Soma Textiles FY2026: From Clothes to Highways, With ₹91 Cr Stuck in Receivables

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1. At a Glance

Soma Textiles switched owners in October 2025 — Roadway Solutions India Infra (the parent of a highway construction outfit under NHAI order scrutiny) bought 75% for ₹87.67 crore. The company’s FY26 sales jumped to ₹80.88 crore from ₹9.49 crore in FY25. Sounds stellar.

Then you look at receivables: ₹91.88 crore — more than the entire FY26 revenue run. The company has ₹0.58 crore in cash. Operating cash flow is minus ₹102.93 crore.

So the headline is real, but the plumbing is broken. The new promoter pivoted from textiles into two EPC contracts (construction orders of ₹281 crore and ₹62.77 crore announced in December 2025), both related-party deals. The textile business, which collapsed from ₹127 crore in FY17 to ₹5.2 crore in FY23, has been grafted onto what looks like a shell.

The tension: sales and PAT in the latest quarter are real, but almost none of it has been collected.

2. Introduction

Soma Textiles was incorporated in 1969 as a textile manufacturer. For decades it made denim, piece-dyed fabrics, and stretch goods for brands like Indigo Nation, John Players, and Colt. The business was solid once. Then the 2010s happened.

By FY23, sales had crashed to ₹5.2 crore on the back of a decade of margin compression. The company burnt cash, accumulated losses, and ran negative operating profit for years. Net profit was a disaster: FY22 was minus ₹16.42 crore.

Then FY23 arrived with a surprise: ₹165.46 crore profit, entirely from other income (a land development deal). The markets sniffed a turnaround. The stock shot up.

FY24 and FY25 muddled along — ₹21.09 crore and ₹69.27 crore profit respectively, again mostly other income, not operations. Operating profit was still negative.

By mid-2025, the Somany family (who’d controlled Soma since the ’90s) sold their stake to Roadway Solutions India Infra Limited. This is the parent company cited in a Supreme Court order involving NHAI deposit requirements worth ₹20+ crore. In October 2025, Ameet Gadhoke became MD and Teja Gadhoke became Chair. The board was rebuilt.

In December 2025, two construction contracts totalling ₹343.95 crore were announced—both EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contracts with the new parent’s group company. The textile unit was shelved. The company is now a cash-collection box for construction work.

FY26 (ended March 2026) saw ₹80.88 crore in quarterly sales, with ₹50.82 crore in the final quarter alone. But almost none of it is cash yet.

3. Business Model: WTF Do They Even Do?

Soma now does two things, and neither is textiles anymore.

Textiles (the original): Denim, piece-dyed fabrics, stretch fabrics, vintage denim, non-stretch goods. Sold to brands like Indigo Nation, John Players, Cherokee, Mossimo, Scullers. This business cratered from ₹127 crore in FY17 to ₹5.2 crore in FY23 and hasn’t recovered. No inventory showed up on the FY26 balance sheet, and segment data vanished.

Construction (the new): Two EPC contracts awarded in December 2025 to Mefcom, a related-party entity. Contract 1: ₹281.18 crore, 24-month tenor. Contract 2: ₹62.77 crore, 12-month tenor. Total ₹343.95 crore. These are the revenue drivers for the forward-looking filings.

The business model is now a holding company for highway-construction work outsourced to a related party. All the legwork happens elsewhere. Soma’s job is to collect money from parent and sub-contractors as work moves from ordered to executed.

The old textile clientele (brands) is obsolete. The new revenue stream is intra-group. This is not a recovery in the textile business; this is an exit from it. The multiple is not priced for a textile firm anymore—it’s priced for a contractor’s balance sheet, less the collection risk.

4. Financials Overview

Figures are consolidated, in ₹ crore.

Quarterly Results (Latest Quarter Ended March 2026)

*EBITDA approximated as Operating Profit (3.68 Cr) + Depreciation (0.03 Cr).

The final quarter of FY26 is the breakout: ₹50.82 crore in sales, ₹4.88 crore in profit. This is the construction order beginning to flow through. The quarterly pattern beforehand was tiny (₹0.59–₹3.87 crore per quarter).

Operating profit hit positive ₹3.68 crore in the quarter—the first time in recent memory. OPM was 7.24%, a turnaround from the consistent negative single digits (–77% to –32% in prior quarters).

But look at the balance sheet. Receivables sit at ₹91.88 crore—nearly 1.8x the quarter’s revenue annualized. The company collected almost nothing on the ₹50.82 crore sale. This is a classic EPC problem: revenue is recognized on billing, not on cash receipt. The contractor books the sale when work is certified, but the purchaser (or the parent) pays slowly or in tranches tied to milestones.

Tax was ₹1.07 crore on ₹5.95 crore PBT (effective 17.98%). The company has carried forward losses from prior years, but they are being depleted fast.

5. Market Expectations & Historical Multiples

This section describes how the market is currently pricing the company and how that compares with its own history and peer group. It is descriptive, not predictive.

The market currently pays 75.95x trailing earnings here, against a peer textile median of 25.16x. This is the largest multiple divergence in the dataset. Peers like KPR Mills (45.46x), Vardhman (25.40x), and Trident (35.28x) trade at one-third to one-half this level.

The divergence reflects the pivot: the market may be pricing recovery (a construction contractor with ₹343 crore in orders) rather than a textile firm. Textile firms are valued on margin expansion and volume growth. Contractors are valued on order conversion and cash collection.

ROE (2.65%) and ROCE (2.98%) remain depressed—the company’s capital is working slowly. The company carried cumulative losses of ₹49.31 crore in FY17; by FY26 it has a net worth of ₹167.67 crore (Equity Capital ₹33.23 + Reserves ₹134.44), a swing of ₹217 crore. That swing is almost entirely other income from the FY23 land deal and the new construction orders, not reinvested operating profit.

The sector median ROCE is 8.99%. Soma sits at 2.98%. The gap suggests the company’s asset base—now largely cash, receivables, and related-party exposure—is not earning operationally.

The fact that the market is willing to value this firm at a 200% premium to sector peers, despite lower returns on capital, implies it is pricing in either a construction turnaround or hedging against a textile renaissance. Neither is obvious from the filings.

The pricing reflects a disconnect between the headline (₹50.82 crore quarterly sales) and the reality (₹91.88 crore uncollected, ₹0.58 crore cash, minus ₹102.93 crore operating cash flow for the full year).

6. What’s Cooking

Ownership & Management Shift (October 2025): Roadway Solutions India Infra bought 74.98% for ₹87.67 crore off-market. Ameet Gadhoke (MD) and Teja