Granite Materials: Which Businesses Deserve the Next Rupee?

Strategy
medium50 min0 submissions
Bain
Scenario

Granite Materials is a building materials group operating in India. The board has asked for a portfolio review before setting next year's capital plan.

Three business units:

UnitRevenueGrowthOperating marginCapital employedMarket share
Core₹1079 Cr+4%16%₹465 Cr25%
Adjacency₹296 Cr+32%7%₹349 Cr8%
Legacy₹199 Cr-9%9%₹287 Cr17%

The group's weighted average cost of capital is 12%.

The CEO is instinctively drawn to the Adjacency business — it is growing fastest and gets the most attention internally. The CFO points out that Legacy still throws off cash. A board member has asked, bluntly, whether the group should own all three at all.

There is capital for one major investment next year, or for none if the right answer is to return it.

Supporting data

units

unitrevenuegrowth pctcapital employedmarket share pctoperating margin pct
Core107944652516
Adjacency2963234987
Legacy199-9287179
wacc pct12

derived hints

roce pct
37.1,5.9,6.2
Your task

Advise the board. Your answer should provide:

  1. Analysis — assess each unit on the economics and on the group's right to win. Compute returns on capital employed rather than describing them.
  2. Risks — what your recommendation depends on, and what would change it.
  3. Recommendation — a keep, fix or exit call for each unit, and where the capital goes.

State any assumptions you make.

Ready to move forward? Up next: Quantile Capital: Where Should the Acquisition Budget Go?Next question
How you'll be graded

100 points, 60% to pass.

  • strategic fit25
  • recommendation20
  • portfolio logic30
  • quantitative analysis25
Hint
Reveal suggested structure

Attractiveness vs right-to-win per unit; ROCE vs WACC; shared capabilities test; capital allocation decision