Up 175% in a year! This JSW Group multibagger attracted fresh orders, brokerage interest

Shares of JSW Infrastructure Ltd (JSW Infra) climbed in Tuesday's trade on the back of positive news flow and fresh brokerage interest in the company. The company has recently acquired a controlling stake in Navkar Corporation, while Nuvama Institutional Equities has initiated coverage on the stock.

JSW Infrastructure has received a letter of intent (LoI) from the Maharashtra Maritime Board for the development, operation, management, and maintenance of an all-weather, multipurpose port at Palghar, Maharashtra, said the company in an exchange filing on Monday. "The development of the port will be on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis," the infra player said.

JSW Infrastructure is the second-largest private port company in India with a 25% volume CAGR over FY19–24. JSWIL is poised to sustain strong long-term growth on the back of favourable macro tailwinds supported by organic—group cargo growth, particularly JSW Steel—and inorganic growth in the ports and logistics segments, said Nuvama Institutional Equities.

Nuvama expects the port arm of India’s leading conglomerate JSW Group shall post revenue, Ebitda and PAT CAGR of 19 per cent, 16 per cent and 15 per cent over FY24–27E. "We value the stock at 25 times FY28E EV/Ebitda, discounted back to December 25E, yielding a target price of Rs 390," it said citing any inordinate delay in commissioning of JSWIL/JSW Steel projects as key risks.

Last week, JSW Infrastructure's subsidiary, JSW Port Logistics, completed the acquisition of 10,59,19,675 equity shares or 70.37 per cent stake in Navkar Corporation from its promoters. Following the acquisition Navkar Corp has become a step-down subsidiary of JSW Infra, it said.

Amid the corporation actions and brokerage interest, shares of JSW Infra rose about 3 per cent to Rs 328.65 on Tuesday, commanding a total market capitalization of more than Rs 69,000 crore. The scrip had settled at Rs 319.20 in the previous trading session on Monday.

Motilal Oswal Financial Services expects revenue of JSW Infra to increase 23 per cent YoY to Rs 1,040 crore driven by volume growth at new ports and recovery in volumes at Jaigarh and Dharamtar. It has expected adjusted PAT to be Rs 320 crore, up 28 per cent YoY.

The brokerage pegs an EBITDA at Rs 560 crore, with Ebitda margins improving by 40 basis points YoY driven by volume growth. "Improvement in utilization at the existing and the recently acquired ports remain the key monitorables," Motilal Oswal said with a 'buy' rating and a target price of Rs 410.

Shares of JSW Infra were listed at the bourses on October 3, 2023, when the company raised a total of Rs 2,800 crore via IPO, by selling its shares for Rs 119 apiece. The stock has zoomed more than 175 per cent from its issue price, while the stock has more than doubled investor's wealth from its 52-week low at Rs 160.50 hit on October 26, 2023.

Incorporated in 2006, JSW Infrastructure provides maritime-related services including, cargo handling, storage solutions and logistics services. The company develops and operates ports and port terminals under Port Concessions. It is India's second largest commercial port operator in the country in terms of cargo handling capacity.