India's Ambuja Cement's profit slumps on rising expenses, softer cement prices

Orient Cement

30/01/2026 09:55

Jan 30 (Reuters) - India's Ambuja Cements' ABUJ.NS third-quarter profit slumped by 88.4% on Friday, contracting on a 21% rise in expenses and falling cement prices.

The Adani-owned company's profit after tax fell to 2.04 billion rupees ($22.19 million) from 17.58 billion rupees a year ago. It recorded a one-time tax gain of 8.25 billion rupees last year.

Revenue rose about 21% to 59.09 billion rupees in the quarter, helped by a record rise in volume of 17%.

Ajay Kapur will cease serving as Managing Director effective January 31, 2026, the firm said in the statement.

Shares were down about 5% after results.

For further earnings highlights, click here.

KEY CONTEXT

In December, the Adani-owned company's board approved the amalgamation of ACC ACC.NS and Orient Cement ORCE.NS into the firm. With its pan-India operations, Ambuja has an advantage in selling more premium brands over time, analysts said.

Analysts had expected a weak December quarter for Indian cement makers as prices fell 1%–3% sequentially, but they see the trend reversing in the coming months after a disappointing second half of 2025, helped by the Indian government's move to cut taxes on cement bags to 18% from 28%.

Including the tax cuts, average pan-India cement prices dropped 6% compared to the same quarter last year, data from brokerage Ambit Capital showed.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 months)
Estimates
(next 12 months)
Analysts' sentiment
RIC
PE
EV/EBITDA
Revenue growth (%)
Profit growth (%)
Mean rating*
# of analysts
Stock to price
target**
Div yield (%)
Ambuja Cements Ltd
ABUJ.NS
28.93
14.35
15.39
13.59
Buy
39
0.81
0.37
UltraTech
Cement Ltd
ULTC.NS
35.22
19.78
12.43
32.47
Buy
38
0.91
0.61
Shree Cement Ltd
SHCM.NS
42.94
16.69
10.01
26.83
Hold
23
0.90
0.58
Dalmia Bharat Ltd
DALB.NS
29.07
11.47
9.93
20.00
Buy
35
0.87
0.44

* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

OCTOBER - DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = XX Indian rupees

($1 = 91.9380 Indian rupees)

ABUJ v Peers https://tmsnrt.rs/49HH8i0

 (Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar)

 ((UrviManoj.Dugar@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9558725583;))