The Pitch-Black Billionaire in a Hurry

The Unglamorous Billionaire Making Invisible Materials

Coal tar pitch. Carbon black. Sulphonated naphthalene formaldehyde (SNF). These sound like names of chemical compounds discovered after a three-martini lunch, and yet, they are literally the invisible scaffolding of modern India—poured into aluminium smelters, graphite electrodes, tires, plastics, paints, and increasingly, lithium-ion batteries.

Himadri Speciality Chemical is India’s largest coal tar pitch manufacturer, the only domestic producer of advanced carbon materials, and the nation’s largest naphthalene and SNF player. The company has zero debt drama, 22% ROCE, and is betting its entire future on becoming a global player in battery materials. Translation: it’s either five years ahead of the curve or five years away from a very expensive bankruptcy. Both narratives are equally plausible in a bull market.

Founded in 1986, the company survived the 1990s liberalisation, the 2008 financial crisis, and the commodity supercycle as a cash-generative machine. Eleven years of 40% CAGR stock returns. Four years of near-doubling profits. A brand new 130,000 MTPA specialty carbon black facility. And management guidance that sounds like a startup’s fever dream: “We do not allocate capital to any business where ROCE is less than 30%.” These people have confidence levels that would make a Gautam Adani blush.

But here’s the catch: the stock is down 5% in the last three months despite delivering 37% profit growth. That gap between business performance and stock price is where stories hide. Let’s find them.

Carbon Chemistry. Pitch-Black Profits. Battery Dreams.

Himadri operates an integrated coal tar distillation empire. Coal tar—the black gunk left over when coal is processed for coke and other derivatives—arrives via railway cars. The company distills it into pitch (used in aluminium smelters, graphite electrode plants, and refractory applications) and naphthalene (which gets further processed into SNF, a superplasticizer for concrete). Carbon black comes from processed crude oil feedstocks, blended and manufactured into dozens of specialized grades. Everything is powered by a captive 28 MW power plant fueled by waste heat recovery—i.e., they’ve figured out how to run the place on its own exhaust.

Revenue split: 45%+ from aluminium and graphite electrode end-users (cyclical niches). The rest scattered across chemicals, polymers, refractories, and specialty applications. Industrial lubricants, auto care, and increasingly, battery materials. The company holds ~10% of global coal tar pitch market and dominates India’s 81-86% domestic revenue base. Exports to 54 countries. Clients include NALCO, Vedanta, Graphite India, Apollo Tyres, Bridgestone, and an alphabet soup of global OEMs.

The genius move? They’re not just selling commodity chemicals. They’re moving up the value chain. EBITDA per MT has tripled over five years. Industrial revenues grow at double digits. And now—the big bet—they’re entering lithium-ion battery materials with a 200,000 MTPA lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode active material facility, planned in phases over 5-6 years.

Q3 FY26: The Numbers That Make Analysts Nervous

Result type: Quarterly Results  |  Q3 FY26 EPS: ₹3.81  |  Annualised EPS (Q3×4): ₹15.24  |  Full-year FY25 EPS: ₹11.25

Fair Value: The Battery Bet Premium