Rs 1,000 cr in 2 stocks: Ashish Kacholia’s big plays on weight loss and AI

The latter only listed on 4th September 2026, and Kacholia's 24.02 lakh shares were bought before the IPO, not on the market after it. So, one position was built with patience. The other came through a private ticket that turned into a market frenzy. Both now trade at well over 65 times earnings, one riding the global weight-loss drug boom and the other India's hunger for AI computing power. Let us dive in to see what sits beneath the price.

FE Stock Insights on WhatsApPGet instant alerts on high-conviction investment themes and fundamental deep dives—direct from Financial Express.Join now #1 Shaily Engineering Plastics: Kacholia's 8-year bet now riding the semaglutide boom Incorporated in 1980, Shaily Engineering Plastics makes precision plastic parts by injection moulding. For most of its life, that meant parts for home furnishings, FMCG packaging, toys, appliances and cars.

Today its most valuable product is far smaller: the injector pens through which patients take diabetes and weight-loss drugs. At a market value of Rs 14,576 cr, Shaily is Kacholia's largest holding. He owns 14,78,980 shares, or 3.22%, in his own name. Suryavanshi Commotrade, an entity linked to him in public shareholding records, owns 7,92,120 shares, or 1.72%. Together that is worth about Rs 720 cr.

His personal stake has not moved in two years. The linked entity, though, trimmed from about 2% in June to 1.72% in September, with the stock near record highs. Shaily Engineering’s Jump from Furniture Parts to Weight-Loss Jab Pens The turning point came in March 2026, when the semaglutide patent expired in India, Canada and Brazil. Semaglutide is the drug Novo Nordisk sells as Ozempic and Wegovy.

Its expiry opened the door for generic drug manufacturers. Healthcare made up about 40% of FY26 consolidated revenue, up from 21% a year earlier. In a February 2026 filing with the BSE, it disclosed a Rs 423 cr, four-year contract to supply pen injectors to a large domestic drug maker. A plant in Abu Dhabi for pens and auto-injectors is due by Q4 FY28. Shaily Engineering financials: 49% profit CAGR in five years For years, margins sat near 15% to 17%.

Then the healthcare mix kicked in. Financial YearFY21FY22FY23FY24FY25FY265Y CAGRSales (Rs cr)36156660061673892121%EBITDA (Rs cr)6082889614425634%Net Profit (Rs cr)223530367116149%Source: Screener.in EBITDA refers to operating profit before other income. Operating margin climbed from 17% in FY21 to 28% in FY26, and Return on Capital Employed from 13% to 30%. Other income of Rs 18 cr in FY26, up from Rs 7 cr, gave profit a small lift.

Results filed with the BSE on 29th October 2026 show the pace holding. September quarter standalone sales rose 31% to Rs 310 cr and profit 63% to Rs 67 cr. The consolidated figures, which include the overseas units still being built, are softer: sales up 25% to Rs 320 cr and profit up 20% to Rs 61 cr. Shaily Engineering Share Price: Paying 72x For the Pen Story The share price of Shaily Engineering has compounded at about 53% a year over five years, more than an eightfold rise.

As of closing on 30th October 2026, it was Rs 3,170, below its 52-week high of Rs 3,615. On valuation, the shares change hands at 72x earnings against a current industry median of about 30x, and at 18 times book value. The 10-year median PE for the company is 45x, which is same as the industry median for the same period. The register shows who is paying up. Foreign investors lifted their holding from 7.38% in March 2025 to 19.43% in September 2026, and the shareholder count has tripled to 61,333.

On the other side, promoter group member Vanita Nagda sold her entire 2.27% stake through bulk deals on 18th June 2026. Promoter holding now stands at 41.09%. The Risks Behind the GLP-1 Pen Rally First, the pen business rides on generic drug makers winning approvals country by country. In May 2026, the company said it had no signed deals with the original patent holders. Second, cash is tight for a business this profitable.

FY26 free cash flow was Rs 37 cr against profit of Rs 161 cr, as capex ate most of the operating cash. Third, the board has approved raising up to Rs 500 cr, which could dilute holders. And weight-loss pills, if they take off, threaten injectables in the long run. #2 ESDS Software Solution: The AI data centre IPO Kacholia and Mukul Agrawal got into early Incorporated in 2005, ESDS Software Solution runs cloud and data centre services out of Nashik for banks, government departments, PSUs and private firms.

It rents out computing and storage, manages IT systems and sells software. Promoter Piyush Somani, his family and a family trust hold 39.47%, all of it under lock-in. At Rs 13,577 cr, ESDS is almost exactly Shaily's size. Kacholia holds 24,02,000 shares, or 2.05%, worth about Rs 280 cr. Yet he is not the biggest super investor here. Mukul Agrawal holds 70,32,960 shares, exactly 6%, worth about Rs 816 cr.

Curiously, Kacholia also held a disclosed 1.1% of E2E Networks, the other listed GPU cloud firm, until September 2024. 25 billion Sharon AI GPU deal The Rs 720 cr IPO, priced at Rs 429, drew bids for 136 times the shares on offer and listed at a 76% premium. The stock touched Rs 1,864 on 24th September, over four times the issue price, before a string of lower circuits followed its first results. The excitement rests on one contract.

In April 2026, ESDS signed a five-year deal with Sharon AI, a Nasdaq-listed Australian firm, worth around $1.25 billion, for about 8,000 Nvidia B300 chips in an Australian data centre. ESDS rents that AI capacity and resells it. Its offer document says a subsidiary has received an advance of Rs 1,176.6 cr from an overseas customer, to be recognised once the project goes live. On its 25th September earnings call, filed with the BSE, management said go-live had slipped to November, with revenue starting in Q3 FY27.

ESDS Financials: Navigating the Cash Flow Reality Financial YearFY21FY22FY23FY24FY25FY265Y CAGRSales (Rs cr)17219520828736147222%EBITDA (Rs cr)62554710115523430%Net Profit (Rs cr)5-3-221456121NMSource: Screener.in EBITDA refers to operating profit before other income. NM: not meaningful. Profit growth is marked NM because the base year profit was just Rs 5 cr, followed by two loss years. The sharper point is margin.

Operating margin rose from 23% in FY23 to 50% in FY26. Interest costs fell from Rs 32 cr to Rs 12 cr as borrowings dropped to Rs 96 cr. Now look at the FY26 balance sheet. Other liabilities jumped from Rs 112 cr to Rs 1,298 cr, and operating cash flow hit Rs 1,368 cr against operating profit of Rs 234 cr. That gap is largely the customer advance. It is money held against future service, not money earned.

The quarterly trend needs care, too. June quarter sales rose 7% from a year ago to Rs 134 cr, with profit of Rs 29 cr. But sales fell 20% from the March quarter's Rs 168 cr, when operating margin had touched 61%. Management put the March bump down to one-time design work. ESDS share price after the IPO: Up 170%, yet 38% off the peak The share price of ESDS Software Solution closed at Rs 1,160 on 30th October 2026, 170% above the IPO price and 38% below the September peak.

The stock trades at a PE of 110x against the current industry median of 19x. Its closest listed rival, E2E Networks, trades at 91x. A 10-year median PE comparison is not possible, since the stock has been listed for under two months. The size of the bet is the real risk. At about $250 million a year on average, the Sharon AI commitment is several times ESDS's entire FY26 revenue of Rs 472 cr. And the second half of the anchor investors' shares can be traded from early December.

The September quarter results, due on 2nd November 2026 as per the board meeting notice on the BSE, will be the first real test. Two stocks, two clocks: What Ashish Kacholia's biggest bets tell retail investors Shaily earned its rerating slowly, through years of reported numbers and a new product that is already selling. ESDS earned its rerating in three weeks, on a contract that has not yet produced any revenue.

In one case, the accounts have caught up with the story. In the other, the story is still waiting on the accounts. Both are expensive at 72x and 110x earnings. Kacholia, who got into Shaily in 2018 and ESDS before its IPO, has a wide cushion. A retail investor buying today has none. For Shaily, watch pen volumes, the Abu Dhabi plant and the size of any fundraise. For ESDS, watch the 2nd November results, the GPU go-live and whether the advance turns into revenue on time.

The sensible step is to put both names on a watchlist and track them through the next two quarters. 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