Ashima Ltd: 88% Sales Drop, 6,704 Working Capital Days, and a Denim Drama Worth Netflix

1. At a Glance

Ashima Ltd is a 1982 vintage textile company that somehow now does textiles, real estate, and treasury investments — because why suffer in one cyclical industry when you can spread the pain across three? Once a denim player, now their sales are down 88% TTM, profits swing like a drunk on a see-saw, and their working capital cycle is an eye-watering 6,704 days — which is 18 years for those counting at home.

2. Introduction

Imagine being a textile major in the early 2000s, cash-rich, with your own design studio, integrated operations from yarn to garments, and big-name clients. Now imagine that, instead of scaling, you slowly drift into obscurity, lose sales, and keep the lights on by dabbling in real estate and treasury income. That’s Ashima’s 40-year corporate biography in one paragraph.

The past decade’s sales chart looks like a ski slope, except no one’s having fun. Yet, the stock has managed 37% CAGR over 5 years, proving that in Indian smallcaps, sometimes hope trades at a premium to math.

3. Business Model (WTF Do They Even Do?)

Three main verticals:

• Textiles – Denim, interlining fabrics, garment processing. Full chain: yarn → fabric → garments.
• Real Estate – Leveraging surplus land assets (read: turning old factory plots into apartments).
• Treasury/Investments – Managing surplus cash and investments, because the textile business alone isn’t paying