This stock hit 20% upper circuit after ace investor Madhu Kela buys stake

Shares of SG Finserve hit 20% upper circuit in early trade on Tuesday amid a bulk deal involving ace investor Madhusudan Murlidhar Kela. As per the exchange data, Kela picked up 9.51 lakh shares, representing 1.7% stake, in the company at a price of ₹350.01 apiece on the BSE on March 24.

Reacting to the news, SG Finserve share price surged by as much as 20% today, hitting the upper circuit limit at ₹432.65 on the BSE. Extending rally for the third straight session, the stock opened 13.7% higher at ₹410 on the BSE. The smallcap stock has risen 22.4% in three sessions, while it has rebounded 40% from its 52-week low of ₹308 touched on March 17, 2025. The counter hit its 52-week high of 546 on September 26, 2024.

With a current market capitalisation of ₹2,230 crore, the stock has risen 20% in a month, while it corrected nearly 4% in the calendar year 2025. The counter lost nearly 5% in a year and 21% in the past six months.

As per the latest shareholding pattern available on the exchange, promoters hold 48.38% stake in SG Finserve in December 2024 quarter, while institutional investors own 1.99% shares. The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) holding in the company remained unchanged at 0.07% in the third quarter of the FY25.

Renowned investor Madhusudan Kela publicly holds 14 stocks with a net worth of over ₹2,887.6 crore. His investments are focused on financial and industrial companies, including Choice International Ltd., MKVentures Capital Ltd., Indostar Capital Finance Ltd., and Sangam (India) Ltd.

CRISIL assigns long term rating to bank loan facilities

Last week, CRISIL Ratings assigned long term rating of “Crisil AA (CE) /Positive” SG Finserve’s bank loan facilities worth ₹1,000 crore. The agency has converted its provisional rating to the ₹500 crore long-term bank facilities of SG Finserve to a final rating of ‘Crisil AA (CE) /Positive’ and has reaffirmed its ‘Provisional Crisil AA (CE) /Positive’ on the remaining ₹500 crore of proposed long term bank facilities. 

“The provisional rating was converted into a final rating upon receipt of the executed guarantee deed and agreement for ₹500 crore of long-term bank loan facilities with a well-defined payment structure and guarantee-invocation mechanism. These executed guarantee deed documents are in line with the drafts guarantee deed documents based on which the provisional rating was assigned,” the rating agency said in a note.

The ratings also factors in comfortable capitalisation of the company with networth of ₹993.5 crore, as on December 31, 2024, and nil external borrowings as in date. These strengths are partially offset by company’s nascent stage of operations. The provisional rating on SG Finserve is primarily based on the strength of an unconditional and irrevocable corporate guarantee backed by a defined payment mechanism by the APL Apollo Group entity, the agency said in a note.

Established on December 31, 2024, SG Finserve is a non-banking financial company (NBFC), a group company of the APL Apollo group. It is a holding company with 26.6% stake in APL Apollo Tubes Limited (AATL), flagship company of the APL Apollo group, (with market value of ₹11,026 crore as on March 19, 2025).  As on December 31, 2024, the company’s AUM stood at ₹1,568 crore, while it cumulatively disbursed ₹36,037 crore. 

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