Azad Engineering block deal: Nomura picks stake worth Rs 66 crore in this smallcap defence stock

Japanese financial holding company Nomura has picked up a stake worth Rs 66 crore in Azad Engineering via a block deal. It bought over 4.10 lakh shares at a price of Rs 1,616.85 per equity share which was at an 8% discount over the Thursday closing price of Rs 1,753.60.

The block deal was executed on Friday and shares of Azad Engineering were bought through Nomura’s investment vehicle Nomura India Investment Fund.

Company’s shares fell by over 5% or Rs 97 to settle at Rs 1,656.80.

There were other buy and sell block deals as well involving F3 Advisors Private Limited, Graviton Research Capital and Mansi Share and Stock Advisors Pvt Ltd.

Azad Engineering manufactures life-critical components and product lines in the aerospace and defence, energy and oil and gas industries. Its products include 3D rotating airfoil portions of turbine engines and other products.

The stock has been a market laggard and has seen its price erode by 10% this year when Nifty has delivered 5.3% returns in the same period. Stock’s returns over a one year period is just over 7% which is at par with the returns given by the 50-stock index. The stock is currently trading above its 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs) of Rs 1,591 and Rs 1,556, respectively according to Trendlyne data. It has traded with high volatility with a 1-year beta at 1.4.It reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 25.3 crore in Q4FY25 versus Rs 14.9 crore reported in the year ago period. The total revenue stood at Rs 130.3 crore versus Rs 95.6 crore posed by the company in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year.

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