CMP: ₹227.30 | Symbol: STARCEMENT | Date: 22 May 2025
✍️ Author: Prashant Marathe

🟢 At a Glance – FY25 Highlights

So yeah, turns out cementing profits is not just a metaphor here.

📅 Quarterly Breakdown (FY25)

🥲 Half year was a horror show, but the company rebounded hard in Q4 — over ₹100 Cr in quarterly profit.

🏗️ What Boosted FY25 Recovery?

• Clinkerisation Plant Operational: 3.3 MTPA plant at Lumshnong commissioned in April 2024.
• Guwahati Grinding Unit Live: SCNEL’s production helped reduce logistics cost.
• 115BAB Tax Benefit: One of the subsidiaries opted for the lower tax regime.
• No Exceptional Items: A clean, audited performance with “unmodified” auditor opinion.

💸 Fair Value Estimate (P/E Based)

👀 At CMP, the stock is trading at 54x trailing earnings. That’s… well… aggressively optimistic.

📦 EduInvesting Take

Star Cement just did a full 180 — from red ink in Q2 and Q3 to ₹123 Cr PAT in Q4. Management might argue it was “planned” (LOL), but most of this came from:

• Higher capacity utilization 🚧
• Cost control across logistics and power 🧮
• And the “finally-it-happened” commissioning of long-delayed projects.

But here’s the big fat elephant in the room:
The stock trades at over 54x earnings.

That’s Ambuja or UltraTech territory — except this is still a regional cement player.

🧨 Risks & Red Flags

• Q3 and Q2 Losses were not small hiccups. They wiped out earlier gains.
• High P/E Valuation is unsupported unless profits remain consistent.
• NE-centric operations make it vulnerable to regional disruptions.
• Power & Fuel Costs were ~₹528 Cr — still a margin muncher.

📈 Verdict:

If you’re buying here at ₹227 — you’re either very early to a multiyear upcycle… or very late to a dead cat bounce.

Let the cement settle before building castles 🧱