Valuing Britannia Industries: An End-to-End Equity Research Project

During her MBA, Ankita took on a full equity research project on Britannia Industries Limited, with the objective of determining whether the stock was overvalued or undervalued and producing a buy, hold, or sell recommendation.

She structured the work in four stages. She started with the FMCG industry, mapping growth trends and the competitive landscape. She then ran a peer analysis, comparing Britannia's growth margins against its key competitors to establish a relative benchmark before going into the company itself.

At the company level, she reviewed Britannia's history, management quality, and strategic direction. A key finding at this stage was that Britannia was actively diversifying its product lines and expanding production into states where it had no prior presence. This expansion strategy was the central point of disagreement with her professor, who held that FMCG companies at Britannia's scale tend toward flat growth. Ankita pushed back, arguing that the product diversification and geographic expansion represented a genuine growth catalyst, and used the peer analysis to show where saturation actually occurs in the category. Her professor came around.

For the valuation, she ran a DCF model using WACC and a long-term growth rate to derive enterprise value, then converted to a per-share value to compare against the market price. She also ran a peer multiples analysis in parallel to cross-check the DCF output. The stock came out overvalued, but the expansion thesis supported a hold rather than a sell.

The project concluded with a formal investment recommendation to the class.