Narayana Murthy’s family office makes the most of a listing-day dip with a Rs 119 crore buy

One lot came at an average of Rs 581.35. The other came at Rs 534.72, almost 9% below the Rs 586 IPO price. The total cheque was close to Rs 119 cr, for a stake of about 1.1%. The same month, Sansera Engineering's shareholding filing with the BSE showed Catamaran had raised its stake to 2.08% from 1.68% in June. At Rs 4,291, that holding is worth about Rs 555 cr, making Sansera the single largest stock in Catamaran's disclosed listed portfolio.

One trade bought into a stock the market was dumping. The other doubled down on a stock the market already loves. The two make an odd pair, and the contrast is the story. FE Stock Insights on WhatsApPGet instant alerts on high-conviction investment themes and fundamental deep dives—direct from Financial Express.Join now #1 Bonfiglioli Transmissions IPO: Why Catamaran Bought the Listing-Day Dip Set up in 1998, Bonfiglioli Transmissions is the Indian arm of Italy's Bonfiglioli Group.

It makes gearboxes, gear motors, electric motors and drives, the parts that turn a motor's raw spin into controlled, usable force. Its products sit inside wind turbines, construction and mining machines, cranes, conveyors and factory robots. It runs three plants, two in Tamil Nadu and one in Maharashtra, started making electric motors in October 2025 and is building a new plant in Maharashtra for heavy-duty gearboxes.

With a market cap of Rs 11,749 cr, the company earns about 41% of sales from industry and automation, 30% from wind and 25% from off-highway machines, as per its offer document. It claims close to 70% of India's market for the yaw and pitch drives that steer wind turbines towards the wind, with Suzlon, Nordex and Senvion among its customers. Bonfiglioli IPO Subscription and the Flat Listing The IPO raised Rs 2,534 cr and was subscribed 46 times overall, with the institutional portion booked about 121 times.

Yet the stock opened at exactly Rs 586 on both the BSE and NSE, fell to Rs 527.40 within the session and closed the day below its issue price. The reason is simple. This was a pure offer for sale. Every rupee went to the Italian parent, whose stake fell from 100% to 77%. The company itself raised nothing. Catamaran stepped in during that sell-off. By 27th October, the stock had recovered to Rs 625, so the stake is worth about Rs 133 cr, roughly 12% above its average cost.

Bonfiglioli Transmissions Financials: Steady, Not Spectacular Bonfiglioli follows a calendar year, so the table runs from December 2020 to December 2025. Calendar YearCY20CY21CY22CY23CY24CY255Y CAGRSales (Rs cr)9871,4641,5591,6881,8542,01415%EBITDA (Rs cr)19324325424529537114%Net Profit (Rs cr)14217317115019523811% Source: Screener.in EBITDA here refers to operating profit before other income. The headline growth rates need a caveat.

Sales jumped 48% in CY21, which inflates the five-year figure. From CY21 to CY25, sales grew at only about 8% a year and net profit at about 8%. CY20 profit was also helped by Rs 37 cr of other income. In the six months to June 2026, sales rose 18% to Rs 1,132 cr and net profit rose 29% to Rs 149 cr, as the operating margin widened to 20%. Return on capital employed stands at about 36% and the company is almost debt free, with borrowings of just Rs 3 cr in December 2025.

Cash generation has been steady too, with free cash flow of Rs 136 cr in CY25. Bonfiglioli Share Price, Valuation and the Royalty Question At Rs 625, the share price of Bonfiglioli Transmissions puts it at a PE of about 43x trailing earnings. Elecon Engineering, the closest listed Indian gearbox maker, trades at about 31x. A 10-year median PE is not available, as the stock listed only on 23rd October 2026.

Three things temper the story. First, the company pays its Italian parent a royalty of about 4.5% of revenue, up from 4.2% in CY22, and the technology for co-engineered wind products stays with the group. Second, about 15% of sales go to group companies. Third, supply. Half of the shares bought by anchor investors come out of lock-in on 19th November 2026 and the rest on 18th January 2027. And with the parent at 77%, it will have to sell at least 2% more over the next three years to meet the 25% minimum public shareholding rule. #2 Sansera Engineering: Murthy's Biggest Bet Pivots Toward a Rs 5,750 Crore ADS Backlog Incorporated in 1981, Sansera Engineering is a Bengaluru precision engineering firm best known for connecting rods, crankshafts and rocker arms for cars, two-wheelers and trucks.

It counts itself among the world's top 10 suppliers of connecting rods. With a market cap of Rs 26,725 cr, it is worth nearly three times what it was a year ago. Catamaran first showed up in its shareholder list in the June 2026 quarter with 10,46,066 shares. The September filing shows 12,94,477 shares, an addition of 2,48,411 shares, worth about Rs 107 cr at today's price. From Connecting Rods to Chip Machines: Sansera's Rs 5,750 Crore ADS Backlog The reason for the rerating sits in a segment called ADS, short for aerospace, defence and semiconductors.

Sansera machines high-precision parts for aircraft makers, defence programmes and the global firms that build chipmaking equipment. In Q1 FY27, ADS revenue was Rs 145 cr, about 14% of sales. The unexecuted ADS backlog stood at Rs 4,437 cr in June 2026, and management said on its earnings call that a large semiconductor equipment order from an existing customer had since lifted it to about Rs 5,750 cr.

That is more than one and a half times the company's entire FY26 sales, to be executed over about five years. Sansera Engineering Financials: Profit Growing Faster Than Sales Financial YearFY21FY22FY23FY24FY25FY265Y CAGRSales (Rs cr)1,5491,9892,3382,8113,0173,49818%EBITDA (Rs cr)27433638048252864519%Net Profit (Rs cr)11013214818821732724% Source: Screener.in EBITDA here refers to operating profit before other income.

Profit has outrun sales largely because interest costs fell to Rs 39 cr in FY26 from Rs 72 cr, after a Rs 1,200 cr QIP cut debt. A monitoring agency report filed with the BSE on 27th October 2026 showed no deviation in the use of those funds. The latest quarter was a record. Q1 FY27 sales rose 33% to Rs 1,021 cr, the EBITDA margin improved to 19.2% from 17.2%, and net profit rose 39% to Rs 87 cr, even after a Rs 16.9 cr one-off charge for a US court settlement.

It closed at Rs 4,291 on 27th October 2026, nearly six times higher. Over the past year alone, it has gained about 190%, rising from a 52-week low of Rs 1,465. That run has pushed the PE to about 77x, at 8.7 times book value. Bharat Forge trades at about 84x and Azad Engineering at about 120x, so the market is pricing the whole aerospace and defence parts space richly. A 10-year median PE is not meaningful here, as Sansera has been listed for only five years.

Negative Cash Flow and a DII Exit: The Risks in Sansera Growth is costing cash. Free cash flow was negative Rs 219 cr in FY25 and negative Rs 123 cr in FY26, as the company spent over Rs 1,000 cr on capex across two years. Inventory days stood at 169 in FY26. Return on equity is a modest 12%. The share register shows a split. Domestic institutions cut their holding to 29.59% from 36.99% a year ago, while foreign investors raised theirs to 22.96% from 19.58%.

Promoters now hold 29.03%, down from 35.04% in March 2024. Catamaran bought while domestic funds were selling. Narayana Murthy's Strategy: Contrarian Buy or Conviction Bet? Read together, the two trades show a family office willing to act on both sides of market sentiment. With Bonfiglioli, it bought a high-quality but slow-growing MNC subsidiary at the moment IPO investors were heading for the exit.

With Sansera, it added to a winner at a price that leaves little room for error. The common thread is the industrial supply chain. Gearboxes and precision parts sit inside the machines that build wind farms, factories, aircraft and chip plants. Catamaran's earlier buys, including Kirloskar Oil Engines, fit the same theme. The tests ahead are specific. Bonfiglioli has to show that its 18% first-half growth is more than a pre-IPO peak, as anchor shares come out of lock-in next month.

Sansera has to turn a Rs 5,750 cr backlog into revenue without stretching its balance sheet further. Its Q2 FY27 numbers, due by mid-November, will be the first check. Investors tracking the Narayana Murthy portfolio can add both stocks to a watchlist and see how the next two results play out. Disclaimer Note: We have relied on data from www.Screener.in and www.trendlyne.com throughout this article.

Only in cases where the data was not available, have we used an alternate, but widely used and accepted source of information, including filings made available on the BSE website. The purpose of this article is only to share interesting charts, data points and thought-provoking opinions. It is NOT a recommendation. If you wish to consider an investment, you are strongly advised to consult your advisor.

This article is strictly for educative purposes only. Suhel Khan has been a passionate follower of the markets for over a decade. During this period, He was an integral part of a leading Equity Research organisation based in Mumbai as the Head of Sales & Marketing. Presently, he is spending most of his time dissecting the investments and strategies of the Super Investors of India. Disclosure: The writer and his dependents do not hold the stocks discussed in this article.

The website managers, its employee(s), and contributors/writers/authors of articles have or may have an outstanding buy or sell position or holding in the securities, options on securities or other related investments of issuers and/or companies discussed therein. The content of the articles and the interpretation of data are solely the personal views of the contributors/ writers