1. At a Glance – Blink and You’ll Miss the Volatility
Punjab Chemicals & Crop Protection Ltd (PCCPL) is that classic Indian specialty chemical company which looks boring from the outside but behaves like a caffeinated trader once you open the financials. Current market cap sits around ₹1,379 crore, the stock is trading near ₹1,125, and has delivered a 29% return over the last one year, while simultaneously bleeding ~26% in the last 3 months. Perfect mood swings.
Q3 FY26 numbers showed ₹247 crore revenue and ₹14 crore PAT, translating into a 153% YoY profit jump. Sounds sexy? Wait till you see debtor days crossing 95 and inventory days exploding to 151. ROCE is 15.3%, ROE 12%, and debt-to-equity is a manageable 0.31. Exports contribute ~39% of revenue, and top 5 customers account for 68% – diversification is clearly “on the to-do list”.
So yes, margins are improving, profits are reviving, but working capital is partying harder than promoters at an AGM buffet. Curious already?
2. Introduction – A Chemical Company with an Identity Crisis (In a Good Way)
Founded in 1975, PCCPL has quietly morphed from a pesticide-focused player into a multi-vertical performance chemicals business spanning Agrochemicals, Pharmaceuticals, and Industrial Chemicals. The keyword here is CRAMS – Contract Research and Manufacturing Services – the holy grail that every Indian chemical company dreams of after watching PI Industries’ valuation chart.
Unlike commodity chemical guys who wake up daily praying for raw material prices to behave, PCCPL plays in complex, multi-step chemistries. Chlorination, bromination, heterocyclic reactions, cryogenic reactions – basically the stuff that scares mediocre operators and keeps EHS officers awake at night.
But this is not a “straight-line success story”. Sales growth over the last 5 years is just 10.4% CAGR, and over the last 3 years it’s actually negative. Profits, however, have rebounded sharply in TTM, growing ~87%, proving once again
that chemistry businesses don’t move in straight lines – they zigzag like reaction pathways.
The real question: is this a cyclical bounce or the start of a structurally better phase?
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Let’s simplify this without sounding like a chemistry textbook.
Agrochemicals & Intermediates
This is the backbone. PCCPL manufactures herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and intermediates using chemistries like methylation, bromination, and Friedel–Craft reactions. They also manufacture patented products under long-term contracts, which is fancy language for “customer won’t disappear overnight”.
Performance / Specialty Chemicals
Here’s where complexity increases and margins should improve. Multi-step specialty intermediates used in API manufacturing. This vertical screams CRAMS ambition, though scale is still modest.
Industrial Chemicals
High-purity phosphorous-based compounds. Less glamorous, but steady, sticky, and essential.
Manufacturing happens at Derabassi and Lalru (Punjab) and Pune, with ISO, GMP, and food-grade certifications. Capacity utilisation in FY25 was ~71% at Derabassi and ~64% at Lalru – meaning growth is possible without massive capex… provided demand cooperates.
If this were a Bollywood movie, PCCPL is not the hero yet – it’s the character training in the background montage.
4. Financials Overview – The Quarter That Woke Everyone Up
| Metric | Latest Qtr (Dec 2025) | YoY Qtr (Dec 2024) | Prev Qtr (Sep 2025) | YoY % | QoQ % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (₹ Cr) | 247 | 214 | 255 | 15.3% | -3.1% |
| EBITDA (₹ Cr) | 30 | 19 | 26 | 57.9% | 15.4% |
| PAT (₹ Cr) | 14 | 6 | 19 | 153% | -26% |
| EPS (₹) | 11.26 | 4.95 | 15.12 | 127% | -25% |
