MESSAGES

So here is the story. JWL worked with Log9 to bid for the battery orders of Vande Bharat for Siemens and won the contract. They made JEM acquire Log9s Railways and EV technology and one factory in Devanahalli. Log9 has many more products but doesnt look like all that will move. This is JWL being smart and buying only what they need rather than acquiring all of Log9. It is in the news that Log9 couldnt pay salaries a few months ago, so they are going through a crunch. Hope the TV channels dig out as much details as possible. Usually they give English interviews, so ET now and CNBCTV18 more likely.

Another thing he said was, he would only acquire companies that can be scaled up. There must be a lot of head room to grow. Also he said as a family business owner, he cannot be obsessed about every small piece of the business. Professionals must be brought in and the founders have to learn to let go. This explains why they focused on wheel sets and then moved to EVs.

Just finished hearing the Hurun India conclave on family businesses. Some of the things Mr.Lohia said were quite impressive. 1. Never be afraid to reduce company stake as a promoter. Own less of a large company than own full of a small compny. 2. JWL is working with multiple start ups and mostly the founders join JWL with their team. 3. Always look to have technology alliances. Borrow the tech and manufacture with quality at a reasonable cost. 4. JWL is a first generation business. Though his dad had the connections, he was a technocrat. The compny was started by the dad and the brothers together. 5. Execution is key. Lot of people have ideas. Execution is where it becomes difficult in a country like ours. 6. Production targets were not met many times because of supplier issues. Wheel sets. So do backward integration. Same strategy for EVs as well. Today we see them acquiring a battery tech compny.

Very likely that Mr.Lohia could be called for interviews tomorrow. Hoping that pushes the stock a bit more.

Any surprise that the stock went up and sustained today. Looks like markets have its way of figuring things out. Deal size not announced. Hope they have not crept into debt for this. Considering log9 has its own manufacturing capabilities it is not just a tech acquisition, it has tech and production.

oh, brilliant, this is huge. This ensures continuous supply of technology and possibilities of getting into energy storage business, but more importantly, this technology is not to be shared with any other companies. Great move for JWL.