Narayana Murthy’s family office quietly bets Rs 360 crore on two new manufacturing stocks

The June 2026 pattern shows Catamaran Ventures LLP holding 1.68% of Sansera Engineering, a position worth roughly Rs 336 cr at current prices. That makes it the second largest disclosed public market bet in the Catamaran book, after Aequs which is worth Rs 430 cr currently. In the same quarter, the LLP surfaced with 1.02% of M M Forgings, a Chennai-based forging veteran, a position worth only about Rs 26 cr. Neither name existed in any earlier quarter of either register.

Notice what both companies do. Sansera forges and machines precision metal parts. M M Forgings, as the name says, forges steel. Add the earlier two picks and a picture emerges. The man who built India’s most famous software company is now, stock by stock, building a portfolio of the country’s metal and machine shops. Except this time, the two picks sit at opposite ends of the market’s affection. One is priced like a star. One is priced like a problem. That contrast is the real story here.

Sansera Engineering: The ₹20,000 Crore Premium Payout

Sansera Engineering, incorporated in 1981, is a Bengaluru-based maker of precision forged and machined components. Its best-known product is the humble connecting rod, the part that links a piston to a crankshaft, and it ranks among the top ten global suppliers of connecting rods for light and commercial vehicles. Beyond autos, it supplies aerospace, off-road and agriculture customers, and it earns a healthy share of revenue from Europe and the United States.

The company’s current market cap is 20,176 cr and it has established itself as one of the leading manufacturers of high-precision components in the Automotive and Non-Automotive space. Sansera’s factories and Murthy’s Infosys grew up in the same city. But that geography does not alone move Catamaran. Numbers do. So, let’s look at them.

Margin Expansion: Unpacking Sansera’s FY26 Earnings Surge

Financial Year	FY21	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	5Y CAGR
Sales (Rs cr)	1,549	1,989	2,338	2,811	3,017	3,498	18%
EBITDA (Rs cr)	274	336	380	482	517	632	18%
Net Profit (Rs cr)	110	132	148	188	217	327	24%

EBITDA here refers to operating profit before other income. Sales have grown steadily every single year, through Covid, chip shortages and slow auto cycles, compounding at 18% a year over five years. But the profit line is where FY26 turned special. Net profit jumped to Rs 327 cr. A big reason sits in one line of the accounts.

Interest costs collapsed from Rs 61 cr in FY25 to just Rs 24 cr in FY26, after the company raised fresh capital, slashed borrowings from Rs 726 cr to Rs 238 cr in FY25, and let a stronger balance sheet do the rest. Return on capital employed (ROCE) stands near 14% and return on equity (ROE) around 11%, modest numbers that the company is working to lift as its newer, higher-margin aerospace and non-auto lines scale up.

In January 2026, it also signed a joint venture with Japan’s Nichidai Corporation for advanced forged parts. If you have followed Catamaran’s earlier picks, the Japanese connection will sound very familiar by now.

The Valuation Reality: Is Perfection Already Priced In?

The share price of Sansera was around Rs 815 when it listed in September 2021 and as of closing on 30^th July 2026 it was Rs 3,235 which is a jump of 297% in just about 5 years.

As for the valuations, the company’s share is trading at a PE of 60x which is double when compared to the current industry median of 30x. A ten-year median comparison is not possible as the stock was listed less than 5 years ago. But what must be said is that the market has already priced in years of flawless execution. Catamaran is paying up for quality, and paying up is a risk in itself.

The shareholder count leapt from about 77,000 in December 2025 to nearly 95,000 by March 2026, a record for the company, as retail investors piled into the rally. The register behind them is telling too. Promoter holding, at 29% as of June 2026, has drifted down from about 35% two years ago, while institutions dominate with foreign investors at 21.5% and domestic institutions at 31%.

Also, the momentum is not just in the share price. The March 2026 quarter was Sansera’s best ever, with net profit of Rs 123 cr and operating margins touching 19%, the strongest in its listed history. Catamaran, in other words, is buying a business at full gallop, and paying full fare for the ticket.

M M Forgings: A Classic Contrarian Value Trap or Turnaround?

M M Forgings was incorporated in 1946, not as a forging company, but as a retailer of imported Royal Enfield motorcycles. It set up its first steel forging plant in Tamil Nadu in 1974 and eventually let go of the bike business altogether to focus on metal. Eighty years after its founding, it makes steel forgings in carbon, alloy and stainless grades for auto and industrial customers, and it will hold its 80th annual general meeting this August.

With a market cap of Rs 2,591 cr, this is one smallcap that caught the eye of the Murthy Family.

Debt Cycles & Tax Cushions: Inside M M’s Financials

Let us dive into the financials of the company to see what caught the Murthy Family’s attention.

Financial Year	FY21	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	5Y CAGR
Sales (Rs cr)	752	1,140	1,462	1,563	1,525	1,590	16%
EBITDA (Rs cr)	129	209	273	293	296	280	17%
Net Profit (Rs cr)	46	91	128	135	123	99	17%

EBITDA here refers to operating profit before other income. FY26 net profit was supported by a lower one-off tax rate of 12% for the year, against 24 to 27% in earlier years.

The five-year growth rates look respectable. But read the recent trend and the bruises show. Net profit has fallen for two straight years, from a peak of Rs 135 cr in FY24 to Rs 99 cr in FY26, and even that figure leaned on an unusually low tax charge.

One of the reasons is possibly that the company has been spending heavily on new capacity, and it borrowed to do it. Interest costs have swelled from Rs 30 cr in FY23 to Rs 78 cr in FY26, and borrowings stand at Rs 1,074 cr against a market value of about Rs 2,591 cr. Return on capital employed has slid to about 10%. Domestic institutions have responded by cutting their holding from 15.7% in September 2023 to 7.5% by June 2026, less than half.

Cash Flow Rotation vs. Stretching Receivables

The share price of M M Forgings was about Rs 360 in July 2021 and as of closing on 30^th July 2026 it was Rs 535, which is a jump of 49% in 5 years,

Regarding valuations, the company’s share is trading at a PE of 26x compared to the current industry median of 30x. The 10-year median PE for the company is 20x while the industry median for the same period is 25x. As we can see, the stock is not priced for perfection, and the market has already figured this out. The share is up about 41% in a year. Still, promoters have held firm at 56.3% through it all, and now a famous new name has joined them on the register. This is a classic contrarian setup: buy a decent franchise mid-capex, when the crowd is bored of waiting.

Early Turnaround Signs: Cash Flow Rotation and Stretching Receivables

Look closer and there are early signs of a turnaround, as the spending phase is diminishing. Free cash flow, negative for three years running, swung back to a positive Rs 71 cr in FY26 as operating cash hit Rs 242 cr, the highest in the company’s history barring one Covid year. Borrowings actually fell during FY26, from Rs 1,184 cr to Rs 1,074 cr.

To be clear, it is a small bet. At about Rs 26.4 cr, Catamaran’s position here is a fraction of its Sansera stake. The office is perhaps testing the thesis, not pounding the table. And there are honest reasons for caution beyond the debt. The company’s debtor days have stretched from 59 in FY23 to 103 in FY26, which means customers are taking much longer to pay, and cash is sitting in receivables rather than in the bank. A turnaround thesis needs that number to bend back down too, not just the interest bill.

Conviction Scaling and Portfolio Discipline, The Murthy Way

Four fresh stocks in one filing season (read about the previous two buys here). A generator maker, a special steel supplier, a precision parts champion and a forging veteran. Every one of them bends, casts, forges or machines metal. Three of the four carry deep Japanese partnerships. None of them sells software. The founder of Infosys, it turns out, is betting his family’s capital on the sweat and steel of Indian manufacturing.

The two newest picks also reveal how the office thinks about price. Where it sees a proven compounder, it pays a rich multiple and buys big, as with Sansera. Where the story is unproven, it pays a modest multiple and buys small, as with M M Forgings. Position size follows conviction. That is textbook portfolio discipline, and it is worth more attention than the stock names themselves.

However, the caution flags are just as clear. Sansera at 60 times earnings leaves no room for a stumble, and M M Forgings still has to prove its expensive new capacity can earn its keep. Copying a famous investor without understanding these risks is how retail money gets hurt. Treat the filings as a reading list, not a shopping list. Study both businesses, watch a couple of quarters, and let the evidence, not the name on the shareholder register, make your decision. A good way to do that 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.