BPL Ltd: From TV Fame to PCB Pain – Is This 60-Year-Old Brand Finally Debugging Its Circuit?
1. At a Glance
Once the king of Indian televisions in the ’90s, BPL Ltd now survives making printed circuit boards (PCBs) and niche defense meters, with side hustles in medical devices. Q1 FY26 revenue stood flat at ₹19.5 Cr, but PAT nosedived 80% to ₹2.74 Cr after a fat legal payment of ₹72 Cr (yes, you read that right). Despite being almost debt-free, the company’s share price has fallen 37% in one year. Nostalgia alone won’t solder the wires back together.
2. Introduction
Say the name BPL to any Indian uncle and he’ll instantly recall the TV brand that sat in every middle-class drawing room before LG and Samsung swept in. But the BPL of 2025 is a shadow of that legacy. Incorporated in 1963, today it’s mostly about manufacturing PCBs for automotive and lighting industries, hermetically sealed panel meters for defense, and some ECG machines for hospitals. Think of it as a has-been Bollywood actor now playing side characters in web series.
What makes the story spicy is how BPL has pivoted more times than a startup founder: from TVs to phones, from fridges to medical devices, from JV in the US (now closed) to infrastructure dabbling. Currently, they’re trying to build credibility in double-sided and multi-layer PCBs with certifications like IATF (Maruti’s favorite) and MACE.
But don’t be fooled by the shiny “26% ROE” and “27% ROCE.” Those are boosted by one-off income and low equity base. Strip the noise, and you’re left with a company producing just 2 lakh sqm of PCBs out of 6 lakh installed capacity—a factory running at one-third throttle.
So here’s the question: is BPL in a revival arc—or just a rerun of its old failures with slightly updated packaging?
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
BPL is a patchwork quilt of businesses:
PCBs (core) – End-users: lighting & automotive. Target is tier-1 & tier-2 auto suppliers. Installed capacity: 6 lakh sqm, actual output ~2 lakh sqm. Utilisation? Like Delhi Metro at 1 am—barely there.
Defense meters – Precision hermetically sealed panel meters. Niche, small scale, but good margins.
Medical electronics – ECG machines. Competes with GE, Philips, and half a dozen scrappy Indian startups.
Consumer durables legacy – TVs, washing machines, ACs, etc. Once a revenue beast, now just a brand licensing fee line in the P&L (~16% in FY23).
Dividend income & others – ~14% contribution. Essentially portfolio shuffling.
So essentially: they manufacture PCBs, license out their once-famous brand, and collect dividends from investments. From “BPL Oye!” in cricket ads to “BPL Who?” in investor circles.
4. Financials Overview
Source table
Metric
Latest Qtr (Jun’25)
YoY Qtr (Jun’24)
Prev Qtr (Mar’25)
YoY %
QoQ %
Revenue
₹19.5 Cr
₹19.4 Cr
₹18.7 Cr
+0.5%
+4.0%
EBITDA
₹3.35 Cr
₹4.8 Cr
₹1.9 Cr
-30.8%
+77.7%
PAT
₹2.74 Cr
₹13.4 Cr
₹-17.4 Cr
-79.6%
N/A
EPS (₹)
0.56
2.74
-3.56
-79.6%
N/A
Annualised EPS = ₹2.2 → P/E ≈ 35 at CMP ₹78.1 (Screener shows 7x, thanks to FY25 one-off profits). Reality check: without “other income drama,” this is not cheap.
Commentary: Sales flat. Profits wildly volatile due to legal settlements and one-offs. Margins swing like Sensex on election day.
5. Valuation – Fair Value Range Only
Method 1: P/E EPS (sustainable) ~₹2.2. Industry P/E ~27.
