1. At a Glance
Transport Corporation of India Ltd (TCI) is that rare Indian logistics company that doesn’t shout, doesn’t hype, doesn’t promise “tech disruption” every quarter—and still quietly compounds money like a well-run family business that discovered Excel before PowerPoint.
As of the latest numbers, TCI sits at a market cap of ~₹8,100 crore with the stock hovering around ₹1,057. Over the last three months, the stock has politely disappointed momentum traders (-6.7%), but operationally, the business is doing exactly what long-term investors secretly want: steady revenue growth, margin stability, strong cash flows, low debt, and promoters who don’t treat the balance sheet like an ATM.
Q3 FY26 delivered consolidated revenue of ₹1,249 crore (+8.9% YoY) and PAT of ₹115 crore (+13.7% YoY). EPS for the quarter came in at ₹14.95. ROCE stands tall at ~20.5%, ROE close to 19.8%, and debt-to-equity is a conservative 0.11.
No drama. No leverage-fueled expansion. No “loss today, profits in FY35” storytelling. Just logistics, executed with boring excellence.
But here’s the real question: in a sector filled with price wars, asset-heavy nightmares, and VC-funded cash burners—how exactly has TCI managed to look this calm? Let’s open the container and inspect the cargo.
2. Introduction
Indian logistics is usually a mess—fragmented operators, wafer-thin margins, truck unions, fuel volatility, and customers who want Amazon-level service at kirana-level prices. Into this chaos walks TCI, a company that has been around for over six decades and behaves like it has seen every possible economic cycle, regulatory change, and fuel shock already.
TCI is not trying to be flashy. It doesn’t brand itself as a “tech-first logistics disruptor.” Instead, it has spent decades building a multi-modal network across road, rail, and sea, layered with warehousing, freight forwarding, and supply chain solutions. The result? Customers don’t come to TCI for the cheapest quote—they come for reliability, scale, and execution certainty.
In FY25, TCI clocked consolidated revenue of ₹4,492 crore and PAT of ₹416 crore. The TTM numbers are even better: revenue of ₹4,772 crore and PAT of ₹452 crore. Over the last five years, profits have compounded at ~22%, far faster than revenues (~11%). Translation: operating leverage and efficiency are quietly doing their thing.
Yet the market doesn’t treat TCI like a high-growth darling. At ~18x earnings, the valuation suggests investors see it as “steady but unexciting.” Which raises an uncomfortable question: is the market underestimating how rare consistent 20% ROCE businesses are in Indian logistics?
3.
Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
If logistics companies were restaurants, TCI would not be a street-food stall or a cloud kitchen. It’s more like a large, well-run thali restaurant—everything on the menu, nothing experimental, but execution is tight.
TCI operates through three major segments:
Freight Division (≈49% of revenue)
This is the old-school backbone: full truck load, part truck load, over-dimensional cargo, and project logistics. Crucially, this division is largely asset-light. TCI owns a limited fleet (~1,200 trucks and trailers) but relies heavily on a partner ecosystem. This keeps capital intensity low and ROCE high.
Supply Chain Solutions (≈35%)
This is where TCI upgrades from transporter to logistics partner. Think warehouse management, inventory optimization, network design, and multimodal solutions. The company manages ~14 million sq ft of warehousing space using modern material handling and IT systems. Margins here are structurally better than pure freight.
Sea Freight / Coastal Shipping (≈15%)
TCI owns 6 ships and operates with 8,000+ GP containers, enabling coastal shipping and container movement. This gives it a unique edge as customers increasingly shift cargo from road to rail and sea for cost and sustainability reasons.
Add to this rail capabilities (3 automobile trains under AFTO), 25 hubs across India, and 700+ owned offices—and you get a genuinely integrated multimodal network.
Here’s the lazy investor test: if a large FMCG or auto OEM wanted one logistics partner across India, how many companies could realistically handle it end-to-end? The list is short. TCI is on it.
4. Financials Overview
Q3 FY26 Performance Table (₹ crore)
| Metric | Latest Qtr (Dec’25) | YoY Qtr (Dec’24) | Prev Qtr (Sep’25) | YoY % | QoQ % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 1,249 | 1,147 | 1,205 | 8.9% | 3.6% |
| EBITDA | 127 | 118 | 127 | 7.6% | 0.0% |
| PAT | 116 | 102 | 114 | 13.7% | 1.8% |
| EPS (₹) | 14.95 | 13.17 | 14.68 | 13.5% | 1.8% |
