Chemical trader to EV hopeful? A-1 soars 15% in three sessions

New Delhi: Shares of logistics and chemical trading company A-1 Ltd on Tuesday continued to climb for the third consecutive day and touched upper circuit of Rs 1,824.95 on the BSE after a Mauritius-based investor acquired shares of the company.

The company's shares jumped 5 per cent to Rs 1,824.95 apiece, its upper circuit level. It had also surged 5 per cent each on Monday and Friday, locking in at the respective upper circuit limits on both occasions.

The company's market valuation stood at Rs 2,098.69 crore on the exchange.

At the end of September quarter, foreign investor holding in A-1 Ltd stood at 6.03 per cent, a sharp rise from 2.94 per cent in March.

Meanwhile, the broader equity market was trading in the negative territory, with the 30-share BSE Sensex declining 168.15 points, or 0.20 per cent, to 83,367.20 in the late morning trade.

On Friday, Mauritius-based foreign portfolio investor Minerva Ventures Fund acquired 66,500 shares of A-1 Ltd for Rs 11 crore through a bulk deal.

The shares were acquired at an average price of Rs 1,655.45 apiece.

In a regulatory filing on Friday, A-1 Ltd announced that its board will meet next week to consider a bonus issue, a stock split, and a proposal to expand into electric vehicles and clean mobility.

The company has proposed a bonus issue of 5:1, issuing five shares for every one share held by shareholders, and division of the existing one equity share into up to 10 equity shares, as per an exchange filing.

The Ahmedabad-based company also said that it plans a major diversification into India's fast-growing electric vehicle (EV) sector, marking a strategic shift from chemicals to clean mobility.

The company plans to expand operations of its subsidiary, A-1 Sureja Industries, into new EV-related verticals and allied clean mobility fields, including R&D, battery technology, EV component manufacturing, and smart charging infrastructure, the filing said.

Currently, A-1 Sureja Industries is spearheading scalable electric two-wheeler manufacturing, with an enterprise value of Rs 200 crore, it added.