In Feb 2016 we made a post about the stock market is going down, it’s a good time to buy and said that we were buying an auto ancillary stock. The stock we were talking about was Motherson Sumi.

In July 2015 the Volkswagen scandal broke out, the company was caught cheating emissions tests. The software in some of their diesel cars could figure out when the car was being used in emission test(aka laboratory conditions) and change the engine performance to emit low nitrogen oxide pollutants and overall lower the performance. So it passed all the emission tests. Once the car was on the road, the software disabled the cheating module and the engine would emit 40 times the permissible amount of nitrogen oxide. A couple of researchers who were testing Volkswagen cars found out the cheating mechanism and broke the story, Volkswagen shares went into a free fall.

So what does all of this have to do with Motherson Sumi. Motherson is a key supplier of wiring harness to the Volkswagen group, the group has different companies under its umbrella like Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and others. 40% of the revenue came from Volkswagen group, so investors who panicked started selling their Motherson shares and it went into a free fall as well.

Intelligent investors on the other hand instead of panicking welcome such opportunities. Although 40% of revenues come from Volkswagen group, the scandal affected only the diesel cars of Volkswagen company (not the rest of car companies of the group). Motherson chairman said that around 15% of the revenue came from Volkswagen company, the stock price meanwhile fell from 357 Rs to a low of 158 a massive 55% loss. Was a 55% decline in the share price justified when the scandal affected 15% of the revenue and it’s not like there was a permanent loss of that 15% revenue, Volkswagen obviously would fix the issue and orders for wiring harness would continue for years to come.

Motherson Sumi share price drop and rise.

So this was a low risk high reward opportunity, investors who bought Motherson shares then would have been rewarded with more than 100% share price growth now.

PS – There is a similar opportunity in one company in the Pharma Sector right now which will we post soon. You probably will know the name if you check the Valuation Screener or if you get our Valuation Report emails.

Disclosure – We hold long position in Motherson.

PS – Please do not call/email us for personal financial advice or stock tips.