits over two months to get paid. Inventory days barely register because logistics ops turn fast—the working capital crunch is pure receivables drag. A ₹118 crore trade receivables pile on ₹628 crore revenue is the working capital trap every logistics operator knows by heart.
Routes span 31 states. Haryana (home base, 31% of revenue) dominates, followed by Tamil Nadu (8.8%), West Bengal (8.4%), and Maharashtra (8%). The network is built for long-haul FTL, which means high fuel burn, driver costs, and toll charges—all volatile inputs. Most customer contracts include diesel escalation clauses (typically 40–50% of trip cost passed through), a valve for fuel-price risk but not for toll or insurance creep.
The new verticals: mining (extraction + logistics), coal, fly-ash, freight forwarding (non-truck logistics), and car carriers (specialized vehicle transport). These contributed 5.5% of FY26 revenue and are expected to hit 10–12% by year-end FY27. Mining is the crown jewel—a five-year CMDC (Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation) bauxite extraction contract for ₹35–40 crore (spread across five years). Management has applied for selling rights on 70% of extracted material; the upside hinges on board approval and market prices for bauxite concentrate.
EV adoption is purely shipper-led. Tejas won’t deploy EVs unless contracts promise “minimum guarantee revenue” and “positive profit over vehicle lifecycle”—no breakeven plays. Two Amazon EVs are already in service on 300 km moves; a material win: Dalmia Cement ordered 10 EVs on an eight-year (6+2) contract for 200–250 km movements. Management sees “significant uptake” in EV numbers in the next two to three months, though capex will stay elevated (FY27 EV + ICE investment expected similar to FY26).
The pitch: Own fleet + hired fleet hybrid,
