Petronet LNG Limited (PETRONET.NS) fair value

ACCE thesis

Petronet LNG runs India's largest liquefied natural gas import terminal at Dahej in Gujarat, plus the Kochi terminal, and sells regasified gas through pipeline contracts to domestic buyers. The business is a regulated-style infrastructure toll with long-term take-or-pay capacity contracts, which gives it steadier cash flows than most of the Indian gas value chain. The stock trades at 10.3x trailing and 10.2x forward earnings on a 435.6bn INR market cap, a multiple that looks undemanding for a utility-like franchise with a 24.0% operating margin. The headline revenue decline of 53.2% needs checking before anyone relies on it, since it likely reflects lower pass-through LNG commodity prices rather than lost volume, and the source data does not separate the two. The forward P/E sitting almost level with trailing suggests the market expects earnings to hold steady rather than swing, so the open question for a deeper look is whether terminal utilisation and Indian gas demand support that.