1. At a Glance
Shree Rama Newsprint Ltd (SRNL) currently trades at ₹30.5, packing a market cap of ₹451 crore and the confidence of a company that has survived CIRP, coal shocks, paper shutdowns, and still shows up every quarter with losses like clockwork. The stock is up 56.6% over one year (markets love a good comeback trailer), but the fundamentals are still stuck in the first act of a tragedy.
The headline numbers don’t mince words: Book value is negative (₹-2.34), ROE is a jaw-dropping -73.3%, and interest coverage is 0.16×, which in banking language translates to “sir, please hold.” The paper division has been shut since December 2021, yet debt stands tall at ₹376 crore. Revenue? ₹36.2 crore. Enterprise Value? ₹827 crore. EV/EBITDA? 82.3× — because hope is expensive.
Latest quarterly sales came in at ₹8.84 crore, down 28.9% YoY, with PAT loss of ₹7.97 crore. Despite that, promoter holding is a rock-solid 74.76%, unpledged, calm, and unbothered. Is this a deep-value turnaround or just a water bottling company wearing a paper mill’s old clothes? Let’s open the files.
2. Introduction
Once upon a time, SRNL was a proper recycled paper manufacturer — newsprint, writing & printing paper, kraft paper — all made from 100% waste paper. ESG before ESG became a LinkedIn buzzword. Then coal prices exploded, waste paper costs went rogue, and the paper division was shut down. Workforce retrenched. Machines idled. What remained alive was the packaged drinking water business, which now contributes ~95% of FY23 revenue.
Yes, read that again. A company called Shree Rama Newsprint is basically a water bottling company with legacy paper assets waiting to be sold.
The promoters fought off a CIRP initiated in March 2022, got it withdrawn by April 2022, repaid overdue bank debt, and regained control. Since then, the company has been in survival mode: asset sales, piecemeal disposals, related-party preference share infusions, and quarterly disclosures that repeatedly mention “current liabilities exceed assets.”
So the big question: is SRNL a turnaround phoenix, or a corporate zombie that just refuses to fall
over?
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Originally, SRNL did four things:
- Writing & Printing Paper (Rama Silver, Pearl, Platinum, Palladium — sounds like a jewellery store)
- Newsprint (40–52 GSM for high-speed offset presses)
- Kraft Paper
- Packaged Drinking Water
Today? Only one of these is breathing.
Paper Division
Closed since 18 December 2021. Why?
- Coal unavailable or unaffordable
- Waste paper prices went wild
- Operations became economically unviable
The company is now disposing paper division assets via slump sale or piecemeal sale. Recent announcement confirms sale of plant & machinery for ₹28 lakh, which tells you how much value is left in those assets.
Water Bottling Division
This is the real business now.
- FY23 production: 44.57 lakh cases
- FY23 sales: 44.52 lakh cases
- Bottles sold: ~1,625 lakh bottles
It’s a volume game, low margin, high competition, but at least it’s operational. Ironically, the “side business” is now the main show.
So SRNL today is less of a paper company and more of a liquid-asset monetisation exercise. Question is: can water profits ever pay for paper-era debt?
4. Financials Overview
Quarterly Comparison Table (₹ crore)
| Metric | Latest Qtr (Dec’25) | YoY Qtr (Dec’24) | Prev Qtr (Sep’25) | YoY % | QoQ % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 8.84 | 12.43 | 9.42 | -28.9% | -6.2% |
| EBITDA | 0.70 | 1.92 | 0.29 | -63.5% | +141% |
| PAT | -7.97 | -9.33 | -9.32 | +14.5% | +14.5% |
| EPS (₹) | -0.69 | -0.64 | -0.69 | -7.8% | 0% |
Annualised EPS (Q3 rule):
Average of Q1, Q2, Q3 EPS × 4 ≈ negative → P/E meaningless (again).
Commentary:
Losses are narrowing, but only because the
