1. At a Glance – Blink and You’ll Miss the Turnaround
Autoline Industries Ltd (AIL) currently sits at a market cap of ~₹365 Cr, trading near ₹80.5, which is roughly 2.1× book value and ~25× trailing earnings. In isolation, that P/E looks punchy for an auto ancillary… until you realise this company has spent most of the last decade bleeding losses like a badly welded exhaust pipe.
The latest quarter (Q3 FY26 – December 2025) delivered ₹209 Cr in revenue, a solid 34% YoY growth, with PAT at ₹4.83 Cr, up 6.15% YoY. EBITDA margin hovered around 9.4%, which is respectable for a stamping-and-welding-heavy business.
ROCE is at ~14.2%, ROE at ~14.9%, but the balance sheet still carries ₹266 Cr of debt, with interest coverage at a worrying 1.41×. Translation: profits exist, but the banker still eats first.
Autoline claims a ₹1,000 Cr revenue aspiration by FY27, riding on EV adjacencies, capacity utilisation, and a friendlier product mix. Big dreams, mid-sized balance sheet, and a promoter group that has recently started putting actual money where their mouth is.
Curious already? Good. Because this company has more plot twists than a daily soap.
2. Introduction – From Lost Decade to Midlife Crisis Rally
Autoline Industries was incorporated in 1996, and for a brief moment in the early 2000s, it looked like a textbook auto-ancillary story: stamping, assemblies, OEM clients, and Pune-centric manufacturing. Then came over-expansion, leverage, cyclicality, and a long, painful stretch of losses.
Between FY14 and FY21, Autoline posted continuous net losses, negative ROCE, and capital erosion. By FY21, reserves were actually negative. At that point, the equity story was less “manufacturing turnaround” and more “bank NPA with a ticker symbol”.
The turnaround began post-FY22:
- OEM demand stabilised
- Cost controls kicked in
- Capacity utilisation improved
- Non-core
- monetisation started (Autoline Industrial Parks stake sales)
By FY24–FY25, Autoline clawed back to:
- ₹730 Cr TTM revenue
- ~10% operating margin
- Positive free cash flow
- And most importantly — consistent profits
But let’s be clear: this is not a clean compounder story. This is a leveraged recovery play, still in physiotherapy, not yet in marathon training.
Question for you: Do you like comeback stories… or do you prefer clean balance sheets with boring predictability?
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Autoline is basically the gym bro of auto ancillaries — lots of heavy lifting, steel everywhere, margins depend on discipline.
Core Activities:
- Sheet metal stampings
- Welded assemblies
- Mechanical modules
- Exhaust systems
- Tubular structures
- Pedal and parking brake systems
They supply 3,000+ SKUs to OEMs across:
- Passenger vehicles
- Commercial vehicles
- Non-automotive (railways, solar, hospital equipment)
Business Divisions Breakdown:
- Design & Engineering Services
Styling, CAD, validation, prototyping — essentially helping OEMs shorten development cycles. - Tool Room
One of the larger tool rooms in Pune, doing press tools, jigs, fixtures. This is a strategic moat because tooling knowledge sticks with customers. - Medium & Large Stamped Assemblies
BIW components like floor assemblies, cross beams, door structures. High volume, low glamour. - Mechanical Assemblies
Pedals, hinges, cab tilt systems — more value-added, better
