Updated peer comparison with EV/EBITDA. Also included lemon Tree

No doubt the overall market share of EV vs ICE will keep shifting towards the former.
India EV penetration to be 15% by 2030: BNP Paribas – The Hindu BusinessLine

In case of 2W, it could be even higher as per different reports. Ola should be given credit for waking up legacy players out of their slumber who were refusing to innovate (Just like Jio did to Airtel and Idea).
The only concern is if it can utilise it’s head-start and vertical integration to create products with superior quality, instead of cutting corners at the wrong places and facing consumer wrath later on.

First of all HDFC ltd actual market value was much higher than what it was getting due to holding company discount so 2.7 lakhs could be a depressed market value. Second since merger, bank has increased the book value by 20%. So it beats me as to why the current price of the bank should be the same as pre-merger.

Also you ignore the fact that premerger 1650 price was at 3.5 times book while current price is at 2.7 times book. At the same book value the price should be 2100. So currently market has already discounted all the bad that it sees in the merger.

The reason last 10 year sales and profit look low is because of slowdown in chemical sector since 2021 and every company of repute (e.g. Pidilite, SRF, Deepak Nitrate) has suffered. So if you remove the last three years of performance, metrics will look different.
Same goes for P/E which looks high because of earning declines.

One shouldn’t solely go by P/E which to start with can be a misleading indicator for cyclical businesses. You won’t find seasoned and experienced investors relying on it. In fact in an interview Sajal Kapoor called P/E as “most thakela” valuation metric. If you look at price to sales, EV/EBITDA, free cash flow to sales, as well historical averages, Aarti looks much better placed than its peers.

As for promoters selling stakes, I can name hundreds of good companies where promoters have reduced the stakes. It doesn’t mean anything unless the reduction is alarming which is not the case for Aarti (just 1.5% reduction in promoter holding in 10 years).

Investing in a stock can’t be boiled down to simple metrics like P/E or 10 years growth or promoter stakes. By that logic even Infosys will look like a bad investment.

Every company and industry will go through downturn. One needs to bet on the businesses run by competent people with proven track records. That to me is the most important aspect to look. When cycle improves (Which it will invariably), good companies will get rerated and deliver handsome returns.