1. At a Glance – Toll Booth With a Balance Sheet
Cube Highways Trust is what happens when global sovereign funds, Indian highways, and Excel sheets decide to live together peacefully. Market cap sits at ₹18,817 crore, current price around ₹140, and dividend yield a respectable 4.36%—which is decent unless you were dreaming of PSU-level charity. The Trust operates 27 road assets across 12 states, stretching 2,021 km, with an average operating history of 8.8 years and residual concession life of 18.2 years. Q3 FY26 declared a ₹4.10/unit distribution (~₹551 crore), reminding investors why they signed up—for cash, not excitement. ROCE limps at 3.9%, ROE is negative, and P/E looks like a typo (~940x)—but InvITs don’t care about your equity fantasies. This is a yield instrument wearing an infrastructure costume.
2. Introduction – Welcome to the World of “Boring but Bankable”
Cube Highways Trust was incorporated in 2022 and registered as a SEBI Infrastructure Investment Trust focused entirely on road assets. No airports, no ports, no diversification drama—just roads, tolls, annuities, and HAM contracts. Backed by heavyweight global investors like ADIA, I Squared Capital, and Mubadala, Cube InvIT is essentially a parking lot for long-term capital that wants visibility, predictability, and regulated cash flows. If equity investors chase growth stories, InvIT investors chase distributions. Cube understands this deeply and structures itself accordingly—high leverage, long concessions, stable toll collections, and relentless focus on asset aggregation. The Trust doesn’t want to be sexy; it wants to be reliable. Question is—does reliability justify the leverage?
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Cube Highways Trust owns road assets through SPVs and earns money via toll collections, annuity payments, and HAM-based cash flows. Toll roads contribute about 67%
of revenue, while annuity contributes 33% (Q2 FY26). Toll roads give upside during traffic growth but come with economic sensitivity. Annuity roads are boring, predictable, and paid by NHAI—basically fixed deposits with reflectors. HAM assets sit in between. Cube doesn’t build roads from scratch; it acquires operational, mature assets with established traffic history. The Investment Manager (Cube Highways Fund Advisors Pvt Ltd) decides what to buy, while the Project Manager ensures SPVs don’t mess up maintenance or compliance. Think of Cube as a landlord of highways—collect rent, service debt, distribute leftovers.
4. Financials Overview – The Numbers Don’t Lie, They Just Yawn
Quarterly Comparison (₹ Crore – Consolidated)
| Metric | Latest Qtr (Dec’25) | YoY Qtr (Dec’24) | Prev Qtr (Sep’25) | YoY % | QoQ % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 1,081 | 850 | 1,052 | +27.2% | +2.8% |
| EBITDA | 771 | 607 | 770 | +27.0% | Flat |
| PAT | 41 | 52 | 40 | -21.1% | +2.5% |
| EPS (₹) | 0.31 | 0.39 | 0.30 | -20.5% | +3.3% |
Commentary: Revenue is growing, margins are fat (OPM ~71%), but PAT keeps getting eaten by interest and depreciation like a toll booth stuck under a flyover of debt.
5. Valuation Discussion – Ranges, Not Fairy Tales
Method 1: P/E (Largely Useless Here)
- EPS TTM: ₹0.15
- CMP: ₹140
- P/E: ~940x
Conclusion: Ignore. InvITs are not equity growth stocks.
Method 2: EV / EBITDA
- EV: ₹35,498 crore
- EBITDA TTM: ~₹2,754 crore
- EV/EBITDA: ~12.9x
Peer range:
