Ambuja Cements Q2 FY27: consolidated PAT ₹236 Cr, down 90% YoY on fading tax credit

Ambuja Cements' consolidated PAT for Q2 FY27 (quarter ended September 30, 2026) came in at ₹236 Cr, down 89.9% YoY from a restated ₹2,336 Cr and down 64.2% QoQ from ₹660 Cr, against revenue that was essentially flat YoY at ₹9,166 Cr (+0.4%) but down 3.3% QoQ from ₹9,474 Cr. Standalone told the same story (PAT ₹114 Cr, down ~90% YoY). This is well short of what we flagged pre-result: our preview's on-plan band was revenue ₹9,200–9,500 Cr (actual landed just below it) and PAT ₹700–850 Cr (actual missed by roughly two-thirds) — a clear miss on the Street-anchored expectation we set out, and we found no fresh third-party consensus specifically for this quarter published yet to cross-check against. The headline YoY drop is largely a base effect, not purely an operating collapse: Q2 FY26's reported PAT was inflated by a one-off ₹1,710 Cr tax-provision write-back (favourable High Court rulings freed legacy provisions at the standalone entity and at ACC), producing a net tax credit of ₹1,453 Cr that quarter versus a routine ₹62 Cr tax charge this quarter. Stripping that one-off and this quarter's/last year's exceptional items (₹85 Cr VSS cost now vs ₹223 Cr West Bengal incentive write-off a year ago) still leaves adjusted PAT down roughly 62% YoY (~₹321 Cr vs ~₹849 Cr) — core, pre-exceptional pretax profit fell from ₹1,102 Cr to ₹378 Cr YoY and from ₹867 Cr to ₹378 Cr QoQ, implying an EBITDA margin near 14.5% of revenue, below the 17–19% band we were watching. Total expenses rose 6.6% YoY to ₹8,877 Cr against flat revenue, led by power & fuel (+8.5% YoY to ₹2,552 Cr) and freight (+5.7% YoY to ₹2,180 Cr) — the squeeze sits on the cost line, not topline weakness. Management's Q1 FY27 guidance (8% FY27 volume growth to 80 MT, cost/tonne to ₹4,250 by year-end from ₹4,241 in Q1, capex ₹6,000–6,500 Cr, capacity to 119 MT) cannot be verified against this filing — it contains only the regulatory financial statements and notes, with no MD&A, investor presentation or management quote, so volume and cost-per-tonne for the quarter are simply not disclosed here. What the filing does show: H1 FY27 capex spend of ₹2,967 Cr (consolidated) is tracking within the ₹6,000–6,500 Cr full-year band, and our event records put consolidated capacity at 113.45 MTPA as of September 30, 2026, progressing toward the 119 MT FY27-end target. The Board also approved acquiring 26% of SWE Renewables Ltd for ~₹33.75 Cr to secure captive wind power — a direct lever against the power-cost pressure visible in this quarter's expense line — and a further ₹85 Cr exceptional VSS charge (after ₹24 Cr in Q1) continues to flow from the voluntary-severance/plant-suspension exercise started last quarter. With H1 FY27 consolidated PAT at ₹896 Cr against a full-year FY26 base of ₹5,637 Cr, the run-rate into H2 is now the swing factor for whether FY27 targets stay in reach; cost-per-tonne trajectory and the restructuring's completion are the lines to watch next quarter.