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Sectors in Focus

Major Corporate Developments This Week

1. Kalpataru Projects International (KPIL) – Received a Letter of Award for an EPC gas pipeline project in the UAE, classified by the company as a “Major” project, indicating an order value of more than ₹4,000 crore. The project falls under KPIL’s international Oil & Gas EPC business.
2. Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF) – Approved a ₹797 crore purchase order to Larsen & Toubro for detailed engineering, manufacturing, supply, construction, erection and commissioning of the ammonia plant revamp at Thai, aimed at reducing specific energy consumption.
3. KPI Green Energy – Received a work order of approximately ₹2,025 crore for a 500 MW / 550 MWp turnkey solar EPC project from NACOF Oorja in Bikaner, Rajasthan. The project is part of a 5 GW solar park and is scheduled for completion within 12 months from site handover.
4. NCC – Received a ₹1,076.71 crore Letter of Acceptance from the Andhra Pradesh Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department for a drinking-water supply project under the Multi Village Scheme. The company also disclosed two further September orders totalling ₹500.22 crore, taking the September order inflow covered by these announcements to around ₹1,576.93 crore.
5. Vikram Solar – Secured a 400 MW module supply order from an EPC player for decentralised solar projects across multiple locations in Maharashtra. The company did not disclose the order value.
6. Ellenbarrie Industrial Gases – Secured a ₹481 crore turnkey contract from BHEL for a 1,200 TPD cryogenic Air Separation Unit for BHEL’s 2,000 TPD coal-to-ammonium-nitrate project in Odisha.
7. Power Mech Projects – Secured a ₹549.37 crore five-year O&M contract for the 2×600 MW Moxie Power Generation Tuticorin thermal power plant. The contract runs from October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2031.
8. KSB – Received an export order worth up to ₹118 crore from Dangote Projects Free Zone Enterprise for a boiler feed pump package.
9. STL Networks / Sterlite Technologies – STL announced a $1.2 billion multi-year supply contract with a hyperscale partner for optical connectivity products, with the arrangement running through December 2030 and purchase orders to be realised periodically.
10. Highway Infrastructure – Entered into a ₹220.66 crore contract with the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority for toll-fee collection and plaza operations at Gorakhpur Link Expressway, and separately received a ₹24.46 crore NHAI LoA for Velanchettiyur Fee Plaza in Tamil Nadu.

Acquisitions & Strategic Developments

1. ITC – Completed the acquisition of the remaining 52.5% stake in Sproutlife Foods, owner of Yoga Bar, for around ₹645 crore, taking its ownership to 100%. Sproutlife reported FY26 turnover of ₹452 crore.
2. Prestige Estates Projects – CPP Investments announced a ₹3,000 crore investment in Prestige Hospitality Ventures, the group’s hospitality platform, for approximately 27% stake.
3. KPI Green Energy – Entered into a binding offer to acquire 100% of Alfanar Energy and Netra Wind, representing around 507.9 MW of operational wind assets in Gujarat, for an enterprise value of ₹2,410 crore. Completion is subject to definitive documentation and regulatory/lender approvals.
4. Endurance Technologies – Its Italian subsidiary agreed to acquire the remaining 32% stake in Stoferle Automotive GmbH and Stoferle GmbH, Germany, for €18 million, taking full ownership of the entities.
5. Aurobindo Pharma – Through its subsidiary, completed the acquisition of 100% of A1 Biochem Labs LLC, USA, for $15.247 million (about ₹127 crore). The target provides contract research and chemistry services, supporting Aurobindo’s plan to build a CRDMO platform.
6. Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) – Signed an agreement to acquire the remaining 50% stake in HATSOFF Helicopter Training Pvt. Ltd. from CAE Canada at nil consideration. On completion, HATSOFF will become a wholly owned HAL subsidiary.
7. Hindalco Industries – Mutually terminated its agreement to acquire US-based AluChem’s specialty alumina business because of extended delays in closing. The proposed transaction had originally been valued at $125 million.

Capital Allocation / Corporate Actions

1. Bajaj Finance – Board approved plans to raise up to ₹17,500 crore, comprising a ₹11,700 crore QIP and up to ₹5,800 crore through preferential warrants to promoter/holding company Bajaj Finserv. The fundraise remains subject to shareholder approval.
2. Bajaj Finserv – Separately approved an investment of up to ₹5,800 crore in convertible warrants of Bajaj Finance through a preferential issue.
3. Tata Steel – Infused $340 million (₹3,260.32 crore) into wholly owned subsidiary T Steel Holdings by subscribing to additional equity shares. The transaction forms part of the previously approved programme to infuse up to $2 billion into the subsidiary.
4. Aequs – Board approved a preferential issue of up to 2.8 crore warrants aggregating approximately ₹650 crore to a promoter-group entity. ₹325 crore is payable upfront, with the balance on warrant exercise; the proceeds are intended to support aerospace and consumer-business expansion.
5. MTNL – Board approved the sale of its Powai, Mumbai property to the Income Tax Department for ₹891.53 crore.

Capacity / Infrastructure Expansion

1. NLC India – Incorporated a 50:50 joint venture with NALCO to develop a 1,080 MW (4×270 MW) thermal captive power plant in phases, primarily to meet NALCO’s captive power requirements.
2. ACME Solar Holdings – Commissioned additional 107.36 MW / 437.49 MWh of BESS capacity across two Rajasthan FDRE projects. The commissioned storage capacity achieved commercial operation from October 2, 2026.
3. SignatureGlobal India – Acquired approximately 194.22 acres in Farrukhnagar, Gurugram, adding around 6.77 million sq. ft. of estimated developable area. The project has an estimated ₹5,500–6,000 crore GDV; this is development potential, not the acquisition cost or an order value.
4. Ramco Cements – Completed debottlenecking at its Jayanthipuram works, increasing clinkerisation capacity from 4.61 MTPA to 5.62 MTPA and cement grinding capacity from 3.65 MTPA to 4.38 MTPA.

TechnoFunda Investing Quote from Legends -

Jim Simons emphasizes the role of meticulous analysis and discipline over luck in achieving sustained success in investing. Simons, renowned for his quantitative approach to investing, suggests that while luck can sometimes contribute to short-term gains, it is not a reliable foundation for enduring prosperity in the financial markets. Instead, consistent success in investing requires a disciplined approach that includes rigorous data analysis, methodical strategies, and steadfast adherence to proven investment principles. This approach minimizes reliance on chance and enhances the predictability and stability of investment returns over the long term.

The Compounding Life Newsletter - by Vivek Mashrani

📚 Book I'm Reading This Week Deep Work Cal Newport discusses in his book, Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World, about how professionals of today have started valuing quantity over quality; and how this has turned young professionals of today into puppets who try to indulge in extensive multitasking, dealing with multiple emails and projects. This prevents them from doing 'deep work'; which is focused work free from all other distractions. This also means that the professionals of today should sort out their priorities. Newport uses principles of psychology and neuroscience to enhance his points. He elaborates how to improve a person's cognitive abilities and how employers should encourage workers to not take shortcuts for completing projects. He claims that the best way to break away from the corporate race is to take a break from technology and social media and use some alone-time to rewind and introspect. Newport enforces the beliefs of a non-technophile to deliver work that is productive and efficiently delivered. List of All Books I have Shared →

TechnoFunda 101 - Power Capsules

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Unorganized to Organised

How taxes, standards, compliance and supply shocks can quietly transfer market share to organised players

Investors often look at formalisation as a theme of rising demand.

That is only half the story.

In many Indian industries, formalisation does not create a single additional unit of demand. The consumer was already buying the jewellery, the wire, the luggage or the pipe. What changes is who captures that demand.

For years, the unorganised player may have enjoyed an advantage that never showed up in a company's annual report: no proper tax invoice, lower compliance costs, limited quality standards, local sourcing, cash discounts or the ability to sell products without having to build a recognisable brand.

Then something changes.

GST creates tax parity.
Hallmarking makes purity verifiable.
A regulation increases the cost of using sub-standard products.
A supply shock exposes dependence on fragile sourcing networks.

Suddenly, the informal player's structural advantage begins to disappear.

And when the playing field changes, market share can move without the market itself growing.

That is the investment opportunity.

Formalisation Is Often a Share-Shift Story, Not a Growth Story

The easiest way to understand formalisation is to think about the economics of the two players before and after the transition.

The unorganised player wins because he can be cheaper.

Not necessarily because his product is better.

A local jeweller can operate with less documentation and leverage trust built over generations. A small wire manufacturer can compete through tax leakage and lower-specification products. A luggage trader can import inexpensive bags and sell them through a local store. A small pipe manufacturer can operate close to the customer, carry less inventory and compete on price.

The organised player has to carry costs that the informal player may avoid.

But formalisation removes some of those differences.

The tax advantage shrinks.

The quality difference becomes visible.

Compliance becomes expensive.

Supply chains become more important.

And the customer starts asking a different question.

Not simply:

“Who is cheaper?”

But:

“Who can I trust?”

That is why the mental model from George Akerlof's Market for Lemons is so relevant here: when buyers cannot easily distinguish quality, the cheapest seller has an advantage. When verification becomes easier, trusted quality becomes economically valuable. The deck applies this directly to Indian formalisation.

The most important insight is therefore:

Four Things Can Break the Informal Player's Advantage

The first is tax parity.

GST and e-way bills made it harder for businesses to compete through unbilled sales and informal movement of goods. Polycab's example is particularly useful: the GST regime reduced the benefit of selling wires without a proper tax structure, while e-way bills increased the friction around moving unbilled interstate inventory.

The second is proof of quality.

Some products are almost impossible for the consumer to evaluate after installation or purchase. You cannot easily inspect the purity of gold once you own it. You cannot cut open a wire inside a wall and check its copper content. You cannot see the quality of a pipe after construction is complete.

Standards, certification, warranties and traceability therefore become more valuable.

Hallmarking and HUID didn't change the underlying gold product. They changed the ability of the customer to verify what they were buying.

The third is rising compliance cost.

When regulations become more stringent, the cost of operating informally rises. A small producer may previously have competed successfully because his fixed compliance burden was negligible. Once those requirements become unavoidable, the economics can change dramatically.

The fourth is supply-chain disruption.

Sometimes formalisation does not happen because of regulation at all.

COVID provided a powerful example.

The luggage industry was highly dependent on Chinese sourcing. When the supply chain broke, the advantage shifted toward businesses with manufacturing capabilities, sourcing infrastructure and the ability to fulfil demand locally. Safari had already begun building manufacturing capability in India, including its Halol facility, allowing it to participate in the recovery differently from some purely import-dependent competitors.

The common thread is simple:

Something changes the economics of the informal model.

Titan: When Purity Became Checkable

Jewellery is a particularly powerful example because trust historically played an enormous role in the purchase decision.

Titan did not create the Indian demand for gold.

What changed was the environment around that demand.

PAN requirements, demonetisation, GST, mandatory hallmarking and eventually the HUID framework progressively increased documentation, transparency and verifiability within the industry. The company's presentation shows the scale of the transition: organised jewellery's share of the Indian market rose from about 5% in 2005 to around 35% in 2023, with further expansion projected. Titan's own market share increased from 6% in FY22 to 8.5% in FY26.
The critical point is not merely that Titan grew.

It is that the industry was becoming structurally more favourable to businesses that could combine trust + compliance + brand + distribution.

Titan's FY18–22 revenue CAGR of 17% while the broader industry was described as barely growing during that period illustrates the mechanism particularly well: the company was capturing a greater share of an existing market.

That is formalisation in action.

Polycab: The Buyer Couldn't See the Wire

Wires and cables have another interesting characteristic.

Once the wire is installed inside a building, the end consumer cannot easily inspect it.

That makes the brand an important form of quality assurance.

Polycab's presentation describes an industry where local players historically benefited from tax advantages and lower-specification material. GST and e-way bills weakened the first advantage, while safety and quality considerations increased the value of branded products. At the same time, scale gave large organised manufacturers purchasing and inventory advantages.

The result was not simply industry growth.

It was share migration.

Polycab's share of the organised domestic wires and cables market increased from approximately 18% in FY19 to 30–31% in FY26. In FY26, its volume growth was 18% versus 11% for the industry.

This is an important pattern to look for.

When a company grows faster than the industry for many years, the first question should not automatically be:

“Is the industry booming?”

It may be:

“Is the industry structure changing?”

Safari: Formalisation Can Combine With a Supply Shock

Safari demonstrates why this theme becomes particularly powerful when two forces arrive together.

GST reduced the price advantage of informal luggage sellers.

Then COVID disrupted the China-heavy supply chain.

Safari had already built a combination of value pricing, in-house hard luggage manufacturing at Halol and Chinese sourcing infrastructure. When travel demand returned, the business was positioned to serve customers who were shifting toward branded hard luggage.

The company's revenue rose from ₹707 crore in FY22 to ₹2,047 crore in FY26, while the deck shows market share rising from roughly 8% to 23% between FY14 and FY23. By FY26, Safari's revenue was higher than VIP's, although VIP reported a loss while Safari remained profitable.

But this example also contains an important warning.

Share gain and profit gain are not always the same thing.

Safari's operating margin declined from roughly 18% in FY24 to about 13% in FY25–26 as online and design-led competitors increased advertising and price competition.

So formalisation can change the competitive landscape without guaranteeing that the ultimate winner will retain all of the economics.

That distinction matters.

Astral: When the Small Player Can't Fund the Cycle

Pipes demonstrate another mechanism.

The local manufacturer's advantage was proximity and price. But the economics changed when GST reduced tax arbitrage, RERA increased builder liability and raw-material volatility made working-capital strength more important.

Astral already had a large distribution network, multiple plants and the balance sheet to carry inventory during resin-price volatility. The presentation highlights more than 2,500 distributors, 1.8 lakh dealers and 21 plants.

The result is striking.

In FY26, the PVC pipe industry contracted 9%, yet Astral's pipe volumes grew 16%. Its pipe-volume share increased from 14.7% in FY19 to 17.4% in 9M FY26.

When an industry is shrinking but one organised player is still gaining volume, the story may not be demand.

It may be industry restructuring.

This Is Where the Investment Lens Changes

The conventional way to analyse a company is:

Industry growth → company growth → earnings growth

But in a formalisation story, the chain can look very different:

Regulatory / structural trigger → informal advantage disappears → organised share rises → scale increases → economics improve → earnings compound

This is why a company can outperform even in an industry that is growing slowly.

The company is not merely participating in the market.

It is participating in the migration of the market.

And migration can be much faster than underlying consumption growth.

How Do We Identify the Next Formalisation Winner?

This is where the framework becomes useful for investors.

Start by finding industries where the informal player has a structural cost advantage that may not survive.

Ask:

What allows the small player to be cheaper?

Is it tax leakage?

Weak compliance?

Lower safety standards?

Poor traceability?

Cash transactions?

Cheap imports?

Local sourcing?

Low working-capital requirements?

Then ask the second question:

What could remove that advantage?

A regulation.

A new standard.

Technology.

Consumer awareness.

A supply-chain shock.

Changing financing economics.

Or simply a shift toward branded purchasing.

Finally, identify the organised player that is already waiting on the other side.

Does it have brand?

Distribution?

Balance sheet?

Manufacturing?

Procurement scale?

Technology?

Customer trust?

The most interesting opportunities arise when the industry's structural transition and the company's existing capabilities point in the same direction.

Three Numbers Can Tell You Whether the Thesis Is Actually Working

The deck offers a particularly useful practical framework.

Growth vs Industry

A company consistently growing materially faster than the industry can be evidence of share gains rather than simply sector tailwinds. The presentation suggests looking for growth above 2× the industry over three years or more.

Market Share

A rising disclosed market-share line is one of the cleanest indicators that formalisation is actually translating into competitive gains.

Operating Margin

And this is the crucial check.

If market share is rising while operating margins remain stable or improve, the company may be earning its share gains.

If share rises but margins consistently fall, the company may simply be buying market share through pricing or advertising.

The Safari example demonstrates exactly why this check matters.

The best signal is therefore not one metric in isolation.

It is:

That combination suggests the company is not merely growing.

The industry structure itself may be working in its favour.

The Bigger Lesson

One of the most powerful investing ideas is that competitive advantage is not always created by the company.

Sometimes it is created by a change in the environment.

A regulation can remove a competitor's cost advantage.

A standard can turn trust into a measurable product attribute.

A supply shock can expose a fragile business model.

A distribution network can suddenly become more valuable when the market moves from local to national.

The important skill is therefore not simply identifying a good company.

It is identifying a change in the rules of competition and then finding the company best positioned to benefit from it.

Because when the rules change, yesterday's competitive advantage can disappear.

And when the informal player's advantage disappears, the customer does not disappear with it.

The demand remains.

What changes is who gets to serve it.

The next big opportunity may not be a growing market.

It may be an existing market where the scoreboard is being rewritten.

🚀 My Content For This Week ​🎬 NSE's New FREE Screener - Is Screener.in Finished?​ ​ 📋 Twitter: Vivek Mashrani, CFA @MashraniVivek 🚨🚨 Several red flags spotted While many finfluencers are pushing IPO of Peshwa Wheat SME IPO...we find many accounting issues and red flags.. Retweet so that retail investors are not trapped. Peshwa Wheat reports ₹12 cr of profit on ₹171.5 cr of sales in FY25. The cash 5:40 AM • Sep 26, 2026 53 Retweets 154 Likes Read 13 replies ​ 📷 Instagram: Before You Buy a stock, Put it Through this 7 Point Test​ 🔗 Linkedin: Good results don’t always mean the stock should go up.​

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Vivek Mashrani, CFA Founder, TechnoFunda Investing

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