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Informist, Saturday, May 2, 2026

By Adhithya Aji

MUMBAI - KEI Industries Ltd.'s net profit for the March quarter is expected to moderate on margin pressure from higher input costs. The company's revenue growth, however, is seen to be healthy on account of higher sales from the cables and wires segment, its mainstay, according to brokerages.

KEI Industries is expected to report a standalone net profit of INR 2.45 billion for the March quarter, according to an average of estimates from eight brokerages. This means the net profit is likely to grow nearly 8% on year and over 4% on quarter, the slowest year-on-year rise in the company's bottom line in 22 quarters.

The highest estimate for net profit is INR 2.66 billion from B&K Securities. The lowest estimate is INR 2.15 billion from Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd.

The company's standalone revenue for the quarter is seen at INR 34.25 billion, according to the average of estimates, a growth of nearly 18% on year and nearly 16% sequentially. The highest estimate for top line is INR 35.02 billion from Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers Ltd. The lowest estimate for the metric is INR 33.68 billion from Equirus Securities Pvt. Ltd.

Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd. is the only brokerage to offer earnings estimates for KEI Industries for the financial year 2025-26 (Apr-Mar). The broking firm expects the company to report a standalone net profit of INR 8.99 billion, up 29%. It sees the top line of KEI Industries for FY26 at INR 117.88 billion, up 21%.

KEI Industries manufactures high-, medium-, and low-voltage cables and stainless steel wires and offers engineering, procurement, and construction services. The company, headquartered in New Delhi, derives the largest chunk of its revenue from the cables and wires segment. For the December quarter, this segment accounted for over 95% of the company's total revenue.

The net profit of KEI Industries is likely to have taken a hit from near-term margin pressures owing to higher input costs. The price of copper was up in the March quarter while aluminium and polyvinyl chloride prices had also shot up owing to supply disruptions linked to the war in West Asia, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. said. Nuvama expects the company's margins to have been hit by a delay in passing on the higher input costs to customers.

The top line of the cables manufacturer for the March quarter is likely to have grown 16% on year to INR 33.78 billion, against the management's guidance of 20% growth for the financial year 2025-26 (Apr-Mar), JM Financial Institutional Securities Pvt. Ltd. said. Value growth in input costs is expected to have driven revenue growth for the quarter, the broking firm added.

In a call with investors and analysts after disclosing its December quarter earnings, KEI Industries had retained its FY26 revenue guidance of 20%. Motilal Oswal estimates sales for the March quarter to have grown 18% on year to INR 34.37 billion. The brokerage sees the cables and wires segment posting sales growth of 18% on year and the stainless steel wires segment reporting growth of 7%. However, it also expects a 31% on-year decline in revenue from the engineering, procurement, and construction segment.

"We expect revenues to grow by 19.9% YoY (year-on-year) with C&W (cables & wires) segment growing by 23% YoY...," Prabhudas Lilladher said. The healthy growth in the cables and wires segment is driven by 38% year-on-year growth in low-tension cable sales and 14% in high-tension cable sales, according to the brokerage. Prabhudas Lilladher estimates a 60% on-year decline in engineering, procurement, and construction segment sales.

The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation of KEI Industries is estimated at INR 3.38 billion, according to an average of estimates from six brokerages. The highest estimate for EBITDA is INR 3.52 billion from Equirus Securities and the lowest is INR 3.18 billion from JM Financial.

"We expect EBITDA margin to be 9.4% versus 10.3% last year," JM Financial said. The EBITDA margin is also likely to be in line with the management's guidance of 10%, the brokerage said.   

KEI Industries will release its March quarter results Monday. Other than the outlook for FY27, the progress of the planned capital expenditure on its plant at Sanand in Gujarat will be a key point to be tracked by analysts, according to JM Financial.

Thursday, the company's shares ended 1.6% lower at INR 4,857.50 on the National Stock Exchange. The stock has risen over 23% since the company announced its December quarter earnings on Jan. 21. All eight brokerage reports on the company available with Informist have a "buy" recommendation on the stock with an average target price of INR 4,965, up about 2% from the current price.

Following are the March quarter earnings estimates, in INR billion, for KEI Industries from eight brokerages in descending order of the net profit estimate:

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Edited by Rajeev Pai

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