A Family Exit, a Professional Entry, and a Bet on the Next Cycle

THE COLLISION: DECEMBER 11 — AND WHY IT MATTERS

On December 11, a ₹99-crore block deal in Usha Martin quietly marked a generational shift in ownership.

• Peterhouse Investments, part of the Jhawar family’s holding structure, reduced its stake.
• Three institutional buyers stepped in immediately — Bandhan MF, Morgan Stanley Asia, and notably, Prashant Jain through 3P India Equity Fund.

The last name is what turned an ordinary block deal into a market-relevant signal.

Because in Indian markets, when Prashant Jain enters a stock, people pay attention — not out of hype, but out of history.

A FAMILY LEGACY THAT FRACTURED

Usha Martin’s origins trace back to 1960, when brothers Basant Kumar Jhawar and Brij Kishore Jhawar began a wire rope manufacturing business in Kolkata. Over six decades, the company grew into India’s largest wire rope manufacturer with global operations.

For years, the family’s two branches shared control:

• The Basant–Prashant Jhawar branch focused on corporate strategy
• The Brij–Rajeev Jhawar branch handled operations

This balance held until 2017, when disagreements surfaced over the deployment of proceeds from the sale of the steel business to Tata Steel.

Board decisions increasingly favoured the Brij–Rajeev branch.
By 2019, institutional shareholders supported a governance reset that effectively ended the Basant branch’s leadership role.

From that point onward, the Basant–Prashant faction retained shareholding but lost operational influence.

THE PROFESSIONAL CAPITAL THAT REPLACED THEM

Institutional money stepping in when a promoter steps out is not unusual.

But the identity of one buyer stands out.

Prashant Jain Is Not a Regular Institutional Buyer

In a market saturated with new funds and rising managers, Jain occupies a different category:

• Three-decade career in Indian equity markets
• 19 years as CIO of HDFC Mutual Fund
• Managed India’s largest equity fund (HDFC Equity) and largest hybrid fund (HDFC Balanced Advantage) at the same time
• Only fund manager in India to run the same scheme continuously for 25+ years
• Delivered 20.9% CAGR vs ~18.4% peer average over nearly two decades
• Outperformed the Nifty 50 in 73% of rolling five-year periods
• Known for contrarian investing, cyclical timing, and long-tenure holding discipline

When he left HDFC in 2022, he did not exit quietly.
His new platform — 3P India Equity Fund, a Category III AIF — quickly became a benchmark for high-conviction institutional positioning.

He doesn’t take token positions. He takes positions he intends to hold for years.

And he almost never appears in block deals unless he has spent months analysing the business, cycle, and management direction.

So when his fund bought ₹47.3 crore worth of Usha Martin on the exact day a promoter entity exited, it became a market signal, not just a transaction.

THE INSTITUTIONAL ACCUMULATION FEW NOTICED

Even as the promoter reduced exposure, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were moving in the opposite direction.

Over the last 15 months:

• July 2024: 6.94%
• September 2024: 7.44%
• December 2024: 8.14%
• March 2025: 9.25%
• June 2025: 11.06%
• September 2025: 12.29%

That is a 485-basis-point increase in DII ownership.

This accumulation occurred despite muted near-term business performance and limited market enthusiasm.

A PATTERN EMERGES

In Q3 2025, 3P India Equity Fund made a series of moves that shared a common theme — buying quality companies after prolonged corrections.

• AAPL Holdings: Position increased aggressively as consumer margins stabilised
• Ashoka Buildcon: Continued accumulation following a sharp stock correction and fresh order inflows
• Usha Martin: Entry via the December 11 block deal

Each represented a cyclical business facing temporary headwinds, not structural decline.

WHAT THE OWNERSHIP SHIFT SIGNALS

Over the past year:

• Promoter holding: declined
• DIIs: increased materially
• FIIs: largely stable
• Retail investors: reduced exposure

Such transitions — from promoter-heavy ownership toward institutional stewardship — have historically preceded important inflection points, though outcomes naturally vary.

The December 11 transaction crystallised that shift in a single moment.

WHAT COMES NEXT

The significance of this move will not be decided by narratives, but by data:

• Q3 FY26 results: Will confirm whether business stabilisation is underway
• Follow-on buying: Whether early institutional entrants add further exposure
• Ownership trends: Continued DII participation versus renewed promoter selling

If the cyclical recovery thesis plays out, the December entry may later be viewed as timely.
If not, it will stand as a calculated risk taken early.

Either way, the alignment of a promoter’s reduction with a contrarian investor’s entry makes December 11 a moment worth recording.

CONCLUSION

The December 11 block deal was more than a transaction. It marked:

• the closing chapter of one branch of a founding family,
• the consolidation of professional management, and
• the arrival of capital willing to underwrite the next cycle.

Markets often change character quietly, through ownership before earnings.
This was one such moment — worth recording, not predicting.

LEGAL & EDITORIAL DISCLAIMER

This article is based solely on publicly available information including NSE bulk-deal disclosures, SEBI shareholding data, corporate filings, and historical reporting. It does not allege insider trading, undisclosed relationships, or misuse of unpublished price-sensitive information. Any interpretations are journalistic analysis, not statements of fact. This content does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation. Readers should conduct independent research or consult qualified professionals before making investment decisions.