Wish Tina had invested in 8K Miles and not FN Souza’s 'Birth'

Today's newspaper carried an interesting piece on the cover page. The heading read 'Francis Newton Souza becomes India's most expensive artist'. As per the report, 'Birth', a monumental work by FN Souza sold for an eye-popping US$ 4.01 million (or INR 27 crore) at a Christie's auction in New York on 17^th Sep 2015. The seller was Harmony Art Foundation, an entity run by Tina Ambani, wife of businessman Anil Ambani. Tina Ambani had picked up FN Souza's artwork for US$ 2.5 million (or INR 11 crore) at a 2008 Christie's auction in London. Based on the selling price, Tina managed to double her initial investment with ease.

Tina's business acumen truly deserves applaud!

However, had she invested this entire money in a Chennai-based cloud computing company named 8K Miles Software Services Limited (8K Miles), she would surely be on cloud nine.

Yesterday, shares of 8K Miles hit an intraday high of INR 1,444.75 to close at INR 1,399/- during the day on the BSE, much above its 52-week low of INR 324/-. On 18^th Sep 2015, the stock hit a fresh 52-week high (which is also the all time high) after 8K Miles announced the acquisition of NexAge Technologies USA, Inc. for US$ 3 million. Interestingly, it was the third acquisition for 8K Miles so far this year. The company had acquired Cintel Systems, Inc., another US-based company for US$ 3.7 million in April after taking over Mindprint Inc., a clinical research software startup in Canada, for US$ 400,000 in February.

One fund manager, who spotted the opportunity early on, is sitting pretty! He acquired some shares of 8K Miles worth INR 5.3 crore through bulk deals in August 2014. As of date, assuming he has not sold-off any of these shares from the scheme, the value of his fund holdings in 8K Miles stands at INR 42.5 crore – approximately 8x his investment. Another fund manager, who followed the same course, but in September 2014, seems to have liquidated his entire holding generating a quick profit.

A few non-promoter individuals who had ploughed-in a total INR 30 crores via convertible warrants have also seen the value of their holdings rise to INR 100 crores in less than a year. In fact, one of them has neatly pocketed his gains already.

8K Miles was originally promoted by the Surana Group (Hyderabad). It was incorporated in 1985, as Rosebuds Commercials Limited, only to be renamed as PM Strips Limited in 1998. The current name 8K Miles was given only in 2010 after the current promoters (Suresh Venkatachari and RS Ramani) entered into a share-swap arrangement with the Surana Group.

It is interesting to note that at the time of open offer in 2010, the net worth of Suresh Venkatachari (CEO) was INR 10.5 crore while that of RS Ramani (CFO) was INR 1.1 crore. Today, as I write, the market value of Suresh Venkatachari's shares in 8K Miles is over INR 800 crore, while that of RS Ramani's shares is over INR 90 crore.

Kudos to the new promoter team!

Disclaimer – All information has been obtained from desktop research; the author cannot be held liable for any incorrect details