Jindal Poly Investment & Finance Company Ltd Q2 FY25 – When Your Investment Company Has 99% Margins & 0% Chill

1. At a Glance

Welcome to the world ofJindal Poly Investment & Finance Company Ltd (JPIFCL)— the kind of NBFC that looks at conventional lending, yawns, and says,“We’ll just invest in ourselves, thank you.”Trading around₹950 per sharewith amarket cap of ₹998 crore, JPIFCL is that rare beast — aCore Investment Company (CIC)that manages to show off99% operating profit marginswhile keepingborrowings at ₹23.5 crore(barely a mosquito bite compared to their investment portfolio).

In the last three months, the stock has returned~31%, showing that even a sleepy investment vehicle can suddenly hit turbo mode when group companies do well. Yet, FY25’s Q2 results threw in a spicy twist —PAT fell 58.8% QoQ to ₹57.5 crore, while sales zoomed142% YoYto ₹19.1 crore. ROE for the latest period stands at14.2%, P/E at a comically low4.5x, and Book Value per share at₹1,557— meaning the market’s paying just0.61x bookfor a company that literally sits on money.

So yes — it’s a financial company that makes money by watching its money make money. Not a bad life.

2. Introduction

If Warren Buffett ever had a distant cousin in India who loved power companies, owned nothing physical, and didn’t bother with customers or debt, it would beJindal Poly Investment & Finance Company Ltd.

Born in2012, JPIFCL isn’t your usual “finance” firm. There are no loan sharks here, no EMI calls, no borrowers crying for moratoriums. It’s aCore Investment Company (CIC)that exists mainly to invest inits own group firms, especially those in thepower sector. Think of it as a glorified family trust wrapped in NBFC clothing.

Here’s how the movie goes:The company takes its capital, buys equity or bonds in group companies, waits for dividends and fair value gains, and occasionally redeems or rotates holdings. The rulebook even mandates that90% of its net assetsmust stay within the Jindal ecosystem — which is basically like saying, “I’ll only date within my friend circle.”

FY23 saw them go on an investment bender — deploying a chunky₹2,422 crore, a whopping44x jump over FY22. Clearly, someone at HQ got tired of holding idle cash. And when you see a 99% OPM in FY25, you realise this company doesn’t “operate” much; it just counts its dividends.

3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?

JPIFCL’s business model is so minimal it could make a monk jealous. It’s aNon-Systemically Important, Non-Deposit Taking NBFC, registered as aCore Investment Company (CIC)under RBI norms. Translation: they can’t take your deposits or give you loans, but they can sit on a fat pile of group company shares and call it a day.

Here’s the formula:

• Step 1:Raise equity or internal funds.
• Step 2:Buy stakes in Jindal Group entities — primarily in power, films, and manufacturing arms.
• Step 3:Collect dividends, revalue investments, and occasionally book fair value gains.
• Step 4:Repeat, while auditors scratch their heads wondering what “operations” even mean here.

In FY23,97% of revenuecame fromenergy sales(thanks to group entities),2% from fair value gains, and1% from “other income”— likely interest or scraps from short-term securities.

In short: they’re not lending money; they’re lending confidence to their own group.

And if you’re wondering why “Energy Sales” even appear in an investment company’s revenue — welcome to India, where holding companies sometimes double as electricity traders, because… why not?

4. Financials Overview

Commentary:Those numbers look like a financial seesaw. Revenue’s exploding while profits are down 59% YoY — classic “fair value adjustment” volatility. EPS of ₹54.7 this quarter annualises to ₹219. That makes theP/E =