The Curious Case of Growth with an Asterix
Ace investor and market master Vijay Kedia has built his name on a simple habit. He buys small companies early, backs the people running them, and then sits still for years while the story plays out. The flashy trade is not his game. So, when his name turns up next to a stock, retail investors tend to lean in and ask one question: what did he see?
His latest move points to an unlikely corner of the market. A logistics firm from Ahmedabad that has been listed for barely a year has become Kedia’s latest muse. He just bought stakes in the company through his individual portfolio as well his holding company, Kedia Securities Pvt Ltd.
While it might be an interesting choice, it is not a simple one. The company has grown at a rapid pace, yet that growth comes wrapped in a few questions any careful investor should ask before getting excited. Let us look under the bonnet.
Iware Supplychain Services: Analyzing the Asset-Heavy Footprint
Incorporated in 2018, Iware Supplychain Services is a pan-India logistics company. In plain terms, it stores other companies’ goods and moves them around the country. It runs warehouses on behalf of clients, handles third-party logistics, manages rail rake handling, and offers transport and allied services.
With a current market cap of Rs 391 cr, the company operates roughly 8 lakh square feet of warehouse space across eleven warehouses in seven states, from Gujarat and Rajasthan to West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
This is a real-world, asset-heavy business. It needs sheds, trucks, and working capital. It serves clients in sectors like fast-moving consumer goods, auto parts, and sanitaryware. There is nothing glamorous here, which is exactly the kind of unglamorous setup Kedia has often gravitated towards in the past.
Kedia just bought a total of 6% stake in the company, 3% under his individual portfolio and another 3% under his holding company, Kedia Securities Pvt Ltd.
SME Board: The Liquidity Risks for Retail Investors
Before we dig into the how, one must know that this company is listed in the SME board of NSE. And like always, SMEs come with a warning: Buyer Beware.
The requirement to trade in fixed lots creates a liquidity bottleneck, often leaving investors stranded when prices crash. Also, the tiny equity base of these companies invites manipulation, fuelling ‘pump and dump’ schemes designed to trap retail capital. And lenient reporting standards frequently mask poor financial health, which the investors only come to know about when it’s too late.
With that out of the way, let us see how Kedia got into the company.
Kedia hasn’t bought the shares of the company from the open market. In fact, the company came up with a preferential issue, which is a fresh batch of new shares the company sold directly to a chosen set of investors rather than on the open market.
Iware has proposed to issue up to 7,90,800 new shares at a floor price of about Rs 255 each, later fixed at Rs 254.09, raising close to Rs 20 cr in total. Kedia’s two entities are listed among the buyers.
The Financial Trajectory: Strong CAGR vs Low-Base Realities
The growth chart looks spectacular at first glance. Here is the five-year picture, with all figures sourced from Screener.
| Financial Year | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 | FY26 | 5Y CAGR |
| Sales (Rs cr) | 19 | 24 | 44 | 59 | 86 | 258 | 69% |
| EBITDA (Rs cr) | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 17 | 29 | 71% |
| Net Profit (Rs cr) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 15 | 72% |
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), grew at a compounded rate of 71% in last 5 years. In the same period, sales have compounded at about 69%, and net profit at around 72%, per Screener. Those are some interesting numbers.
Now the asterisk. Two of them, in fact. First, the base was tiny. A company going from Rs 19 cr to Rs 258 cr in sales is growing off a very small start, and small bases always produce big percentages. Second, almost all of that jump landed in a single year. Sales were Rs 86 cr in FY25 and Rs 258 cr in FY26, a tripling in twelve months. Strip out that one explosive year, and the FY21 to FY25 sales growth works out closer to 46%. Net profit had a near-breakeven patch in FY23 too. So, the smooth-looking CAGR hides a bumpy ride.
Operating Cash Flow Deficit: Why Net Profits Disconnect from Cash Reserves
Here is where a careful investor must slow down. As the company scaled, its margins thinned. The operating margin slipped from around 20% in FY25 to roughly 11% in FY26. In other words, the extra revenue came at a lower profit on each rupee of sales, which often happens when a logistics firm takes on more low-margin transport and handling work to grow fast.
Cash is the bigger flag. Despite the strong profit on paper, cash flow from operations turned negative in FY26, and free cash flow was deeply negative as the firm spent on warehouses and vehicles. Borrowings have jumped from Rs 30 cr in FY25 to Rs 70 cr in FY26, and debtor days have crept up from 60 to 85. None of this is fatal for a fast-growing logistics player in build-out mode. But it does mean the profits are not yet turning into cash in the bank, and that is worth watching closely.
Capital Efficiency and Valuations: Interpreting the 26x PE Multiple
For all the caveats, the company does earn well on what it puts to work. Return on capital employed (ROCE) stood at about 28% in FY26 and return on equity at close to 42%, as per Screener. In plain English, for every Rs 100 of capital the business deployed, it generated roughly Rs 28 of operating profit before tax. That is a healthy figure for a logistics company, and it is the sort of capital efficiency that tends to catch a value investor’s eye.
Share Price: Evaluating the 350% Microcap Rally
The stock of Iware Supplychain Services was listed at around Rs 81 in May 2025, against an issue price of Rs 95, and traded near Rs 365 at the close on 16th June 2026.
Iware Supplychain Services Price Chart
Its 52-week range runs from Rs 90 to Rs 395. That is a gain of over 350% in a single year, per Screener. To put it simply, Rs 1 lakh invested at the issue price would be worth close to Rs 3.7 lakh today. The catch, again, is the window. A year is far too short to call this compounding, and a stock that has run this hard, this fast, can give back ground just as quickly.
One more recent development is worth a mention. The company approved its audited FY26 results in May 2026 and recommended its first dividend, a modest 10% payout. It is a small signal, but a signal nonetheless that the management is willing to share a slice of the profit.
Valuation: A Price Tag with No History
Iware trades at a PE of 26x and the industry median currently is 25x. Because the stock listed only in May 2025, there is no ten-year or even multi-year median PE band to compare it against. The usual exercise of measuring today’s valuation against a stock’s own long-run history simply cannot be done here, and any number claiming to do so would be invented.
The broader listed logistics space is a mixed bag, with several larger names either richly valued or still loss-making, so a clean industry-median comparison is shaky too. For now, 25 times earnings are the figure on the table, and it should be read as a snapshot, not a trend.
Follow Kedia in or Watch from the Sidelines?
Put the pieces together and a balanced picture emerges. Iware is a fast-growing logistics firm with strong returns on capital, a respected investor about to come on board, and a fresh first dividend. That is the bull case, and it is a real one.
On the other side sit thinning margins, negative cash flow, rising debt, a one-year sales jump that flatters the growth rate, and a stock that has already climbed steeply with no valuation history to lean on.
Kedia’s interest is a vote of confidence. For most investors, the sensible move is not to chase the price. It is to add Iware to a watchlist and watch whether the next few quarters turn that booming revenue into real cash. The growth is loud. The proof could be quieter.
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.
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