This Stock Hits Upper Circuit After Ashish Kacholia Hikes Stake

SastaSundar Ventures (SSVL), an e-pharmacy retailer, has delivered exceptional gains in the past one year.

From Rs 125 in early January, the stock of Sastasundar Ventures has rallied to over Rs 465.

On the BSE, the company's shares hit an upper circuit limit of 5% at Rs 467.3 on December 29.

What caused SastaSundar Ventures' stock price to rise?

The stock price surged today after renowned ace investor and stock market expert Ashish Kacholia increased his stake in the company via a bulk deal on Monday, December 27, 2021.

According to NSE bulk deal data, Ashish Kacholia purchased 2.25 lakh shares in Sastasundar Ventures, or 0.71% for Rs 447 per share.

On the other hand, Microsec Vision Trust One sold 2.25 lakh shares at Rs 447 on the NSE.

As on September 2021, Mr. Kacholia held 1.04% stake in the company. Sanjay Agarwal, Rahul Kumar Agrawal, and Pratap Singh as trustees of Microsec Vision Employees Trust held 3.42%.

Who is Ashish Kacholia? 

Ashish Kacholia is one of the leading investors in the Indian stock market.

He is very well known for his stock picks in the small and midcap space.

Ashish Kacholia co-founded Hungama Digital with none other than the big bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and started his own company Lucky Securities in 2003.

He started his career at Prime Securities and also had a brief stint at Edelweiss Capital before establishing Lucky Securities.

As per a report, Ashish Kacholia, who is fondly believed as the ‘Big Whale' of the Indian stock market, publicly holds 26 stocks with a net worth of over Rs 1,630 crore.

Why did he pick up a stake in SastaSundar Ventures?

While we don't know the reason behind this move, we can try to understand his action if we breakdown a few facts about the company and its operations.

The company is into online pharmacy and provides healthcare services across India. Ecommerce has shown exponential growth across categories as internet access and smart phone availability have increased.

As a result of pandemic, e-pharmacies have emerged as a promising sector.

There are already over 50 e-pharmacies in India, with estimations putting the market value at $0.5 billion in 2019, roughly 2-3% of total Indian pharmacy sales.

By 2025, the market is predicted to increase at a compounded rate of 44%, reaching $4.5 billion.

There is still a lot of room for internet penetration in India, which is anticipated to grow at an annual rate of 8.8% between 2020 and 2025.

As a result, with the progressive growth in internet and mobile phone usage in India, e-pharmacies will continue to grow. Aside from that, continuous technology advancement will assist this expansion.

This sector is also attracting huge investments from some of the largest conglomerates around the world.

Last month in November, the Flipkart Group decided to buy a controlling share in SastaSundar Marketplace in order to create its own healthcare company amid the pandemic-driven consolidation in India's health tech industry.

Flipkart Health+, as the new entity will be known, will leverage the combined strengths of the Walmart controlled Flipkart Group, which includes its pan-India reach and technology capabilities, with SastaSundar's deep expertise to provide consumers end-to-end offerings in the health-tech ecosystem.

It will endeavour to give millions of Indian consumers access to quality and affordable healthcare, starting with e-pharmacy. It will add new healthcare services such as e-diagnostics and e-consultation over time.

The management said through this partnership with Flipkart, they see an opportunity to further grow and reach a larger consumer base, using complementary technologies and logistics infrastructure.

Apart from that, in terms of the gross merchandise value (GMV), SastaSundar is the second largest player after PharmEasy.

All these reasons work in favour of the online pharmacy firm SastaSundar Ventures.

A quick look at company's financials

The company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 8.7 crore in the quarter ended September 2021 against a net loss of Rs 3.6 crore during the quarter ended September 2020.

Its net sales rose 12.3% to Rs 160 crore in the second quarter of the financial year 2022 over the same period last year.

Which other stocks does Ashish Kacholia hold in his portfolio?

These are the shares held by Ashish Kacholia as per the information available by the exchanges.

How the stock markets reacted to SastaSundar Ventures

Shares of SastaSundar Ventures opened the day at Rs 467.3 on the BSE and Rs 466.9 on the NSE.

Its share price closed at Rs 467.3 (up 5%) on the BSE and Rs 466.9 (up 5%) on the NSE.

The share touched its 52-week high of Rs 575 and 52-week low of Rs 97 on 24 November 2021 and 12 April 2021, respectively.

Over the last 30 days, the SastaSundar Ventures share price is down 17.2%. Over the last one year, the company's share price is up 264.4%.

About SastaSundar Ventures

SastaSundar is an online pharmacy and digital platform of healthcare supported by a network of physical counselling and service centres called ‘Healthbuddies'. The service verticals of SastaSundar are pharmacy, diagnostics, and wellness.

They use knowledge and digital connectivity to reduce cost and add convenience in making available high-quality medicines, healthcare products and services.

They have a B2C website and mobile app named ‘SastaSundar.com'. It also supports small pharmacies through its B2B Platform called Retailer Shakti.

The company's online ecosystem is supported by offline, independent ‘Healthbuddies' who act as their last mile delivery partners.

A Healthbuddy is a low-cost physical counselling and service centre with the licence to function as ‘retail chemist and druggist' and is equipped with the digital ‘Know Health' info bank and qualified pharmacists.

Healthbuddies are connected with the centralised inventory and resources via SastaSundar digital connectivity.

For more details about the company, you can have a look at SastaSundar Ventures' factsheet. 

Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It is not a stock recommendation and should not be treated as such. 

(This article is syndicated from Equitymaster.com)

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)