Will share my understanding of overall how SJS has unfolded so far:
From the beginning, Management has shared a high growth guidance.
The prospects for the Industry (i.e. Decorative Aesthetics) have been shown as quite high – I believe the basis of this is only 1 report that was published at the time of IPO.
The IPO has been completely OFS.
In the second quarter’s Investor presentation, they have mentioned about actively seeking to hire a new CEO & CFO.
There was no information shared on why the CFO (at the time of listing & 1st quarter as public co) was no longer with the company from the very next quarter.
While the case for promoter buying shares has been made, Mr KA Joseph – hasn’t been a hands on promoter/ he hasn’t been actively running the operations.
I believe the driving force that has gotten SJS so far has been the professional CEO that came because of the PE firm’s investment.
And the stakes have been sold by the following:
Evergraph Holdings – the PE fund – reduced the stake from 35% to 5%
Sanders Consulting – Sanjay Thapar’s firm (aka CEO) and Ashish Kacholia.
Imo, this is a cue that the smart money is out of here.
Digging a little deeper on to the timing of their guidance,
This quarter – they’ve lowered the guidance.
This comes right after the CEO’s firm as well as the PE sold stakes.
During the concall, it sounded like WP acquisition might also not be a great one.
Again the higher growth guidance was due to Acquisition/s.
All of these are significant corporate governance Red Flags to me.
And I’m sceptical about the minority investor’s interests.
All said, it’s quite possible SJS might do well going ahead.
It’s a dominating business in a growth segment in a growing market like India.
Important disclosure – I have sold my shares right after the last quarter’s results.
Views likely biased.
Info sources – all public info – Investor Presentations, Concalls etc.
All opinions – have tried to distinctly mention as I believe
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