43x and 20x Returns: Can Ashish Kacholia’s 2 Turnaround Bets Keep Delivering?

Two of his names show this pattern right now. First is a wire and cable maker out of Haridwar and the other makes fluorine chemicals in Tamil Nadu. Both have already staged their comebacks, and both have handed their early holders impressive gains.

So, the question for anyone reading about them today is not whether the businesses recovered. They plainly did. It is whether there is any uptick still left or the red flags are showing up? Let us dive in to find out.

#1 V-Marc India: Wiring the Commercial Infrastructure Boom

V-Marc India makes the wires and cables that go inside buildings, factories and power lines. Copper and aluminium conductors, building wire, low and high tension cable, the unglamorous plumbing of the electrical world.

With a current market cap of Rs 3,813 cr, the company runs plants in Uttarakhand and Maharashtra, sells through a network of more than 1,200 dealers across two dozen states, and supplies utilities and project contractors. The company was set up in 2014 and came to the market on the exchange’s small and medium enterprise platform in April 2021.

And like always, SMEs come with their own set of warnings thanks to the relaxed reporting guidelines, the limitation to trade in lots and low liquidity, that make exiting difficult.

Kacholia stepped in August 2024, buying about 5 lakh shares through a preferential allotment for roughly Rs 14.24 cr, a stake of about 2% at the time. Today he is the largest public shareholder with close to 2.71%. His timing was near perfect. The business then went into overdrive.

76% Net Profit CAGR Fuelling the Growth Story

Here is the five-year run, so the scale is clear.

Financial Year	FY21	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	5-Yr CAGR
Sales/Rs Cr	172	179	245	560	896	1,797	60%
EBITDA/Rs Cr	15	15	26	66	98	201	68%
Net Profit/Rs Cr	6	5	10	27	36	100	76%

EBITDA is operating profit before other income. Sales roughly doubled in FY26 to about Rs 1,797 cr, and net profit jumped around 178% to about Rs 100 cr. Return on equity sits near a strong 42%, return on capital around 41%, and operating margin has held steady at about 11%.

The board rewarded holders with a large bonus issue and has guided for 40% plus revenue growth in FY27. On the face of it, this is a textbook Kacholia winner, a small firm scaling fast in a sector riding power, renewables and construction demand.

Analyzing the 4,200% Multibagger Rally

The share price of V-Marc India was around Rs 6 in August 2021 and as of closing on 4^th August 2026 it was Rs 260, which is a jump of over 4,200% (or 43x)in 5 years. In fact, the stock has gone up more than 350% in just the last 1 year.

As for the valuations, the company’s share is currently trading at a PE of 38x compared to the current industry median of 29x.

Now, as I already wrote, this is an SME listing, not a main-board stock. That matters in plain ways. The shares trade in a fixed market lot rather than single units, daily volumes are thinner, prices can swing hard on small orders, and the disclosure rules are lighter than for larger companies. For a stock that has run this far this fast, that thin float cuts both ways.

Debt Levels, Pledged Shares, and Regulatory Scrutiny

Borrowings have climbed to about Rs 214 cr, the interest bill for FY26 was roughly Rs 45 cr, and the cost of that debt looks steep. Growth this quick eats cash, and the company has been funding it partly by borrowing. More striking, the promoters have pledged about 43% of their own holding, which is a lot, and their overall stake has drifted down from about 70% to 65% over three years.

The most recent flags are the ones worth pausing on. In late May 2026, the exchange asked the company for a clarification on its March 2026 results under the listing rules, and the company later explained an omitted note about a balancing figure in those accounts. A few days after that, on 4^th June 2026, the Uttarakhand state tax department carried out a survey at its premises.

The company said its operations were not affected. None of this is proof of anything on its own. But questions about the numbers, and a tax visit, arriving together on a thinly traded stock that has quadrupled, got the company under the scanner.

So, V-Marc is the fast, exciting one, and it earns real profits at a real return. But the risk you are buying is about trust and plumbing, whether the reporting is clean and whether a small-float stock can hold its price when the buying slows.

#2 Tanfac Industries: The Chemical Workhorse Powering High-Tech Sectors

Tanfac Industries is a much older company than V-Marc. From a plant in the SIPCOT estate at Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, it makes anhydrous hydrofluoric acid and its cousins, aluminium fluoride, sulphuric acid, oleum and specialty fluorides. Hydrofluoric acid is a quiet workhorse.

With a market cap of Rs 6,581 cr, what the company produces is the starting point for most fluorine chemistry, which feeds refrigerant gases, aluminium smelting, solar, batteries and even chip making. The company dates back to 1972 and is run today by Anupam Rasayan and the Tamil Nadu state industrial body, TIDCO.

Kacholia has held Tanfac for a while and topped up his position through FY26, a stake of a little over 1.5%. His interest fits his pattern of hunting for pricing power in dull-sounding chemicals.

A Decade-Long Debt Restructuring and Turnaround

The turnaround here is a decade in the making, and it is a genuine one. Look at the five-year picture below, but the real story starts even earlier: a decade ago this company was loss-making, its reserves were negative and it carried heavy debt. It cleared that debt through the 2010s, rebuilt its books and grew into a high-return franchise.

Financial Year	FY21	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	5-Yr CAGR
Sales/Rs Cr	148	320	375	378	557	711	37%
EBITDA/Rs Cr	33	76	76	72	131	112	28%
Net Profit/Rs Cr	17	53	56	52	88	70	33%

As you can see, the sales have grown at about 37% a year over five years, the return on equity has been strong, and management is now pushing ahead with a large downstream expansion at Cuddalore worth about Rs 495 cr, due to come on stream by late 2026. It has funded the plan through a fresh share sale of roughly Rs 250 cr to institutions plus a smaller preferential issue.

The demand backdrop, from refrigerants to solar to batteries, is a real tailwind. This is exactly the kind of pricing-power chemistry business that patient investors like.

Here is where the love affair looks stretched. Read the last two columns of that table again. FY26 was a step backward. Profit slipped from about Rs 88 cr to Rs 70 cr, and the operating margin fell from roughly 24% to 16% as costs bit. The most recent year, in other words, went the wrong way.

Price and Valuation: Is a 97x PE Ratio Justified?

The share price of Tanfac Industries was about Rs 155 in August 2021 and as of closing on 4^th August 2026 it was Rs 3,103 which is over a 1900% (or 20x) jump in 5 years.

Yet the stock is priced as if the opposite were true. It trades at a PE of about 97x around 13 times its book value. The current industry median is just 21x. The 10-Year median PE for the company is 16x while the industry median for the same period is 16x. Those are numbers you attach to a fast, asset-light compounder, not to a chemicals maker whose profit just shrank. Put simply, you are being asked to pay a rich growth price during an earnings dip, on faith that the Rs 495 cr expansion lands on time and the fluorine cycle turns back up.

Navigating Tanfac’s Expansion Phase

There are smaller catches too. To fund the expansion, the promoters’ stake has come down to about 48.7%, and debt is creeping back onto the balance sheet as the capex runs, so free cash flow is negative for now. The company also split its shares to improve trading liquidity, which is cosmetic and changes nothing about the business.

So Tanfac is the slow, proven one. The business is real, the chemistry is valuable, and the expansion could reset profits higher by FY28. But the risk you are buying is about price and timing, whether a premium multiple can hold while the company spends heavily and waits for demand to catch up.

Smallcap Turnarounds Still Worth the Risk?

V-Marc asks you to trust the reporting and the governance on a thinly traded small-cap that has raced ahead of almost everything around it. Tanfac asks you to trust the valuation and the chemical cycle on a stock priced for a future it has not delivered yet. One worry is about quality, the other about price.

Kacholia sidestepped both worries by doing what he always does, buying early, buying small and buying cheap. His entry cost gives him a cushion that a new buyer, arriving after a fourfold or a ten-year run, simply does not have. Following a star investor into a stock is not the same as buying it at his price.

The next few quarters should settle a lot. V-Marc has promised 40% plus growth and now has to prove its numbers are as clean as they are big. Tanfac has to bring its new plant on line and show the profit dip was a pause, not a peak. Get those right and both stay turnaround stories. Get them wrong and today’s prices will look like the expensive part of the ride. A good idea would be to add these stocks to a watchlist and follow them closely.

Disclaimer:

Note: We have relied on data from http://www.Screener.in and http://www.trendlyne.com throughout this article. Only in cases where the data was not available, have we used an alternate, but widely used and accepted source of information.

The purpose of this article is only to share interesting charts, data points and thought-provoking opinions. It is NOT a recommendation. If you wish to consider an investment, you are strongly advised to consult your advisor. This article is strictly for educative purposes only.

Suhel Khan has been a passionate follower of the markets for over a decade. During this period, he was an integral part of a leading Equity Research organisation based in Mumbai as the Head of Sales & Marketing. Presently, he is spending most of his time dissecting the investments and strategies of the Super Investors of India.

Disclosure: The writer and his dependents do not hold the stocks discussed in this article. The website managers, its employee(s), and contributors/writers/authors of articles have or may have an outstanding buy or sell position or holding in the securities, options on securities or other related investments of issuers and/or companies discussed therein.