1. At a Glance – The Jet-Setting Stock With Turbulence
Mach Conferences & Events Ltd is the kind of company that books five-star hotels for clients while its own stock price has been backpacking through volatility with no confirmed return ticket. With a market cap of about ₹204 crore and a current price hovering around ₹97, the company has seen a brutal one-year return of nearly -56%, which is ironic for a business that literally specialises in incentive trips and luxury conferences. Over the last three months alone, the stock is down more than 20%, making shareholders feel like they accidentally booked economy while expecting business class.
Operationally though, this isn’t a struggling startup running birthday parties in banquet halls. Mach has delivered over 300 large and mid-sized global events across Goa, Vietnam, Istanbul, Peru, Kuala Lumpur, cruises, and more. The latest half-year numbers show sales of about ₹95 crore with PAT around ₹7.7 crore, ROCE close to 22%, ROE around 17%, and debt so low it barely deserves a mention. Dividend yield stands at about 1%, which is Mach’s polite way of saying “we remember shareholders exist.”
So the big question: is this a fundamentally sound MICE business going through post-IPO turbulence, or just another SME listing where the honeymoon ended faster than a corporate offsite in Phuket? Let’s unpack the luggage.
2. Introduction – When Corporate Travel Meets SME Reality
Mach Conferences & Events Ltd was incorporated in 2014, long before the pandemic made Zoom calls fashionable and incentive trips suspicious. The company operates in the MICE segment—Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events—which is basically corporate tourism with Excel sheets, approvals, and procurement committees.
Post-COVID, this sector has bounced back aggressively. Corporates are travelling again, employees are being bribed with foreign trips instead of ESOPs, and Mach is right there arranging visas, hotels, flights, logistics, forex, and sometimes probably emotional support for stressed HR managers.
Then came the IPO in September 2024, raising about ₹125 crore. The stock debuted with enthusiasm, hit highs near ₹282, and then reality checked everyone back to double digits. Since then, the market has been asking tough questions—about margins, customer concentration, working capital, and sustainability.
But here’s the thing: Mach is profitable, growing over the medium term, almost debt-free, and operating in a sector with structural tailwinds. This is not a loss-making fantasy story. It’s a real cash-generating business with very real operational risks. Which makes it interesting. And dangerous. Like a corporate cruise with an open bar.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Imagine you’re a CFO who needs to send 400 employees to Istanbul, arrange flights, hotels, visas, gala dinners, sightseeing, insurance, forex,
and make sure nobody gets arrested or lost. You don’t want 14 vendors. You want one throat to choke. That’s Mach.
The business model starts with client engagement and RFQs. Mach prepares proposals, negotiates with airlines, hotels, transporters, and local partners, collects advances, executes the event in real time, and then raises the final invoice. It’s a classic asset-light, coordination-heavy model.
Revenue comes primarily from package tours and events, contributing nearly 99.7% of revenue. Commission income is negligible. This tells you Mach is not a high-margin booking aggregator; it’s a full-stack execution player. Margins depend on negotiation skills, scale, and cost control, not fancy software.
The downside? Working capital. Clients often pay late, vendors want money early, and Mach ends up funding the party. This is visible in debtor days jumping to around 66 days recently. So while the business sounds glamorous, the backend looks more like a stressed travel desk with Excel sheets screaming at midnight.
Still, the model works—as long as volumes scale, clients don’t default, and events don’t get cancelled. Simple. What could go wrong?
4. Financials Overview – Half-Yearly Reality Check
Result Type Locked: HALF-YEARLY RESULTS
The latest official results are half-yearly, so EPS annualisation is done by multiplying the latest EPS by 2, not 4. No jugaad allowed.
Financial Comparison Table (₹ Crore)
| Metric | Latest Half Year (Sep 2025) | Same Period Last Year (Sep 2024) | Previous Period (Mar 2025) | YoY % | QoQ % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 95 | 119 | 116 | -20% | -18% |
| EBITDA | 10 | 11 | 7 | -9% | +43% |
| PAT | 8 | 9 | 6 | -11% | +33% |
| EPS (₹) | 3.68 | 4.05 | 2.68 | -9% | +37% |
Annualised EPS (Half-Yearly): ₹3.68 × 2 = ₹7.36
At the current price of ₹97, recalculated P/E comes to roughly 13.2x, which is actually below the industry average of around 16x.
Commentary time: YoY numbers look ugly, QoQ looks like redemption. This is what seasonality plus execution cycles do to event companies. One quarter you’re
