Business Pitfalls – Shanti Overseas (India) Ltd.

Shanti Overseas (India) Ltd. (SOIL) is a microcap (INR 19 crores) based out of Indore, MP. It is a manufacturer of soymeal, refined soybean oil and is also a trader in agri commodities like chana, corn, lentils etc. Shanti’s USP is that it sells non GMO soybean meal to export markets like US and EU. …

Investing Learnings from 2022

2022 was a great year returns wise, with closing equity allocation of 68% on a cost basis, excluding unrealized gains (peak weights of 76%, low of 52%). This year was also immense in learnings in the form of multiple management meetings and plant visits, especially for someone like me who has spent hours on desktop …

City Union Bank Ltd.: Investment Thesis

Sector Unlike businesses that have outgrown the conventional accounting, which has led to large missing chunks of value from their Balance Sheets (land recorded at historical cost, absence of internally generated brand, expensing of brand Ad Spends), banking institutions probably have the most real time Balance sheets. Since a large component of the Asset side …

Disa India Ltd.: Investment Thesis

Disa India Ltd. is a small cap industrial MNC based out of Bangalore. It is a manufacturer of foundry equipment catering to ferrous (iron based) casting industries, which are used in automotive, agriculture and engineering industry. Disa provides complete foundry machines and solutions – integrating its range of moulding machines and sand mixers with combination …

Oriental Carbon & Chemicals Ltd.: Investment Thesis

Oriental Carbon and Chemicals Ltd. (OCCL) is a rubber chemicals company engaged in the manufacture of insoluble sulphur (IS, main product) and sulphuric acid, oleum (by-product). Insoluble sulphur is used as a vulcanizing agent in the production of tyres to improve their elasticity, resilience and tensile strength. Manufacturing insoluble sulphur since 1994, OCCL currently has …

Investing Learnings from 2021

This write up comes very late, as we are nearly at the close of 2nd month of 2022, in the midst of a humanitarian crisis that hopefully ends soon, and hoping against hope our portfolios don’t get nuked. For me, the investing learnings have been immense since Oct 2021, when I started looking at businesses …

Kewal Kiran Clothing Ltd.: Investment Thesis

Summary - Kewal Kiran Clothing Ltd. (KKCL) is a manufacturer of branded apparel, operating the 'Killer', 'Lawman Pg3', 'Integriti' and 'easies' brands, predominantly selling menswear and denims (57%). Having top quartile fundamentals on account of multi channel asset light distribution, conservative management, and strong brand recall for denims, studying KKCL has been an interesting case …

Ultramarine & Pigments Ltd.: Investment Thesis

Ultramarine Pigments Ltd. is a chemicals small cap based out of Tamil Nadu and manufactures surfactants (53%) and pigments (37%). The company claims to be world’s 3rd largest manufacturer of ultramarine (blue shaded) pigment. In surfactants, its end user segments are Personal care, construction and fire safety. It also launched its own range of detergents …

MCX Ltd.: Investment Thesis

MCX (Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd.) is India’s largest commodity derivatives exchange primarily dealing in non agri commodities – Gold, Silver, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Copper, Zinc, Nickel etc. It is perhaps a textbook Network Effects business – more participants bring in more liquidity, which further brings in even more participants, thereby perpetuating the …

RITES Ltd.: Investment Thesis

RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Services) Ltd. is a railway PSU operating since the last 44 years. It started out with 2 businesses – Consultancy Services and an agency for Export of Locomotives to all countries except Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand (another PSU IRCON exports there). Consultancy Services include conducting feasibility studies, preparing Detailed …