PG Electroplast makes appliances for other companies' brands — room air conditioners above all, plus washing machines, air coolers, electronics and the plastic parts that go inside them — and sells almost nothing under its own name. Air conditioners brought in ₹3,288 crore of FY26's ₹5,288 crore of revenue. The model grows fast in a good summer and suffers in a bad one. FY26 was a bad one: revenue rose only 8.6%, the operating margin fell from 9.9% to 7.3%, and profit fell 31.7% to ₹197 crore. The June quarter turned up, with revenue up 35% to ₹2,034 crore. The weak spot is cash: over three years, only 29 paise of every rupee of profit arrived as cash.
Mixed, and partly undisclosed. Order book: described only as "healthy across all product lines", with no rupee figure. Product mix: own-made products were 80% of June-quarter sales — air conditioners ₹1,401 crore, washing machines ₹211 crore — and plastic moulding ₹295 crore. Customer concentration: in the parent company's own accounts, two customers each brought in more than 10% of revenue. Capacity: a new washing machine plant in Greater Noida with 1.8 million units a year, a 2 million compressor line due this year and a 1.2 million refrigerator plant at Sri City targeted for the March 2027 quarter. Plant utilisation is not disclosed; management aims for sales of more than four times gross fixed assets once the new plants run.
Low, and by June the company says it had more cash than debt. At March 2026 borrowings were ₹597 crore against ₹3,049 crore of shareholders' funds, a debt-to-equity of 0.2, and cash of ₹389 crore left net debt of ₹207 crore. By the end of June management called it "a net cash company now", with ₹491 crore of cash and bank balances. Crisil rates its bank loans A+ and moved the outlook from Negative to Stable in February 2026. The pressure is not on borrowing but on working capital: ₹1,602 crore sits in stock and ₹1,184 crore is owed by customers.
A bad FY26 and a stronger start to FY27. Revenue grew 8.6% in FY26 to ₹5,288 crore while profit fell 31.7% to ₹197 crore, as the operating margin dropped from 9.9% to 7.3%. Management blamed a poor air-conditioner season and old stock that made it hard to pass on higher copper and aluminium costs. The June quarter turned up: revenue up 35.2% to ₹2,034 crore and profit up 12.9% to ₹75 crore, at a 7.7% margin. The finance chief said he hopes FY27 profit will surpass FY25's.
Not last year. Over five years revenue compounded at 49.71% a year, from ₹703 crore in FY21 to ₹5,288 crore in FY26, and profit grew faster still, at 76.09% a year. FY26 broke the pattern: revenue grew 8.6% and profit fell 31.7%. The June quarter restored growth but not the gap — revenue rose 35.2% while profit rose 12.9%, because rising copper and aluminium prices are passed through at a fixed margin per unit, which shrinks the percentage. Management expects 25–30% growth in FY27 and FY28.
Built, not bought. Growth has come from new plants and new products rather than acquisitions: air conditioners first, then washing machines, now refrigerators and compressors. The capital came partly from shareholders — a placement of 2.15 crore shares with institutions at ₹699 each — and has gone into capacity: gross fixed assets rose from ₹1,136 crore to ₹1,540 crore in FY26, with another ₹312 crore under construction. The one partnership is Goodworth Electronics, a television joint venture, which sold ₹177 crore in the June quarter. Management says that after this round it will spend the next one and a half to two years getting the most out of the plants already built.
Worsening, though partly by arithmetic. The operating margin rose from 6.8% in FY22 to 9.9% in FY25, then fell to 7.3% in FY26. Part of that was real: a poor air-conditioner season left the industry with old stock, and higher copper and aluminium costs could not be fully passed on. Part is how pricing works: customers pay a fixed margin per unit, so when metal costs push selling prices up, the same rupees of profit become a smaller percentage. The June quarter came in at 7.7% reported and 7.3% before incentives, against management's expectation of close to 8% for the year.
Not good this year. Return on capital employed fell from 19.36% in FY25 to 10.31% in FY26, and return on equity from 10.18% to 6.45%. Two things did it: profit fell while the capital base kept growing, as gross fixed assets rose from ₹1,136 crore to ₹1,540 crore with ₹312 crore more under construction. Kaynes earned 13.21%, Syrma 17.39% and Dixon 47.29% on the same measure. Management's stated aim is to get return on capital back to "a respectable level" by filling the new plants rather than building more.
No, and this is the weakest part of the business. In FY26 operations brought in ₹70 crore of cash against ₹197 crore of profit; over three years, ₹182 crore against ₹619 crore — 29 paise for every rupee. The money is in stock and customers. Inventory ran at about 111 days in FY26, ₹1,602 crore, and customers took about 82 days to pay, ₹1,184 crore. The business is seasonal — air conditioners are built ahead of summer — so stock is high at the March year-end, and Crisil names the large working capital need as a constraint on its rating.
A family-run board with outside oversight. Anurag Gupta is chairman, Vishal Gupta managing director for finance and Vikas Gupta managing director for operations; Pramod Gupta is chief financial officer. Of the eight directors, four are independent and one, Mitali Chitre, is a nominee director and a partner at Baring Private Equity Partners India. Pay is moderate for a company this size: Vikas Gupta earned ₹2.42 crore in FY26, Vishal Gupta ₹2.24 crore and Anurag Gupta ₹1.08 crore — 57.7, 53.5 and 25.8 times the median employee's ₹4.19 lakh. The trust test this year is plain: management said FY26's problems were a bad season, and the June quarter so far bears that out.
Nothing alarming. The auditor, S.S. Kothari Mehta & Co., reported no qualification, reservation or adverse remark. The disputed claims in the parent company's accounts are old and modest: a central excise demand of ₹7.66 crore covering FY09 to FY12, an anti-dumping duty claim of ₹7.39 crore on imports, and third-party claims that rose from ₹46 lakh to ₹2.01 crore during the year. The outside view improved in February 2026, when Crisil kept its A+ rating and moved the outlook from Negative to Stable, citing better operations and lower stock, while naming intense competition and the large working capital need as limits.
A crowded field, and PG Electroplast's edge is depth in a few appliances rather than breadth. Dixon, Amber Enterprises, Epack Durable and the brands' own factories all compete for the same air-conditioner and washing-machine work; Kaynes and Syrma sit in industrial and automotive electronics instead. Its advantage is going deeper into each product: it moulds its own plastics, is adding a compressor line, and designs whole systems for brands that would rather buy than build. Management argues that brands squeezed on margin keep moving entry-level models out to partners like it. The weakness is concentration in one seasonal product — air conditioners were ₹3,288 crore of ₹5,288 crore in FY26.
Set against Kaynes, Syrma and Dixon, PG Electroplast is second by size but slowest-growing last year, and lowest on return on capital. Revenue in FY26: ₹5,288 crore, against Syrma's ₹4,819 crore, Kaynes' ₹3,626 crore and Dixon's ₹48,873 crore. Growth: 8.6%, against 27.3%, 33.2% and 25.8%. Operating margin: 7.3%, against 11.3%, 15.8% and 3.8%. Return on capital: 10.3%, against 17.4%, 13.2% and 47.3%. Debt-to-equity: 0.2, against 0.14, 0.19 and 0.21. Price to earnings on 1 October 2026: 69.8 times, against 104.2, 62.6 and 53.7.
Tailwinds first. Brands are outsourcing more of their entry-level air conditioners and washing machines, which management says they cannot make as cheaply themselves. Three new plants are coming: washing machines in Greater Noida, already running with capacity of 1.8 million units a year; a 2 million compressor line due this year; and a 1.2 million refrigerator plant at Sri City, with an anchor customer committed to 30–35% of its capacity. The June quarter showed the effect, with washing machines up 67% and fully automatic models up 150%. The risks are as concrete. Air conditioners are most of the business and live or die by the summer. Copper and aluminium costs squeeze the percentage margin. Stock and customer dues tie up a lot of cash. And competition is intense, which Crisil names as a limit on profitability across the industry.
Long-term growth, but with a seasonal and cyclical core. Appliance ownership in India is still low, and brands are handing more manufacturing to partners in India, both of which point to years of growth for contract appliance makers. The cycle is the weather and the price of metal. A poor summer leaves stock in the channel, as FY26 showed, and copper and aluminium costs move margins every quarter. Management's reading of the June quarter was an industry selling 10–15% more air conditioners, with prices up 10–12% on top. The direction is up; the path will not be smooth.
Only if FY26 was a blip. At ₹481.10 on 1 October 2026 the share traded at 69.8 times FY26 earnings and 4.5 times book value. That multiple is on a year when profit fell 31.7%. The case for paying it: management hopes FY27 profit will pass FY25's, the June quarter grew 35%, and three new plants are coming on. The case against: the margin is thin, cash conversion has been poor for three years, and the business depends heavily on one product and one season.
Expensive on last year's profit. On 1 October 2026 the share was ₹481.10 against FY26 earnings of ₹6.89 a share — a price to earnings of 69.83 times, an earnings yield of 1.43%. It traded at 4.5 times book value and 2.6 times sales, valuing the company at ₹13,726 crore. Dixon was at 53.67 times earnings, Kaynes at 62.58 and Syrma at 104.23 on the same day. The multiple is high partly because FY26 profit was low; if profit returns to FY25's level, as management hopes, the same price would look much cheaper.
Buying, led by Indian funds. Over the four quarters to June 2026 Indian institutions raised their holding from 18.1% to 23.89%, and mutual funds from 13.31% to 18.65% — most of it in the December 2025 quarter. Foreign investors went the other way, from 13.02% to 9.95%. The number of shareholders barely moved, from 218,384 to 220,368. While the share fell, domestic funds were the buyers and foreign funds the sellers.
Mostly Indian mutual funds, with a large manufacturing-themed holder at the top. Above 1% at June 2026: ICICI Prudential Manufacturing Fund 5.4%, Motilal Oswal BSE 1000 Index Fund 3.51%, a Nippon India index fund 2.63%, Franklin India Flexi Cap Fund 2.26%, BNP Paribas Financial Markets 1.55%, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance 1.19%, Norway's Government Pension Fund Global 1.18% and an Axis Mutual Fund scheme 1.12%. A year earlier the list was different: Motilal Oswal Flexi Cap Fund at 2.65% and a Nippon India value fund at 1.91% have since dropped below 1%.
A token dividend, and shares sold to fund growth. The dividend for FY26 was ₹0.25 a share, 3.6% of profit. The larger capital event came earlier, when the company placed 2.15 crore new shares with institutions at ₹699 each to pay for new plants; the annual report tracks how those proceeds are being spent. Dilution has since been small, 0.78% in the latest year. There have been no buybacks. For a business spending heavily on capacity, keeping cash in the company is the sensible choice.
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