01 — At a Glance
The Expensive Chemistry Set That’s Buying Expensive Chemistry Sets
- 52-Week High / Low₹1,407 / ₹686
- 9M FY26 Revenue₹1,730 Cr
- TTM Revenue₹2,230 Cr
- TTM PAT₹229 Cr
- TTM EPS₹15.36
- Book Value (FY25)₹281
- Price to Book4.57x
- Debt (FY25)₹1,373 Cr
- Debt / Equity0.50x
- Dividend Yield0.06%
Auditor’s Opening Rant: Anupam Rasayan spent 9 months of FY26 printing ₹1,730 crore in revenue, taking that to a TTM number of ₹2,230 crore. Nice growth. But they’re trading at P/E 84.7x. ROCE is 7.3%. ROE is 3.32%. The stock went up 65.6% in one year. And on Feb 27, 2026, they spent ~₹1,140 crore ($150M) acquiring Jayhawk Fine Chemicals, a US-based specialty chemicals company. Crisil put their bank ratings on Watch Negative on Dec 18, 2025. This is what happens when the market wants growth so badly, it’s willing to price any bet. Let’s dissect this madness.
02 — Introduction
Chemical Excitement: When ₹5 Makes ₹400 Worth It
Anupam Rasayan is a specialty chemicals manufacturer. Not the boring kind that makes PVC pipes or fertilizer. The interesting kind that makes complex molecular intermediates for crop protection, pharma, personal care, and polymers. It’s a contract manufacturer’s contract manufacturer — OEMs outsource the hard chemistry to companies like this.
The company was founded in 1977 by Anand Desai and operates six manufacturing plants in Gujarat. Over four decades, it’s built relationships with 75 clients, including 31 MNCs like Syngenta, Adama, Sumitomo, and DuPont. Top 10 customers account for 77% of revenue. Which is great until one of them sneezes and you’re back to zero.
But here’s the thing: specialty chemicals, when done well, are margin-rich. Anupam Rasayan’s OPM hovers around 23–26%. It’s also leveraged the market to build a pipeline of 65+ molecules under development. And it acquired Tanfac, a maker of hydrofluoric acid (HF) and potassium fluoride (KF) — critical raw materials for fluorination chemistry. Backward integration. Supply chain resilience. Very sophisticated.
Then came Q3 FY26. Revenue grew 31%, EPS jumped 73%, and the stock already up 65% in a year. So naturally, the company decided to go on a $150M acquisition spree. Jayhawk Fine Chemicals. US-based. EPS accretive day one, management said. Crisil, not convinced, rang the alert bell. Welcome to the Anupam Rasayan saga: ambition, growth, and working capital that bleeds money like a failed startup.
Concall Feb 2026: “Growth driven by high entry barrier chemistry, complex multi-step synthesis, and long-term qualification customer cycles.” Translation: takes 12-24 months to win a customer. Also makes it hard to lose them. Or switch suppliers. So much customer stickiness, you’d think the stock would trade at 20x P/E. Instead, 85x. Math is optional.
03 — Business Model: WTF Do They Even Make?
Small Batches of Very Expensive Molecules. For Rich Companies.
Anupam Rasayan is a custom synthesis and contract manufacturing player. Think of it as a molecular OEMS outsourcing factory. A pharma company needs an intermediate for their drug? They send you the spec. You synthesize it, scale it, quality-test it, ship it. Repeat for 75 clients across three business verticals.
Agrochemicals (65% of FY24): Manufactures insecticide, fungicide, and herbicide intermediates for crop protection. The clients are big global agrochem companies that need someone to actually make the stuff. Anupam does that. Margins: solid but cyclical (agro got hammered in FY25, recovering in FY26).
Personal Care (17%): Antibacterial agents, UV-protection intermediates for soap, sunscreen, cosmetics. Boring but reliable. Margins: stable.
Pharmaceuticals (9% but growing like crazy at 85% YoY in 9M FY26): Key starting materials (KSMs) and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for global pharma. Blockbuster drugs like Atorvastatin, Sitagliptin, Dapagliflozin — Anupam probably made the intermediate you never heard about. TAM is ~$15 billion. Margins: even better than agro. Growth visibility: multi-year.
New Vertical: Polymers & Performance Materials (17% in 9M FY26, +245% YoY): Electronic chemicals, advanced materials, next-gen polymers for EVs, semiconductors, batteries. High entry barriers. Pre-qualified customers. LiPF6 batteries chemicals, fluoropolymers for EVs — Anupam is in here now. This is the growth driver management keeps talking about.
The model is simple: build scale, keep margins, diversify away from agro exposure, expand into high-value pharma and performance materials, acquire your way to global presence (hence Jayhawk). What could go wrong? Everything, if you burn cash and have 646 days of working capital trapped in inventory.
Agro65%Cyclical, But Recovering
Pharma19%Growing 85% YoY
Polymers17%+245% YoY. Wow.
Personal Care~2%Stable But Tiny
Working Capital Bomb: Anupam’s working capital cycle is 646 days as of Mar 2025. Meaning inventory sits for 500+ days, receivables for 186 days. That’s ~22 months of cash locked in the business. Even with ₹1,730 crore in 9M revenue, the company is burning working capital faster than a teenager burns TikTok data. The target: sub-200 days by FY27. The reality: Crisil put them on Watch Negative because they’re not convinced.
💬 Would you buy a stock with 85x P/E if the business was growing at 30%+ YoY? Or does that number alone make you walk away? Comment below!
04 — Financials Overview
Q3 FY26: The Numbers That Made Crisil Nervous
Result type: Quarterly Results (Consolidated) | Q3 FY26 EPS: ₹4.31 | Annualised EPS (Q3×4): ₹17.24 | 9M FY26 PAT: ₹166 Cr
| Metric (₹ Cr) |
Q3 FY26
Dec 2025 |
Q3 FY25
Dec 2024 |
Q2 FY26
Sep 2025 |
YoY % |
QoQ % |
| Revenue | 512 | 390 | 731 | +31.4% | -30.0% |
| Operating Profit | 127 | 124 | 136 | +2.4% | -6.6% |
| OPM % | 25% | 32% | 19% | -700 bps | +600 bps |
| PAT | 49 | 59 | 57 | -17.0% | -14.0% |
| EPS (₹) | 4.31 | 3.90 | 3.10 | +10.5% | +39.0% |
What Just Happened: Q3 FY26 looks messy on the surface. Revenue +31% YoY is solid. But QoQ, it’s down 30% from Q2. OPM fell 700 bps YoY because (a) Q3 FY25 had inventory clearance-driven margins, and (b) cost inflation hit in Dec quarter. EPS down 17% YoY, but that’s because of one-time tax items and interest costs. The real story is hidden: 9M FY26 revenue is ₹1,730 Cr, up 84% YoY. EBITDA margin 23% (vs 15% in 9M FY25). PAT up 71%. Polymer segment revenue grew 245% YoY. Pharma grew 85% YoY. Management reiterated: “agro recovery underway.” Jayhawk not yet consolidated (closing Feb 27, 2026; will add contribution from next quarter). So the chaos in Q3 is probably noise. The signal is 9M FY26 trajectory.
05 — Valuation: Fair Value Range
How Much Should You Pay for Madness?
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