Ashish Dhawan, the founder of ChrysCapital, is a buff of technology stocks. His personal portfolio reveals large stakes in companies like Sasken Communication Technologies, Advance Metering Technology, Megasoft, ALLSEC Technologies, Mastek, Logix Microsystems, Take Solutions, Cyber Media (India), Palred Technologies, NIIT Technologies, etc.
Of these, Sasken Communication Technologies used to be one of Ashish Dhawan’s favourite stocks. As of 30th June 2014, he was the single largest shareholder with a massive holding of 20,50,344 shares, constituting 9.65% of its equity.
Sasken, unfortunately, has flattered to deceive. When the company first came out with its IPO, it was supposed to revolutionize the telecom software industry. It attracted the crème-de-la-crème of investors. Marquee names like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Nortel Networks, Nokia Growth Partners LP etc queued up to buy large stakes in the company.
However, the company never performed to its potential and sorely disappointed shareholders. Its 10-year (01.10.2004) return, for instance, is (-44%) while the 5-year (01.10.2009) is a paltry 60%. In contrast, TCS has given a 10-year return of 908% and a 3-year return of 318%.
Sasken perked up a bit in the recent past when Anjan Lahiri, tech wizard from Mindtree, was appointed its CEO. However, today, the news that Anjan Lahiri had abruptly quit shattered the stock and sent it reeling down.
Ashish Dhawan also appears to be fed up with the stock. He has been selling large chunks of the stock in August and September 2014. His total sales, in these two months, aggregates 18,09,653 shares. It won’t be surprising if Ashish Dhawan dumped the rest of his holding today.
Mastek is the same mould as Sasken. As of 30th June, Ashish Dhawan held a chunk of 12,92,793 shares, comprising 5.82% of its equity. Mastek has also not delivered any meaningful returns to investors. The 10-year return (01.10.2004) from the stock is only 60% while the 5 year return (01.10.2009) is a pathetic 0.92%.
It is only in recent times that the news of the demerger has sparked some life into the stock. Daljeet Kohli and ICICI-Securities have recommended a buy.
However, Ashish Dhawan appears to be in no mood to wait for the demerger to show results. He sold a chunk of 191,888 shares of Mastek yesterday (23.09.2014) at Rs. 318.62 each.
What we would like to know is what will be the fate of the other (also non-performing) Tech stocks in his portfolio and where he will deploy the sale proceeds from these stocks.
Classic example of retail investors loose money by blindly following these hi fi investors having insider info. They buy and publicly disclose and sell and never disclose.