TruAlt swings to ₹35 Cr consolidated profit YoY, but margins cool sharply from Q1's high

TruAlt Bioenergy posted a consolidated net profit of ₹34.99 Cr for Q2 FY27 (quarter ended September 30, 2026), reversing a ₹37.94 Cr loss in the year-ago quarter as revenue scaled to ₹811.10 Cr from a thin ₹114.86 Cr base (+606% YoY). Against our pre-result preview — which flagged margin stability as the key swing factor after an "explosive" Q1 where revenue doubled and profit surged 12-fold — the print falls short: PAT of ₹34.99 Cr misses the ₹55-65 Cr band we set out, and EBITDA margin (PBT + finance cost + depreciation, over total income) works out to roughly 14%, below the 20-22% expectation and down from ~21% in Q1 FY27. Net profit margin compressed to 4.25% from 9.24% sequentially, and PAT fell 40.9% quarter-on-quarter from Q1's ₹59.27 Cr even as revenue kept climbing 29.4% QoQ — the topline momentum held, but profitability did not keep pace, the sequential slowdown the preview warned weakness would raise questions on. The margin squeeze sits mainly on the cost lines that scale with the dual-feed/grain ramp: cost of materials consumed and purchases of stock-in-trade together rose faster than revenue quarter-on-quarter, while finance costs also stepped up to ₹42.47 Cr from ₹38.60 Cr in Q1, consistent with the debt-funded capacity build (CBG capex guided at ₹760 Cr, 70:30 debt). Management's prior-quarter guidance covered ethanol order book (44 Cr litres against a 55 Cr-litre capacity target) and Q2 volume (11-12 Cr litres) in physical terms that this P&L filing does not disclose, so volume-based guidance cannot be verified from these figures alone — management gives no explicit guidance reconciliation in this filing, and no separate press release or management commentary was provided alongside the regulatory results. On corporate actions, the Board approved a slump sale of the Unit 5 undertaking to Onkar Agro Sugars & Energy Pvt Ltd for a preliminary ₹171 Cr, with ₹193.83 Cr of related assets now reclassified as "held for sale" on the balance sheet — a capital-structure event with no P&L impact this quarter but relevant to the FY27 ethanol/CBG capacity narrative. Separately, promoter-linked entity Nirani Holdings bought roughly ₹14.66 Cr of shares across three tranches in September while the promoter group pledged a combined 17 lakh shares in the same window — governance datapoints worth flagging alongside the earnings print though they don't move these numbers. Standalone tells largely the same story as consolidated (PAT ₹34.42 Cr vs ₹34.99 Cr, under 2% apart), so the divergence is immaterial and consolidated remains the primary read. Basic EPS came in at ₹4.04 (consolidated) against ₹6.67 in Q1 FY27, tracking the sequential profit decline.