Havells vs Polycab India (2026): Cables, FMEG, Margins, Growth & Which Is Better?
Havells and Polycab increasingly sell into the same Indian electrical wallet, but the engines underneath their profits are still very different.
Havells is a branded electrical-products platform. Cables are important, but so are switchgear, fans, appliances, lighting, Lloyd air conditioners and renewables.
Polycab is still fundamentally a wires-and-cables powerhouse that is deliberately building a much larger consumer-electrical franchise around that core.
That distinction explains why Polycab can currently produce faster growth and higher capital returns while Havells carries a broader consumer portfolio and more brand-building expense.
The simplest way to understand the comparison: Polycab's core engine is accelerating while Havells is funding several engines at once
Polycab entered FY2027 with its highest-ever first-quarter revenue, EBITDA and profit. Havells entered FY2027 with excellent top-line growth but sharply weaker margins.
Polycab's revenue increased approximately 39% year on year to ₹8,209.7 crore.
EBITDA increased roughly 32% to ₹1,136.2 crore.
PAT increased approximately 33% to ₹796.7 crore.
Havells' consolidated revenue increased 19.5% to ₹6,518.2 crore, but PAT declined roughly 16.6% to about ₹290 crore.
The reason was not weak demand. Havells was hit by higher raw-material costs, substantially higher advertising and promotion expenditure and continued losses at Lloyd.
Havells vs Polycab: the financial scoreboard
| Metric | Havells India | Polycab India | Current Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market capitalisation | ₹73,917 Cr | ₹140,491 Cr | Polycab |
| P/E | 45.26x | 49.05x | Havells |
| P/B | 7.82x | 11.70x | Havells |
| ROE | 19.02% | 24.48% | Polycab |
| ROCE | 23.10% | 33.86% | Polycab |
| Net profit margin | 6.92% | 9.18% | Polycab |
| Debt-to-equity | ~0.00 | 0.01 | Both extremely low |
| Interest coverage | 59.44x | 15.87x | Havells |
| Current ratio | 1.71x | 1.84x | Polycab slightly |
| Operating cash flow / PAT | 0.93x | 1.43x | Polycab |
| 5-year sales growth | 16.59% | 26.47% | Polycab |
| 5-year profit growth | 10.11% | Current generic field unavailable | Use official earnings series for Polycab |
| 5-year EPS growth | 10.07% | 24.56% | Polycab |
| 5-year free cash flow | ₹3,451 Cr | ₹4,540 Cr | Polycab |
| Dividend yield | 0.85% | 0.50% | Havells |
| Promoter holding | 59.38% | 61.52% | Similar |
| Promoter pledge | 0% | 0% | Both |
| FII holding | 15.91% | 18.21% | Polycab slightly |
| DII holding | 18.26% | 7.95% | Havells |
| Bull Run Score | 60.3/100 | 63.7/100 | Polycab |
Polycab's Q1 was powered by a wires-and-cables business operating at enormous scale
Wires and cables generated approximately ₹7,202 crore of Q1 FY2027 revenue, up about 37.7% year on year.
That single Polycab segment was larger than Havells' entire consolidated quarterly revenue.
The segment result increased approximately 25% to ₹959 crore.
Domestic demand remained strong across infrastructure, construction, power transmission, industrial capex and residential markets.
This is the central reason Polycab's financial model currently looks so powerful.
It has a dominant core category participating directly in India's infrastructure and electrification cycle while simultaneously using the same distribution ecosystem to push consumer electrical products.
Havells' cable business is also growing quickly, but it is only one part of the company
Havells' cables revenue increased approximately 27% to ₹2,455.6 crore in Q1 FY2027.
The cable segment generated about ₹254.5 crore of segment profit.
That is excellent growth.
But Havells must also manage six other meaningful operating categories, several of which had weaker economics during the quarter.
Switchgear revenue declined roughly 3.5%.
Lighting grew only about 5%.
Electrical consumer durables grew roughly 12%.
Lloyd revenue increased about 15%, but Lloyd remained loss-making.
Havells' Q1 problem was margin, not demand
Revenue rose almost 20%, yet EBITDA fell and PAT declined more than 16%.
Consolidated EBITDA was approximately ₹466 crore, producing a margin near 7.2%.
The previous-year EBITDA margin was roughly 9.5%.
Advertising and promotion expenditure more than doubled year on year as Havells front-loaded brand investment.
Raw-material pressure also intensified during the quarter.
This created an unusual combination: healthy demand but weaker profit conversion.
For shareholders, the key issue is whether Q1 represented temporary investment and commodity pressure or a permanently lower margin structure.
Lloyd is the clearest example of why Havells cannot be valued only on its cable business
Lloyd generated approximately ₹1,457 crore of Q1 revenue but reported a segment loss of roughly ₹56 crore.
The loss widened from about ₹21 crore a year earlier.
Lloyd gives Havells exposure to air conditioners and consumer durables, categories with enormous long-term Indian penetration potential.
But air conditioners are also intensely competitive, highly seasonal and marketing-heavy.
A successful Lloyd turnaround can materially improve Havells' consolidated margin.
A prolonged loss-making period can keep dragging returns even when the core electrical businesses perform well.
Polycab's consumer-electrical business has reached a different inflection point
Polycab's FMEG revenue increased approximately 68% to ₹761 crore in Q1 FY2027.
Segment profit rose more than sixfold to roughly ₹61 crore.
That is important because Polycab's consumer-products business was historically criticised for weak profitability.
The company has been restructuring distribution, adding products, investing in branding and broadening categories across fans, lighting, switches, switchgear and solar.
If FMEG can remain profitable while growing faster than the core cable business, Polycab's earnings quality becomes more diversified without requiring it to abandon its high-return wires-and-cables franchise.
The difference in ROCE says more than the difference in P/E
Polycab currently generates approximately 33.9% ROCE compared with Havells around 23.1%.
Both figures are healthy.
But a ten-percentage-point gap is meaningful.
Polycab is currently turning invested capital into operating earnings more efficiently while also growing revenue faster.
That combination explains why Polycab can trade at a higher P/E despite being much more exposed to wires and cables.
ROE tells the same story
Polycab's current ROE is about 24.5%, compared with Havells at approximately 19.0%.
The distinction is important because neither company is using material financial leverage to manufacture those returns.
Havells is essentially debt-free.
Polycab's debt-to-equity is approximately 0.01.
These are operational returns, not balance-sheet engineering.
Polycab's five-year growth record is substantially stronger
Polycab has compounded revenue at approximately 26.5% over five years, compared with Havells around 16.6%.
Polycab's five-year EPS growth is approximately 24.6%.
Havells' is around 10.1%.
This is one of the strongest arguments in Polycab's favour.
The market is not merely paying for one strong quarter. Polycab has been compounding faster across a much longer period.
Polycab has also generated more free cash flow despite investing aggressively
Bull Run records roughly ₹4,540 crore of five-year free cash flow for Polycab versus approximately ₹3,451 crore for Havells.
Polycab's operating cash flow is around 1.43 times net profit.
Havells is approximately 0.93 times.
This matters because Polycab has simultaneously been spending heavily on capacity expansion.
FY2026 capex was approximately ₹1,480 crore, focused on capacity, backward integration, automation and technology.
Management's longer-term roadmap also contemplates several thousand crores of additional investment.
Capex is becoming central to both stories
India's electrification and infrastructure cycle has encouraged both companies to expand capacity before demand becomes a bottleneck.
Polycab
- Expanding wires and cables capacity.
- Investing in backward integration.
- Building export capabilities.
- Scaling FMEG distribution.
- Targeting faster-than-market core growth.
Havells
- Increasing cables and wires capacity.
- Investing in Lloyd.
- Scaling renewables.
- Supporting several consumer categories.
- Front-loading advertising and brand expenditure.
The common risk
- Capacity can arrive before demand.
- Copper and aluminium prices can move sharply.
- Competition can reduce pricing power.
- New categories can dilute returns.
- High valuation magnifies execution mistakes.
Copper and aluminium make revenue growth harder to interpret
A cable company's reported sales can rise simply because metal prices rise.
Copper and aluminium represent a significant part of product cost.
When commodity prices move sharply, cable manufacturers generally adjust selling prices.
This means value growth can substantially exceed physical volume growth.
Investors should therefore separate volume, realisation and commodity effects whenever management discloses them.
Polycab's Q1 revenue growth was exceptional, but a portion of the increase also reflects the commodity environment.
Exports could become a larger Polycab growth leg
Polycab has stated a longer-term ambition to increase exports as a share of wires-and-cables revenue.
International diversification can reduce dependence on Indian demand and improve plant utilisation.
But export markets add certification, logistics, currency and geopolitical complexity.
Q1 FY2027 international business was weaker even as domestic demand remained strong.
That contrast is useful: Polycab's current growth is not dependent on an export boom.
Havells' renewables business is small but growing extraordinarily fast
Renewables revenue increased from roughly ₹94 crore to ₹314 crore in Q1 FY2027.
That is growth of more than 230%.
The base is still small relative to cables or Lloyd.
But solar products and the broader energy transition create another path for Havells to use its electrical distribution network.
The strategic opportunity is attractive if growth eventually produces strong margins.
Q1 segment profit was only around ₹8 crore, so the category still needs scale and operating leverage.
Which company has the stronger consumer brand?
Havells has the broader household brand architecture today.
Havells, Lloyd, Crabtree and Standard give the group customer visibility across switches, fans, appliances, air conditioners, lighting, water heaters and other categories.
Polycab has enormous strength among electricians, contractors, dealers and cable buyers, but its mass-market FMEG identity is still developing.
This makes Havells' brand expenditure economically rational even when it hurts one quarter's margin.
The question is whether that expenditure translates into faster growth and better consumer-category profitability.
Valuation produces a surprisingly close contest
Havells trades at about 45.3x trailing earnings. Polycab trades at roughly 49.0x.
The P/E gap is small considering Polycab's much faster growth and stronger ROCE.
Price-to-book is less forgiving: Polycab trades at approximately 11.7x book versus Havells around 7.8x.
Both remain premium-valued electrical franchises.
Polycab's current operating momentum makes its P/E premium easier to explain.
Havells' valuation becomes more compelling if Q1 margin pressure proves temporary and Lloyd moves closer to break-even.
The biggest Havells bull case is a margin recovery, not simply more revenue growth
If Havells maintains double-digit revenue growth while advertising normalises, input costs ease and Lloyd losses narrow, profit can grow much faster than sales.
That operating-leverage scenario is why a weak Q1 PAT number should not be read mechanically.
The opposite is also true.
If brand spending remains structurally higher and consumer categories require continual price investment, historical margins may not return quickly.
The biggest Polycab risk is that expectations are already high
A company growing revenue 39%, PAT 33% and ROCE above 30% naturally attracts a premium.
The challenge is maintaining those rates from an increasingly large base.
Cable competition remains intense.
Commodity volatility can compress margin.
Export demand can be uneven.
FMEG needs to prove that Q1 profitability is durable rather than cyclical.
When valuation is near 50x earnings, merely good results can sometimes disappoint the market.
The last year has produced opposite shareholder outcomes
| Market Metric | Havells | Polycab |
|---|---|---|
| Price on 25 Aug 2026 | ₹1,269.10 | ₹9,098 |
| 1-month return | +3.44% | +2.14% |
| 3-month return | +4.80% | -5.86% |
| 6-month return | -10.23% | +6.96% |
| 1-year return | -18.75% | +28.66% |
| 52-week high | ₹1,621.10 | ₹10,126 |
| 52-week low | ₹1,123.60 | ₹6,663 |
| RSI (14) | 60.01 | 51.83 |
Polycab's one-year outperformance mirrors its stronger earnings trajectory.
Havells has shown a recent short-term recovery but remains below its 200-day moving average in Bull Run's current snapshot.
Price performance is useful context, not evidence of future returns.
What exactly is the shareholder buying?
With Havells
- A broader branded electrical portfolio.
- Strong consumer recognition.
- Cables plus switchgear plus appliances.
- Lloyd turnaround optionality.
- Renewables growth.
- Essentially debt-free balance sheet.
With Polycab
- India's large wires-and-cables growth cycle.
- Higher ROE and ROCE.
- Faster five-year growth.
- Strong cash conversion.
- Profitable FMEG scaling.
- Export and capacity-expansion optionality.
What both require
- Infrastructure and housing demand.
- Commodity discipline.
- Dealer-network execution.
- Product innovation.
- Continued formalisation of electrical markets.
- Careful capital allocation.
Havells vs Polycab: who currently wins each category?
Revenue scale: Polycab.
Q1 revenue growth: Polycab.
Q1 profit growth: Polycab.
P/E valuation: Havells slightly.
P/B valuation: Havells.
ROE: Polycab.
ROCE: Polycab.
Net profit margin: Polycab.
Five-year sales growth: Polycab.
Operating cash conversion: Polycab.
Free cash flow: Polycab.
Consumer-brand breadth: Havells.
Wires-and-cables scale: Polycab.
Current FMEG profitability trajectory: Polycab.
Balance-sheet leverage: Both exceptionally strong.
Bull Run Score: Polycab.
Havells vs Polycab FAQs
Which company is bigger?
Polycab by current market capitalisation and Q1 FY2027 revenue.
Which stock is cheaper?
Havells currently trades at a slightly lower P/E and substantially lower P/B than Polycab.
Which has higher ROE?
Polycab, at approximately 24.5% versus Havells around 19.0%.
Which has higher ROCE?
Polycab, at approximately 33.9% versus Havells around 23.1%.
Which grew faster in Q1 FY2027?
Polycab. Revenue increased approximately 39% and PAT about 33%, compared with Havells revenue growth around 19.5% and a decline in PAT.
Why did Havells profit fall?
Higher raw-material costs, sharply higher advertising and promotion spending, and continued Lloyd losses compressed profitability despite strong revenue growth.
Is Polycab's FMEG business profitable now?
Yes in the latest quarter. Q1 FY2027 FMEG revenue increased sharply and segment profit rose more than sixfold year on year.
Which has generated more free cash flow?
Polycab in Bull Run's current five-year dataset, at roughly ₹4,540 crore compared with Havells around ₹3,451 crore.
Research sources
Disclaimer
This article is educational and informational only. Electrical-equipment earnings can be affected by copper and aluminium prices, infrastructure spending, housing demand, dealer incentives, advertising, capacity additions, consumer demand and foreign exchange. Financial ratios and market prices change over time. Nothing here recommends buying, selling or holding Havells, Polycab or any other security. Bull Run is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or Investment Adviser.