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Technofunda Investing Weekly Wrap - Issue#147
Published about 22 hours ago • 18 min read
TechnoFunda Investing Newsletter
Weekly Wrap - Issue # 147
31 October 2026
Welcome to the Technofunda Investing community. Thank you for being Life Long Learner...!!!
Waaree Renewable Technologies: Received a Letter of Award for a 200 MW / 500 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) EPC project, scheduled for completion by FY28. The company also received an LOA for a 450 MWp solar EPC project on 27 October, with completion planned in FY28.
Jyoti Structures: Secured Power Grid orders worth approximately ₹949.35 crore on 26 October for HVDC transmission line packages in Rajasthan. It subsequently received another order worth ₹648.91 crore on 28 October for the TL05 HVDC line package.
Bajel Projects: Secured its highest-ever transmission order worth approximately ₹1,500 crore, including GST, from Lakadia A Power Transmission for strengthening the renewable energy transmission corridor.
Indo Tech Transformers: Received a purchase order worth ₹47.48 crore, plus applicable taxes, from Shyam SEL & Power for supplying four power transformers to a steel plant in eastern India.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T): Secured major orders for Dhaka Metro Line 1 on 27 October, adding to its international infrastructure order book.
VA Tech Wabag: Secured a mega order from Reliance Industries for a desalination and remineralisation plant, strengthening its industrial water treatment order pipeline.
Karamtara Engineering: Secured new orders worth approximately ₹1,199 crore across transmission and renewable energy segments, strengthening its order book.
Marine Electricals (India): Received orders worth approximately ₹362.34 crore for power systems, supporting its order book in the electrical and power solutions segment.
Subros: Was awarded an HVAC supply contract by Maruti Suzuki India, strengthening its position as an automotive air-conditioning systems supplier.
Arisinfra Solutions: Secured a ₹250 crore DaaS (Data-as-a-Service) order from Transcon Iconica, expanding its construction materials and technology-enabled services business.
Titagarh Rail Systems: Received an additional order for 4,955 BOXNHL wagons from the Ministry of Railways, providing further visibility for its railway freight wagon business.
Oriental Rail Infrastructure: Its subsidiary received an increase in the BOXNS wagon order quantity from 1,200 to 1,560 wagons, improving order visibility for its railway components business.
Afcons Infrastructure: Secured EPC orders worth approximately ₹3,469 crore for projects in Uttar Pradesh, strengthening its infrastructure order book.
Dilip Buildcon: Awarded a contract worth approximately ₹688.23 crore for the construction of a four-lane elevated corridor in Maharashtra, adding to its road infrastructure project pipeline.
Jupiter Wagons: Secured an order worth approximately ₹1,140 crore from the Ministry of Railways for the supply of 2,583 wagons, strengthening its railway rolling stock order book.
ACME Solar Holdings: Executed a 400 MW power purchase agreement with NTPC. The company also commissioned an additional 35.77 MW / 143.08 MWh battery energy storage system in Rajasthan.
Navin Fluorine International: Extended its $410 million contract with Solstice Advanced Materials until 2032, providing long-term revenue visibility for its specialty chemicals business.
Knowledge Marine & Engineering Works: Secured a dredging order worth approximately ₹303.17 crore from New Mangalore Port, strengthening its marine infrastructure order book.
Gayatri Projects: Awarded a contract worth approximately ₹342 crore under a joint venture by B-RIDE, adding to its infrastructure project pipeline.
Anawil Wire and Engineering: Received an order worth approximately ₹58.32 crore for the supply of wind turbine towers, strengthening its presence in the renewable energy supply chain.
Aarti Industries: Reported record Q2 FY27 revenue and EBITDA, with profit after tax increasing 60% year-on-year, reflecting improved operating performance.
DCM Shriram: Announced the full commissioning of its 68 MW renewable power project, adding to its captive renewable energy capacity.
Godawari Power & Ispat: Received consent to operate enhanced SMS capacity at its Raipur plant, enabling an increase in steel manufacturing operations.
Forbes Precision Tools: Approved capital expenditure of approximately ₹60 crore for capacity expansion, supporting its future manufacturing growth.
M&B Engineering: Commenced commercial production at its Sanand manufacturing plant on 26 October, adding manufacturing capacity.
E2E Networks: Announced a 5.4 MW NVIDIA Blackwell infrastructure expansion for its AI Factory, increasing its AI compute infrastructure capacity.
Tata Communications: Announced a major capacity expansion initiative to build an AI-focused network infrastructure platform in India, positioning itself to address growing demand for AI connectivity.
Venus Pipes & Tubes: Received an order worth approximately ₹29 crore against an earlier LOI of ₹185 crore from a data centre customer for pipe-spooling solutions, strengthening its value-added product business.
Gayatri Projects: Received a ₹342 crore contract under a joint venture from B-RIDE, adding to its infrastructure execution pipeline.
Unimech Aerospace: Executed a long-term agreement with Honeywell Aerospace, USA, through its subsidiary Innomech. The agreement is effective from 1 April 2026 and runs until 1 November 2036, providing long-term business visibility.
Warren Buffett’s quote, "Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre," highlights the power of compounding and business quality over the long term. A wonderful business — one with strong fundamentals, competitive advantages, and consistent growth — becomes even more valuable as time passes, rewarding patient investors with expanding profits and wealth. On the other hand, a mediocre business struggles to grow or maintain its position, and over time, its weaknesses get exposed, often leading to stagnation or decline. In investing, time magnifies the gap between good and bad businesses.
The Compounding Life Newsletter - by Vivek Mashrani
Just Keep Buying by Nick Maggiulli is a practical, data-driven guide to building wealth through consistent investing and smart money decisions. Drawing from real-world analysis and personal finance research, Maggiulli challenges common myths around saving, investing, and timing the market, offering readers simple, actionable strategies to grow their wealth over time. With a focus on making steady progress rather than chasing perfection, the book emphasizes the power of continuous action — encouraging readers to prioritize consistent investment habits above all else to achieve long-term financial success.
Learn technical as well as fundamental concept in a simple way
The New Captain: Same Assets, Different Outcomes
How a change in ownership or leadership can unlock value that was already sitting inside a business.
When a company consistently underperforms, investors often assume that something is fundamentally wrong with its industry, products or assets. We examine demand, competition, manufacturing capacity, margins and return ratios to understand why the business is struggling. But sometimes the problem is not what the company owns. It is how those assets are being managed.
A factory may have adequate capacity but poor utilisation. A bank may have an extensive branch network but an inefficient lending strategy. A pharmaceutical company may have a strong product portfolio but an underproductive sales force. A chemical manufacturer may possess valuable manufacturing capabilities but lack the strategic direction, customer relationships or capital required to scale them.
In each of these situations, the potential to create value already exists. What is missing is the right person or organisation to unlock it.
This brings us to an interesting investment theme: The New Captain.
The underlying idea is simple. The assets remain largely the same, but a new owner, promoter or professional leader changes what the business does with them. Capital allocation improves, governance gets reset, operational discipline increases, new customers are brought in and previously underutilised assets begin earning better returns.
The market often spends considerable time analysing the horse. But in certain situations, the biggest opportunity lies in identifying when a new jockey takes over.
The Mental Model: The Horse and the Jockey
Think about a company as a combination of two things: the earning potential of its assets and the decisions made by the people controlling those assets.
The first determines what the business is capable of earning. The second determines how much of that potential is actually realised.
A manufacturing plant can be technically sound, but without the right product mix, customer relationships and operational discipline, it may generate poor returns. Similarly, a bank can have a large deposit base and an established branch network, but if its lending decisions are poor, the franchise may consistently underperform.
A new captain can change this equation without necessarily building an entirely new business. They may bring a stronger balance sheet, a sharper operating playbook, a different customer network or simply the willingness to make decisions that the previous management could not or would not make.
The most interesting situations occur when the new owner or leader recognises an opportunity that the previous management failed to pursue.
The assets were never worthless. They were simply being used inefficiently.
What Was Broken Before the Change?
These opportunities usually emerge from businesses facing one or more structural problems. Sometimes the issue is governance: promoter misconduct, related-party transactions or poor financial controls destroy investor and lender confidence. In other cases, an overleveraged balance sheet leaves management with little room to invest in growth or improve operations.
There are also businesses where the original owner has simply lost strategic interest. The company may have attractive manufacturing assets or established customer relationships, but the owner lacks the incentive or capability to develop them further. Elsewhere, the business may have reached a plateau because its products are under-marketed, its distribution is inefficient or its management has become too conservative.
The most interesting problem, however, is when the assets are capable of earning significantly more than they currently do.
That is the opportunity. The preceding problems explain why the old management could not unlock it. A credible new captain must demonstrate that those problems can actually be addressed.
CG Power: When a New Owner Turned a Broken Business Around
CG Power is perhaps the clearest example of this theme.
The company had an established presence in motors and transformers, with manufacturing infrastructure and decades of operating history. Yet, by FY20, its financial position had deteriorated severely. A board-commissioned investigation in 2019 uncovered serious governance issues, the promoter was removed, borrowings had become a major burden and the company's net worth turned negative. Its operating performance had deteriorated to the point where the existing assets were generating very poor returns.
The Murugappa Group's Tube Investments stepped in during August 2020, agreeing to invest approximately ₹700 crore at ₹8.56 per share for control. The investment eventually increased to around ₹800 crore. More importantly, the transaction was accompanied by a lender settlement and a clear operating mandate. The new leadership focused on four metrics: profitability, revenue growth, free cash flow and return on invested capital. It also laid out two clear objectives—make the company debt-free and take revenue to ₹5,000 crore within five years.
The change was visible relatively quickly. The balance sheet was repaired, the company became net debt-free in FY22 ahead of its target, and operating margins improved from approximately 0.6% in FY20 to 12% in FY22, subsequently settling in the 13–14% range. ROCE moved from negative 4% in FY20 to 61% in FY23. Revenue reached ₹12,418 crore in FY26.
What makes this case particularly interesting is that the transformation did not begin with building an entirely new company. The same motors and transformer businesses were already present. What changed was governance, capital allocation, operating discipline and the management's focus on returns.
The new leadership subsequently pursued additional opportunities, including semiconductor manufacturing through the OSAT facility at Sanand. But the initial value creation came from fixing the existing business.
CG Power demonstrates how a governance reset, balance-sheet repair and operating discipline can transform the economics of assets that were already in place.
Tanfac: When the New Owner Was Also the Customer
Sometimes a new captain brings something even more powerful than capital or management expertise: an existing business relationship that creates immediate strategic synergy.
Tanfac Industries, a fluorochemicals manufacturer, was established as a joint-sector company with TIDCO, with the Aditya Birla Group as co-promoter. Despite its manufacturing capabilities, the business remained relatively small, with sales of ₹148 crore in FY21. The opportunity was not simply to increase production. It was to find a strategic owner who could deploy the company's chemistry capabilities against a larger market.
In March 2022, Anupam Rasayan acquired a 24.96% stake from the Aditya Birla Group for approximately ₹148 crore and became a co-promoter with management control alongside TIDCO. The strategic fit was particularly interesting because Anupam was already a significant buyer of Tanfac's potassium fluoride.
This created a direct commercial connection between the two businesses. Tanfac gained access to an established customer and a broader fluorine-chemistry ecosystem, while Anupam gained a more secure supply of important inputs. The new ownership also brought fresh capital, research capabilities and a wider product-development opportunity.
The transformation gradually became visible in the product mix and manufacturing scale. Tanfac expanded into value-added products such as solar-grade dihydrofluoric acid and R-32 refrigerant gas. Its new HF plant reached full rated capacity shortly after commissioning, while solar-grade DHF capacity reached 10,000 tonnes per annum. The R-32 project, with an investment of approximately ₹390 crore, was progressing towards commissioning, with around 65% of its capacity contracted according to the presentation.
Revenue increased from ₹148 crore in FY21 to ₹711 crore in FY26.
The important point is that Anupam did not merely acquire a manufacturing asset. It brought a customer relationship, technical capabilities and capital that could be deployed together. The synergy worked in both directions: Tanfac gained a strategic customer and access to chemistry expertise, while Anupam gained supply-chain security.
There are risks to monitor, including the capital structure and the pledge of Anupam's entire Tanfac holding highlighted in the presentation. But the broader lesson is valuable: the best strategic buyer is often one that understands exactly why the acquired asset is valuable because it already has a use for it.
JB Chemicals: When a Private Equity Owner Changed the Growth Playbook
A new captain does not always need to rescue a distressed company. Sometimes the business is fundamentally sound but has stopped progressing at the pace its underlying assets should allow.
JB Chemicals is a good example.
The company had an established pharmaceutical portfolio and an operating margin of approximately 21% in FY20. Yet, it ranked 34th in the Indian pharmaceutical market in September 2020. The issue was less about product quality and more about the way the business was being developed.
KKR acquired a controlling stake in 2020 and appointed Nikhil Chopra as CEO. The new strategy focused on building domestic branded chronic therapies, increasing sales-force productivity and using acquisitions to strengthen existing therapeutic categories.
Instead of pursuing unrelated diversification, the company acquired brands that could be marketed through its existing sales infrastructure. Acquisitions included Sanzyme in probiotics and selected pharmaceutical portfolios from Novartis. By September 2023, six brands had crossed ₹100 crore in sales, while JB's rank in the Indian pharmaceutical market improved from 34th to 24th.
The financial performance followed the strategic shift. Revenue increased from ₹1,775 crore in FY20 to ₹4,148 crore in FY26, while operating margins improved from around 21% to approximately 26–27%. ROCE remained around 25% despite the acquisition-led expansion.
In June 2025, Torrent Pharmaceuticals agreed to acquire KKR's 46.39% stake at ₹1,600 per share, valuing JB Chemicals at approximately ₹25,689 crore.
What changed here was not the manufacturing capability or the fundamental nature of the pharmaceutical products. The new owner changed the commercial strategy, strengthened the management team, improved sales-force productivity and deployed capital into brands that could benefit from the existing distribution network.
This is a particularly useful example because it shows that a new captain can create value through better strategic focus and capital allocation even when the underlying business is not distressed.
Karur Vysya Bank: Same Owner, Same Branches, New Leadership
Perhaps the most interesting example in the presentation is Karur Vysya Bank because it demonstrates that a new captain does not always have to be a new promoter or owner.
Sometimes, a change in professional leadership can be enough.
Karur Vysya Bank had an established 110-year-old franchise, but its performance had weakened. Gross NPAs were above 8% in June 2020, ROE had declined to approximately 3–5% and corporate lending accounted for around 45% of advances. The bank had also been involved in consortium lending arrangements where its influence over credit decisions was limited.
In July 2020, B. Ramesh Babu, a former Deputy Managing Director and COO of SBI, took charge as MD and CEO. His approach involved changing the bank's lending mix, strengthening credit discipline and moving towards more granular retail, agriculture and MSME lending.
The bank reduced its dependence on large corporate exposures, placed limits on individual corporate borrowers and moved away from consortium loans where it did not have sufficient control. It also invested in digitising lending processes, allowing certain retail borrowers to receive sanctions within 15–20 minutes.
The results were significant. Retail, agriculture and MSME lending together increased to approximately 86% of advances, compared with around 55% before the transformation. Gross NPA declined from 8.34% in June 2020 to 0.74% in Q1 FY27, while ROE improved from approximately 5% in FY21 to 19% in FY26. Net profit increased from ₹359 crore in FY21 to ₹2,510 crore in FY26.
The underlying franchise had not been replaced. The branches, customer relationships and banking licence were already there. What changed was the quality of credit decisions, operating processes and management discipline.
This case reinforces an important distinction: value creation does not always require a change of ownership. It can also come from a change in how the existing owner chooses to run the business.
What Does a New Captain Actually Bring?
Looking across these four examples, a pattern emerges. The strongest transformations are rarely driven by just one factor. They generally involve a combination of intent, capital, capability, synergy and discipline.
Intent is about having a genuine reason to improve the business. A buyer who invests its own money at a disclosed price has a clear economic stake in the outcome. A professional CEO, meanwhile, needs a mandate with measurable objectives and accountability.
Capital is required to repair a balance sheet, fund expansion, upgrade technology or invest in new capacity. Without adequate capital, even the best operating strategy may remain an idea. But capital alone does not create value. What matters is where it is deployed and what returns it generates.
Capability is the operating playbook that the previous management may have lacked. It could be manufacturing expertise, professional management, distribution, sales-force productivity, risk management or the ability to develop new products. The new captain must bring something that changes how the business operates.
Synergy is particularly powerful when the new owner has a specific reason to own the asset. Anupam Rasayan's relationship with Tanfac is a good example: the buyer was already a customer. Similarly, a strategic acquirer may have distribution, procurement or technological capabilities that can be deployed immediately.
Finally, discipline ties everything together. Governance, capital allocation, free cash flow generation and return on invested capital must become explicit priorities. Without discipline, a new owner can simply replace one form of value destruction with another.
The important distinction is this: intent without capability is a press release. Capital without discipline can destroy value. But when capability, capital and strategic synergy work together, the outcome can be transformative.
The Five Phases of a New-Captain Transformation
These situations generally evolve through five broad phases.
The first is neglect. The company has been underperforming for years because of governance problems, excessive debt, strategic drift or poor operating decisions. The market gradually stops assigning value to assets that once appeared attractive.
The second phase is the actual change of control or leadership. A strategic buyer acquires a stake, a private equity investor takes charge or a professional CEO is appointed. This is the most visible event, and the market often reacts immediately because a turnaround possibility has emerged.
The third phase is clean-up. Debt is settled, non-core activities are discontinued, bad assets are recognised and governance processes are reset. Reported earnings can still look poor during this period because the company is dealing with the consequences of its past.
The fourth phase is rebuilding. This is where the real evidence begins to emerge. Margins improve, product mix becomes more attractive, lending quality strengthens, customer acquisition improves and capital efficiency begins moving in the right direction. In the examples discussed, much of this progress became visible within approximately four to eight quarters of the change.
The final phase is re-rating. Once investors gain confidence that the transformation is sustainable, the company begins to be valued as a fundamentally different business. A strategic acquisition or exit may eventually provide another validation of the value created.
This sequence carries an important investing lesson:
Buy the rebuild, not merely the announcement.
A change of ownership is an event. The rebuild is the evidence. The most attractive opportunity may arise when the market has not yet fully recognised that the new management's decisions are translating into better business economics.
How to Identify the Next New-Captain Opportunity
The first thing to look for is a clearly identifiable change in control or leadership. A promoter stake sale, open offer, strategic acquisition or appointment of a new CEO gives the event a date. It also starts a clock against which the subsequent transformation can be measured.
The next question is the quality of the incoming captain. Has the new owner successfully transformed another business? Does the management team have a relevant operating background? Is the buyer investing its own capital at a clearly disclosed price? A repeatable track record is much more valuable than an ambitious presentation.
Then examine whether the old problems are being resolved. Are lenders settling exposures? Is the balance sheet improving? Are non-core businesses being discontinued? Is the company becoming more focused? These changes often appear before the financial performance improves.
Finally, track the operating evidence. Are margins improving? Is the product or customer mix changing? Is ROCE moving in the right direction? For banks, are early stress indicators and special-mention accounts improving before the gross NPA ratio begins to decline? For manufacturers, is capacity utilisation increasing and are new customers being added?
The central test is whether the new captain's strategy is beginning to show up in the numbers. A credible buyer, a public plan and an initial clean-up create the possibility of a transformation. Sustained improvement in operating performance confirms it.
The Opportunity—and the Trap
Not every change of ownership creates value. A new owner can extract cash through excessive royalties, related-party transactions or unfavourable transfer pricing rather than investing in the business. An acquirer may overpay or borrow excessively, leaving itself unable to fund the turnaround. Cultural clashes can lead to the departure of experienced employees, while integration into a larger group can distract management from the business that was originally attractive.
There is also the risk of excessive dependence on one individual. A transformation built entirely around a single leader can become vulnerable if that person leaves or is unable to continue.
This is why the identity of the new captain is only the starting point. Investors must continuously evaluate whether the promised changes are translating into better economics.
The presentation also highlights recent changes of control at Akzo Nobel India, Orient Cement and Novartis India as potential situations to track. In each case, the ownership transition has taken place, but the next four to eight quarters will be important for assessing whether strategic intent translates into measurable operating improvement. These are research candidates, not confirmed turnaround opportunities.
The Bigger Investing Lesson
One of the most interesting opportunities in the stock market is finding a good business trapped under the wrong ownership or leadership.
The market may have spent years assigning a low valuation because the company consistently underperformed. Investors may have written off its manufacturing assets, distribution network, brands or customer relationships. But those assets do not necessarily lose their earning potential simply because the previous management failed to use them effectively.
CG Power shows what can happen when governance and capital allocation are reset. Tanfac illustrates the power of a strategic buyer who is also a customer. JB Chemicals demonstrates how professional management, focused acquisitions and commercial execution can revive a business that had plateaued. Karur Vysya Bank proves that even without a new promoter or fresh ownership, a change in leadership and operating discipline can transform the returns generated by an established franchise.
The common thread is not a particular sector or business model.
It is the gap between what the assets are capable of earning and what they are actually earning.
For investors, the challenge is to identify that gap before it closes. Look for businesses with underutilised capabilities, a dated change in control or leadership, a credible new captain and early evidence that the operating model is changing.
Because sometimes, the next phase of compounding does not begin with a new product, a new factory or a new market.
It begins when someone new takes charge of what already exists.
The assets may be the same. The opportunity is entirely different.
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I send this newsletter every Saturday 5 PM IST. You will receive some incredible insights on becoming a better investor....delivered to your inbox...absolutely FREE...!!
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