Welcome to the latest edition of Hidden Gems Weekly. In recent weeks, we examined a leading manufacturer of vinyl flooring and polyvinyl chloride-based products, a leading construction equipment manufacturer, a niche power equipment manufacturer benefiting from India’s transmission buildout, a company quietly conquering India’s industrial supply chain, a packaged food exporter building global brand buffers and a niche coatings player riding premiumisation trends. This week, we turn to a company quietly benefiting from India’s broadening infrastructure and capital expenditure cycle.
India’s infrastructure story is changing. The previous investment cycle was driven largely by roads, power and real estate.
This one is much broader. Wind farms are getting bigger, refineries are expanding, steelmakers are adding capacity and even nuclear power is back in the discussion.
Most investors looking to benefit from this trend naturally gravitate towards companies building these assets. But there is another way to play the same theme. Every wind turbine, refinery or steel plant has one thing in common before it becomes operational. Hundreds of tonnes of equipment have to be lifted, transported and assembled.
That is where Sanghvi Movers comes in.
Sanghvi Movers 1-Year Share Price Chart
The company has spent more than three decades building India’s largest crane rental business. It owns one of the world’s largest crane fleets and provides heavy-lift solutions across power, renewables, oil and gas, steel, cement and infrastructure. The cranes may not attract the same attention as the projects they help build, but without them, many of these projects simply cannot move forward.
The business itself is changing as well. Sanghvi Movers is no longer content with being just a crane rental company. It is expanding into renewable engineering services, building a presence in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and investing heavily to capture what management believes could be a multi-year infrastructure cycle. That gives investors exposure to several growth themes through a single company.
This infrastructure cycle looks different
Infrastructure spending has always moved in cycles. When one sector slows, demand for heavy equipment usually slows with it. That has been one of the biggest risks for crane rental companies, whose fortunes have often been tied to a handful of industries.
This time, the backdrop appears different.
Demand is no longer coming from one corner of the economy. Wind energy, thermal power, refineries, steel, cement and even nuclear projects are all expanding capacity.
Each of these industries requires heavy-lift equipment before production can begin, giving Sanghvi Movers exposure to several investment themes at the same time instead of relying on any one of them.
Take wind energy. Turbines are becoming taller and heavier as developers look to improve efficiency. That increases the need for specialised cranes capable of lifting larger components to greater heights. For a company like Sanghvi Movers, the opportunity is not just that India is installing more wind capacity. It is that every new generation of turbines requires more sophisticated lifting solutions.
The opportunity does not end there. Refineries continue to expand capacity, thermal power projects are being upgraded to improve grid reliability, while steel and cement manufacturers are adding fresh capacity to meet rising demand. Nuclear power, though still a smaller opportunity today, could become another source of business if the government’s expansion plans gather pace.
The impact is already visible. Sanghvi Movers’ order book stood at Rs 1,053 crore as on 14th May FY27, while the enquiry pipeline was close to Rs 4,000 crore.
Not every enquiry will convert into an order, but together they suggest the company is seeing healthy demand across sectors rather than from a single industry. That makes the current investment cycle look broader than the ones that came before it.
The numbers tell only part of the story
The broader opportunity is already beginning to show up in the numbers.
Sanghvi Movers reported its highest-ever annual revenue in FY26, with revenue from operations rising 36.9% year on year to Rs 1,070 crore. The company crossed the Rs 1,000 crore revenue mark for the first time.
Revenue Mix
Meanwhile, the March quarter alone delivered revenue of Rs 351 crore, up 31.4% from a year earlier. Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) margin stood at 40%, down yoy but up sequentially.
Margin Profile
Revenue growth, however, tells only part of the story. A better measure of the company’s operating performance is fleet utilisation. During FY26, utilisation improved to 79% from 74% a year earlier. That may not sound like a dramatic increase, but for a crane rental company, it makes a meaningful difference.
Cranes are expensive assets. Once they have been purchased, keeping them deployed at customer sites for longer periods helps improve profitability without requiring proportionate increases in costs.
There is another question investors are likely to ask. If revenue has grown so strongly, why have operating margins not expanded at the same pace?
The answer lies in the changing shape of the business rather than any weakness in the core operations. Sanghvi Movers is no longer relying solely on crane rentals for growth. It is also expanding its renewable engineering business, which follows a very different economic model.
Sanghvi Movers wants to become more than a crane rental company
There is another transformation taking place inside the business.
The traditional crane rental operation remains the company’s largest profit generator, but management is steadily building a second business around renewable energy services. Unlike crane rentals, which require continuous investment in heavy equipment, the engineering business is asset-light. It earns lower operating margins but also requires significantly less capital.
That difference is important. Lower margins do not necessarily mean lower profitability if the business generates much higher returns on the capital employed. During the earnings call, management said the renewable business has already doubled its revenue and is delivering a Return on Capital Employed of around 70%.
The core crane rental business, meanwhile, continues to grow at around 30%. Together, the two businesses create a more diversified earnings profile than Sanghvi Movers had a few years ago.
The next growth story may not come from India
India’s infrastructure pipeline is large enough to keep Sanghvi Movers busy for years. Yet the company is investing aggressively in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. That may appear counterintuitive at first. Why look overseas when the domestic opportunity itself is expanding?
The answer lies in the economics of the business. The Gulf region is witnessing a construction boom across energy, infrastructure and industrial projects, but the supply of specialised cranes has not kept pace. For a crane rental company, that creates an attractive market where higher demand can translate into better fleet utilisation and stronger rental yields.
Sanghvi Movers believes it has arrived at the right time. Its fleet in the Middle East is already operating at utilisation levels of 85% to 90%, while monthly rental yields are above 4.5%. Encouraged by the initial response, the company plans to invest around Rs 320 crore in Saudi Arabia and Qatar during FY27. It has also built an enquiry pipeline of nearly $50 million over the next two years, providing visibility on potential business.
Capital Expenditure Planned for FY27
Management expects the overseas operations to become cumulatively EBITDA positive during the first half of FY27. If that happens, the significance goes beyond another profitable geography. It would mean Sanghvi Movers is gradually reducing its dependence on a single market and building a business that can benefit from infrastructure spending in more than one region.
For investors, that diversification could prove valuable. Infrastructure spending rarely moves in perfect sync across countries. A slowdown in one market can often be offset by stronger activity elsewhere. If the Middle East business scales up as planned, Sanghvi Movers could become less dependent on the timing of India’s capital expenditure cycle than it has been in the past.
Growth comes at a price
Building a larger crane fleet requires capital. That inevitably means higher borrowings. The key question is whether the additional cranes generate enough business to justify the investment.
Debt and Returns
So far, the balance sheet appears comfortable. As of March 2026, net debt stood at Rs 612 crore, with a net debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47 times. The company’s average borrowing cost was 8.12%, while the interest coverage ratio remained healthy at around 7.5 times, suggesting operating profits comfortably cover interest payments.
The core crane rental business continues to generate operating margins of around 40%, providing the cash flows needed to support expansion. If fleet utilisation remains high and the newer businesses scale up as planned, today’s borrowing could prove to be money well spent.
What investors should keep an eye on
The investment case for Sanghvi Movers now depends less on whether demand exists and more on whether management can convert that demand into profitable growth.
| What to monitor | Why it matters |
| Fleet utilisation | Indicates whether demand remains strong enough to keep cranes deployed |
| Rental yields | Reflects pricing power in the core business |
| Order book and enquiry pipeline | Provides visibility into future revenue |
| Middle East profitability | Shows whether overseas expansion is creating value |
| Capital expenditure and debt | Indicates whether growth is coming without excessive leverage |
Is the market already looking too far ahead?
Management expects to maintain momentum in FY27, with the core crane rental business targeting around 30% growth. While it has avoided formal revenue guidance, management remains confident that infrastructure demand across sectors will stay healthy.
The stock has rallied sharply over the past year, but it still trades at around 20 times earnings. That is perhaps not an excessive valuation for a company benefiting from India’s capex cycle while expanding into renewables and the Middle East. The business also generates healthy returns, with ROE of 15.5% and ROCE of 16.7%.
The real test now is whether these investments deliver the expected returns. Investors will watch whether the expanding crane fleet remains well utilised, the renewables business scales profitably and the Middle East operations begin contributing meaningfully to earnings. If they do, earnings can continue to compound. If not, the market is unlikely to reward expansion plans on promise alone.
The bottom line
Sanghvi Movers has quietly built its leadership in its business. The difference today is that it is no longer relying only on India’s infrastructure cycle. Through its expansion into renewable engineering services and the Middle East, the company is trying to build multiple growth engines that can support earnings over the long term.
At 18.7 times earnings, the market is acknowledging that opportunity but is not pricing in perfection. Whether the stock delivers from here will depend on a few simple factors: can the company keep its cranes productively deployed, earn attractive returns on the capital it is investing and turn its newer businesses into meaningful profit contributors?
If it can, Sanghvi Movers may prove that sometimes the biggest beneficiaries of an infrastructure boom are not the companies building the projects, but those making them possible.
Disclaimer:
Note: We have relied on data from www.Screener.in 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.
Manvi Aggarwal has been tracking the stock markets for nearly two decades. She spent about eight years as a financial analyst at a value-style fund, managing money for international investors. That’s where she honed her expertise in deep-dive research, looking beyond the obvious to spot value where others didn’t. Now, she brings that same sharp eye to uncovering overlooked and misunderstood investment opportunities in Indian equities. As a columnist for LiveMint and Equitymaster, she breaks down complex financial trends into actionable insights for investors.
Disclosure: The writer and her 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. The content of the articles and the interpretation of data are solely the personal views of the contributors/ writers/authors. Investors must make their own investment decisions based on their specific objectives, resources and only after consulting such independent advisors as may be necessary.