Ashiana Housing is such a low profile stock that we would never have noticed it had it not been for the spotlight that Daljeet Kohli shone on it. On 19th September 2014, when Ashiana Housing was quoting at Rs. 159, Daljeet recommended a buy on the basis that the Company has an “asset-light business model, debt-free status, high ROEs and reasonable valuations”. Daljeet summed up his thesis in his catch phrase “All set for multifold growth over next 2 years…”
A little bit of probing beneath the covers revealed the astonishing fact that blue-chip investors of the calibre of Westbridge Capital/ Jwalamukhi Holdings, Ashish Kacholia and Prof. Sanjay Bakshi had already entrusted large sums of their capital to Ashiana Housing. As of 31st December 2014, Westbridge/ Jwalamukhi holds 26,42,587 shares while Ashish Kacholia holds 978,060 shares. Prof. Sanjay Bakshi’s holding is not known though he has written a number of “lectures” extolling the virtues of Ashiana Housing and has openly declared that he is bullish on the stock.
Then, on 20th November 2014, when Ashiana Housing was at Rs. 175, Religare walked onto the scene and recommended a buy on the basis that the stock is a “great story”.
Well, today the CMP is Rs. 220 which means that people who followed Daljeet’s and Religare’s advice are sitting on handsome gains of 38% and 25% respectively for just a couple of months holding.
Anyway, now the big news is that even Brahmal Vasudevan of Creador Capital, the whiz-kid known for his winner stock picks like Repco Home Finance, Cholamandalam Finance and Somany Ceramics, has fallen for the charms of Ashiana Housing.
The ET has reported that Ashiana’s QIP of Rs. 200 crore has been subscribed to by Creador Advisors and Goldman Sachs. The issue was oversubscribed and there are probably other marquee investors who have thrown their hats into the ring.
In my view, we cannot afford to sit on our haunches any longer. We need to immediately read up Daljeet’s Initiating Coverage report, Religare’s Initiating Coverage report and also Ashiana’s Investors’ Presentation to come up to speed with the situation and take appropriate action depending on our conviction level.
Update on 10.02.2015: Idria Limited, an affiliate of Creador II LLC, has invested Rs 100 crore ($ 16.2 million) for a minority stake in Ashiana Housing Limited.
These days I see a lot of articles on real estate industry as such will have negative growth and stock prices of companies such as DLF are falling constantly, now am not sure why this madness about Ashiana.
Any idea why all these so called big honcho’s are behind stocks such as Ashiana and Poddar? don’t you think DLF or any other Real estate company can copy this business model?
Appreciate your thoughts.
Regards
Bhs