SBCL has this JV with Aperam Imphy formed in 2008 called Innovative Clad Solutions, where SBCL has 16% stake. The company makes clad metal solutions and the JV has a factory in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh and this year has shown a 120% growth in revenues Y-o-Y and a 5.5x growth in PAT.

Aperam Imphy is the alloys division of Aperam S.A, which is a 5bn $ company HQ’d in Luxembourg with Lakshmi Mittal as its Chairman.

JV website - https://www.innovativecladsolutions.com/
Aperam Imphy - Imphy - aperam
Aperam website - https://www.aperam.com/

Here’s Innovative Clad Solutions being mentioned on the Aperam Alloys website

I haven’t seen any discussion on this JV on this thread. My question for experienced Shivalik investors is :

1. Given that the JV has been in place for more than a decade, are there any insights regarding tech transfers in alloy-making that may have happened or are likely to happen from Aperam Imphy to SBCL?
2. Clad metals find diverse uses outside of the electrical industry in cookware, heat exchangers, energy storage solutions etc. Does SBCL have any plans of tapping these industries?
3. Does SBCL see the JV as strategically important and have any plans to increase their share in the JV?

Since some people are planning to go to the AGM, this maybe something worth asking?

The “Ovum” acquisition might be good for HCG considering the CAGR in the Neonatal and Maternity market. Some of the data points I could find from Rainbow Hospital DRHP and investor ppts:

1. The Neonatal care (NICU) market is proposed to grow at a CAGR of 13% FY20-26.
   

2. Under the NICU market, the market share of Private hospitals is proposed to grow at a CAGR of 15%.
   

Thoughts on the proposed acquisition:

1. It will be a good entry for HCG into Neonatal care, as it can be good revenue in the coming days for the company.
2. Listed peers on NICU care are posting healthy margins, the same can be observed here also.
3. In coming years we can see many such acquisitions happening in the hospital sector, which can improve the sector’s overall earning capacity.

Disc: Invested, biased.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZXUNuqDSa9w

If anyone is attending AGM next tuesday, kindly share AGM notes.

Solar module manufacturing industry in India has never been and is still not attractive from an investor’s perspective.

1. Most the technology required for manufacturing is always imported because there is no tech development which happens in India. Mono PERC as a technology is not very old, and now we have TopCon, additionally there will be many other in the development stage which will render the TonCon obsolete pretty soon.
2. Most raw materials required for module manufacturing are imported. The value chain is solar grade silicon ingots >>>wafers>>>cells>>>modules. At most we make cells in India from imported wafers and then module manufacturing is essentially an assembly work (with some automation/mechanization involved). There are many other materials required like glass, aluminum frames, junction box, connectors, soldering materials, EVA (front and back), backsheets, etc and host of chemicals, most of which (not all, but significant portion) is again imported, mostly from China.
3. The tech development in solar is rapid, meaning technology obsolescence is fast. This leads to significant CAPEX on a regular basis (leading to writing off of earlier investments).
4. The global price of solar module is driven mostly based on China’s price. Government may try to protect domestic manufacturers but its never going to be sufficient because India does not manufacture modules at scale. Moreover, many regard solar modules as commodity (for price negotiations) even though its not. And because of rapid tech development the fall in price of modules historically has been pretty high.
5. There is no technology advantage, no competitive advantage, no pricing power, for Indian manufacturers.
6. Just think about this, in the past decade and more, there is huge installation of solar projects in India, more than 80% of which used imported modules. Why, because the manufacturing scale was never there. Even currently, we dont have enough module capacity to meet the demand.
   I personally think that it could only be a speculative bet and pure luck to make money, because fundamentally the economics are against module manufacturers. A company like Reliance Industries also bought a foreign module manufacturer and did not invest in building the business from scratch. Tatas also have had module manufacturing business for many years, but that has never scaled to meaningful capacities.
   Look at historical performance of WebSol, Indosolar, Swelect, Surana from perspective of sales growth, profit growth, RoE/RoCE, networth improvement, etc.
   Closing comment…chances of losing money in such stocks are much higher than making money.
   Not invested, only sharing my personal opinion, not an investment advice.