Welcome to the latest edition of Hidden Gems Weekly . In recent weeks, we examined a company quietly conquering India’s industrial supply chain, a communication equipment manufacturer, a packaged food exporter building global brand buffers and a niche coatings player riding premiumisation trends. This week, we turn to a business operating quietly at the core of global knowledge and learning systems, where content, platforms, and workflows shape how information is created and consumed.
India’s power grid is entering a once-in-a-generation investment cycle. Most investors looking at this opportunity naturally gravitate towards transformer manufacturers, cable companies and transmission engineering contractors because these businesses are most visibly linked to the spending wave.
But large infrastructure systems are rarely defined by their biggest components. When we think about the power grid, we think of transmission lines, substations and transformers. Rarely do we think about the dozens of smaller components sitting inside these systems, quietly doing their job year after year. Yet these are often the parts that determine whether the larger system works smoothly or not.
Yash Highvoltage belongs to this category. The company manufactures transformer bushings, highly specialised components that allow electricity to safely enter and exit a transformer. Most investors have probably never heard of transformer bushings, but every high-voltage transformer installed anywhere in the world requires them.
Yash Highvoltage Ltd 1-Year Share Price Chart
What the company does
At its core, Yash Highvoltage is a niche power equipment manufacturer. The company produces condenser-graded transformer bushings used in transformers and reactors across utilities, industrial facilities and power transmission networks.
The company manufactures both Oil Impregnated Paper and Resin Impregnated Paper bushings. Over the years, it has secured approvals from organisations such as Bharat Heavy Electricals, National Thermal Power Corporation and Power Grid Corporation of India, relationships that typically take years to establish and maintain. According to industry estimates. Yash is the only listed pure-play transformer bushing manufacturer in India and operates in a segment with relatively few global competitors.
Viewed from a distance, the business may not look particularly exciting. It makes a highly specialised industrial product in a niche market. But that is often where interesting businesses hide. The less obvious a product is, the less attention investors tend to pay to the economics of the industry behind it.
Why this is not a commodity business
Most industrial products eventually become commodities. Customers compare prices, negotiate aggressively and switch suppliers whenever they find a cheaper alternative.
The transformer bushing industry behaves differently because the cost of failure is far greater than the cost of the component itself. A transformer can remain operational for thirty years or more and can cost several crores of rupees. A failed bushing can damage equipment, disrupt operations and result in expensive repairs or replacement.
Utilities therefore tend to think differently about supplier selection. They are not particularly interested in saving a small amount of money on a component if it increases the risk of damaging an asset worth many times more. Reliability, operating history and product performance usually carry more weight than marginal price differences.
This helps explain why qualification cycles can stretch for years. New suppliers must pass extensive testing, field validation and approval processes before they are allowed to participate. Once approved, they often remain part of the vendor ecosystem for a long time. In many ways, the industry’s biggest barrier to entry is not manufacturing capacity but trust built over years of successful operation.
India’s transmission buildout is the bigger story
The investment case for Yash ultimately rests on a much larger trend. India’s electricity consumption continues to rise because of urbanisation, industrial growth, electric vehicle adoption and the rapid expansion of data centres.
At the same time, a growing share of power is being generated far away from where it is eventually consumed. Solar parks in Rajasthan and wind farms in Gujarat are of little use unless the electricity they produce can travel hundreds of kilometres to homes, factories and offices.
This is why transmission infrastructure is becoming just as important as generation capacity. According to the National Electricity Plan, India aims to add more than 191,000 circuit kilometres of transmission lines and 1,274 Gigavolt-Amperes of transformation capacity by FY2032. Industry estimates suggest achieving these targets could require investments of around Rs 9 lakh crore, making it one of the largest grid expansion programmes in the country’s history.
For most investors, these numbers point towards transmission companies, cable manufacturers and transformer makers. But every transformer deployed as part of this buildout requires multiple bushings. In that sense, Yash is not merely a transformer bushing company. It is a specialised supplier quietly positioned inside a much larger power infrastructure cycle.
The shift from Oil Impregnated Paper to Resin Impregnated Paper
There is another trend working in the company’s favour. The transformer bushing industry is gradually shifting from traditional Oil Impregnated Paper technology towards Resin Impregnated Paper bushings, which offer advantages in reliability, safety and maintenance.
For manufacturers, this transition is important because resin-impregnated paper products typically involve greater technological complexity and higher value addition. Companies that establish a strong position in this segment may be able to improve margins while differentiating themselves from competitors.
Yash is attempting to position itself for this shift through investments in manufacturing and backward integration. Rather than remaining dependent on imported components, the company is working towards internalising a larger portion of the value chain.
Management’s biggest bet so far
Companies often reveal their ambitions through capital allocation. When demand is strong and business conditions are favourable, management teams have choices. They can simply add more capacity, or they can use the opportunity to move deeper into the value chain.
Yash appears to be attempting the latter. The company’s ongoing greenfield expansion project in Vadodara, involving an investment of around Rs 153 crore, represents one of the largest capital allocation decisions in its history.
The project is intended to achieve two objectives simultaneously. It will increase manufacturing capacity and allow the company to manufacture critical Resin Impregnated Paper cores in-house. This should reduce import dependence while increasing value addition within the business.
Management expects the facility to expand installed capacity from roughly 9,000 units annually to around 15,000 units. The additional capacity should support future growth while also strengthening the company’s export ambitions.
Where Could Future Growth Come From?
| Driver | Current Situation |
| Exports | 7% of revenue |
| Countries Served | 60+ |
| Capacity | 9,000 units |
| Post Expansion Capacity | 15,000 units |
| Product Mix | Moving from OIP to RIP |
What makes this particularly interesting is that the expansion is not being financed through excessive borrowing. Total debt stood at roughly Rs 38 crore at the end of FY2026, translating into a debt-to-equity ratio of around 0.2 times. While borrowings have increased to support expansion, the balance sheet remains reasonably comfortable.
The numbers suggest momentum is already visible
Of course, a good narrative only becomes interesting if the numbers begin to support it. In Yash’s case, the financial performance suggests that the broader industry tailwinds are beginning to show up in the business.
Revenue increased from about Rs 150 crore in FY2025 to Rs 235 crore in FY2026, representing growth of roughly 57%. Operating profit rose from around Rs 34 crore to Rs 60 crore during the same period, while net profit increased from approximately Rs 21 crore to Rs 37 crore.
The half-yearly trend is equally encouraging. Revenue increased from Rs 57 crore in the six months ended September 2024 to Rs 100 crore in the corresponding period of FY2026. In the March 2026 half-year, revenue reached Rs 136 crore compared to Rs 93 crore a year earlier, while net profit increased from Rs 15 crore to Rs 24 crore.
Margins have also strengthened over the last two years. Operating margins that were largely in the high teens and low twenties have moved towards the mid-twenties, touching 26% in the March 2026 half-year. As volumes rise and the product mix improves, a greater share of revenue appears to be flowing through to profits.
Returns and balance sheet remain healthy
Growth is easy to achieve if a company is willing to borrow aggressively. Maintaining healthy returns while expanding capacity is usually much harder.
The Balance Sheet Hasn’t Broken
| Metric | FY26 |
| Debt | Rs 37.6 crore |
| Debt/Equity | 0.20x |
| ROCE | 28.7% |
| ROE | 23.5% |
| Interest Coverage | 14.1x |
Yash’s financial profile currently appears reasonably balanced. Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) stands at around 29%, while Return on Equity (ROE) is above 23%. These are healthy numbers for a manufacturing company that is simultaneously investing in future growth.
The balance sheet remains comfortable despite the ongoing expansion programme. Debt remains modest relative to equity, and the company continues to generate healthy profitability. If the new facility ramps up over the next few years, returns could benefit from both operating leverage and higher value-added products.
Exports could become the second growth engine
The domestic power opportunity is substantial. Exports, however, may eventually become an equally important part of the story.
The company already serves customers in more than 60 countries and has steadily expanded its international presence. Global demand for transmission equipment is rising as countries invest in renewable energy integration, grid modernisation and electricity infrastructure upgrades.
A larger manufacturing footprint, improved product capabilities and backward integration could help Yash participate more meaningfully in export markets. While domestic demand remains the primary growth driver today, exports offer an additional avenue for growth that is not entirely dependent on Indian power spending.
Valuation and the question that matters
The market has already noticed the story. At around 55 times earnings, Yash Highvoltage is not a stock that investors buy because it looks optically cheap. They buy it because they believe the company’s niche position can become more valuable over time.
The question is whether Yash can evolve from being a domestic component supplier into a globally relevant specialist manufacturer operating in a segment where customer relationships often last decades. If the company succeeds in expanding capacity, improving product mix and increasing exports, today’s valuation may eventually appear less demanding than it does today.
Closing thought
The stock market usually gravitates towards the most visible beneficiaries of an investment cycle. In the case of power infrastructure, that means transformers, cables and transmission projects.
But sometimes the more interesting businesses are the ones supplying products that most investors never think about. Yash Highvoltage manufactures a component that represents only a small portion of a transformer’s cost, yet plays a critical role in its operation. As India’s power grid expands and transmission investments accelerate, the company finds itself supplying a product that utilities rarely want to take chances with.
That does not guarantee success, and the valuation leaves little room for disappointment. But it does create an interesting question for investors: when the power sector builds thousands of new transformers over the next decade, who will supply the small component that every one of them needs?
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