ICICI Securities Limited Broker Research reports

Tatva Chintan Pharma Chem’s (TATVA) performance showed signs of improvement in Q4FY25 on the revenue front, but lower gross profit marred profit recovery. TATVA is hopeful of a sharp recovery in FY26, as new products commercialise in PASC and SDA volume recovers.

Bajaj Consumer (BaCo) reported a stable quarter with 4.2% YoY revenue growth (~2% volume growth), aided by marginal sequential recovery in core Almond Drops Hair Oil (ADHO), strong momentum in the non-ADHO portfolio (especially in Coconut oil) and sustained double-digit growth in international business.

Gravita India’s (GRAV) performance was in line with our estimates. EBITDA (including hedging gains) was up 22% YoY at INR 1.06bn. EBITDA margin (adj.) was up 20bps YoY (30bps QoQ) at 10.3%. Lead sales volume rose 12.3% YoY at 45.6kt.

Coforge continued to report a strong top-line performance in Q4FY25. Management acknowledged the challenging demand environment but reiterated its goal to reach USD 2bn by FY27 on the back of record-high deal wins in FY25, strong deal pipeline and its ability to proactively shape large deals.

Q4FY25 turned out to be a dream quarter for Nuvoco Vistas Corp (Nuvoco) with an all-time high EBITDA (up 12% YoY), being 24% ahead of our estimate (driven by beat across realisation and cost); and net debt retreated further to INR 36.4bn (down ~INR 4bn YoY).

Mahindra & Mahindra’s (M&M) EBITDA margin, at 14.9%, was up ~30bps QoQ (I-Sec est.: 14.3%). Beat in margin was led by FES segment with EBIT margin up 130bps QoQ to 19.4% (I-Sec est.: 17.3%). Auto segment’s EBIT margin was down 50bps QoQ at 9.2%, in-line with our estimate.

Railtel Corporation of India’s (Railtel) Q4FY25 net profit grew 46.3% YoY; Q4, in general, exhibits lumpiness. Railtel delivered profit growth of 27.6% in FY25, in line with the guidance of 25–30%.

Adjusted EBITDA profitability in Q4FY25 was above our estimates (act. INR 0.7bn vs. est. INR 0.1bn). This was achieved by containing quick commerce (QC) losses despite adding 294 dark stores and 1mn sq.ft. warehousing space in a quarter with seasonally lower AOV (-5.9% QoQ).

JSW Infrastructure (JSWIL) reported subdued volumes of 117mt (FY25) – comprising 103mt (-3% YoY) from existing assets and 14mt from new assets.

Fedbank Financial Services’ (Fedfina) Q4FY25 financial performance exhibited a return to business normalcy, as is evident in its RoA retracing to 2.2% vs. 0.6% QoQ, largely driven by credit cost normalising to 1% vs. 4% QoQ.

Indus Towers’ (Indus) Q4FY25 performance was good led by, excluding acquisition, tenancy addition of 8.2k, which was much better than tower net adds of 4.3k, implying a rising tenancy sharing ratio. Tenancy adds benefitted from network rollout by VIL; and 2) strong FCF in FY25, including provision reversals.

Ajanta Pharma’s Q4FY25 result was in line with our expectations. Revenue growth of 11% YoY was primarily driven by India and US businesses while Africa institutional biz continues to be a drag (-54.1% YoY).

L&T Finance (LTF) reported PAT of INR 6.3bn, up 2% QoQ/15% YoY in Q4FY25, translating into RoA of 2.2% and RoE of 10%. In line with guidance, LTF utilised macro prudential buffer of INR 3bn (INR 1bn utilised in Q3FY25) for its rural business finance (RBF) portfolio.

Indraprastha Gas (IGL) reported ~27/31% dip in Q4FY25 EBITDA/PAT, but earnings were still ahead of I-Sec estimates, helped by a small beat on adjusted EBITDA/scm (INR 4.6/scm vs I-Sec est of INR 4.3/scm).

PNB Housing Finance’s (PNBHF) Q4FY25 and FY25 financial performance reflects management’s successful execution of revamped business strategy with retail loan growth at 18% YoY in FY25 exceeding guidance of 17%, GNPL touching 1% as on Mar’25, benign credit cost (as indicated it continued to benefit from strong recovery of INR 3.3bn in FY25) and affordable housing crossing INR 50bn AUM in Mar’25.

UltraTech Cement’s (UTCEM) commentary on short-term challenges (mainly low demand in Q1FY26 and no comments on price hike sustainability) may unnerve a few investors. However, we continue to believe in our sector revival hypothesis (of reducing competitive intensity) and of UTCEM being its largest beneficiary.

KPIT Tech did not provide revenue guidance for FY26, acknowledging uncertain demand environment and soft H1. Though it had strong deal TCV of USD 925mn (+16% YoY) in FY25, it is seeing slow deal ramp-up.

Tata Technologies (TATATECH) has reported a sharp QoQ revenue decline of 4.7% USD in Q4FY25, similar to revenue contraction reported by Cyient-DET (-3% QoQ) and Tata Elxsi (-5.5%), due to: Sharp drop in technology solutions segment -15.6%, slump in auto segment -2.7%.

In May’23, MLIFE had unveiled a strategy of reaching INR 80-100bn of annual residential plus industrial cluster sales by CY28 or 5x in 5 years (CY23-28). While it has achieved FY25 sales bookings of INR 28.0bn, with a healthy launch pipeline having GDV of over INR 390bn as of Mar’25, we estimate FY26/27E sales bookings of INR 36bn/INR 41bn, respectively.

Q4FY25 marks eight straight quarters of strong financial performance and effective execution at SBFC Finance (SBFC). This is evident in its AUM growth outshining the guided range of 5–7% QoQ, better opex to AUM at 4.65% in FY25 vs. 5.34% in FY24, and credit cost at 80–100bps as envisaged earlier, despite the operating environment being mired in tight liquidity, higher delinquencies in unsecured loans and the rising rate cycle.