Sterlite's 746% rally just bought it an $18 billion dealmaker
A 746 per cent rally, a record order book and net cash gave Sterlite Technologies spendable currency. Its board just hired Lakshmi Iyer, a dealmaker with more than $18 billion of transactions behind her, to spend it.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
A dealmaker arrives at a 746 per cent rally
On 22 September 2026, Sterlite Technologies' board approved the appointment of Lakshmi Iyer as Chief M&A, Investor Relations and Capital Markets Strategy Officer, effective the next day 1. Her record: more than $18 billion of executed transactions across energy, infrastructure and technology, most recently as head of strategic finance at Tata Power 1. Her new employer is an optical-fibre maker whose shares ran from Rs 84.65 on 27 January to Rs 910 on 15 September, a 746 per cent year-to-date return 2.
Shares ran from Rs 85 in January to Rs 910 in September, and sit about 8 per cent off the peak
Data
| Share price | |
|---|---|
| 27 Jan | Rs 84.65 |
| 15 Sep | Rs 910 |
| 25 Sep | Rs 833.8 |
The windfall is real, and banked
The June quarter was the strongest in company history: revenue of Rs 1,910 crore, up 87 per cent year on year, a 20.8 per cent EBITDA margin, and profit of Rs 197 crore, 3.5 times what the company earned in all of FY26 23. A $1.11 billion multi-year hyperscaler contract for AI data-centre optics runs through FY29, and the open order book stands at a record Rs 18,618 crore 23.
A Rs 1,500 crore share sale to institutions, subscribed more than 2.5 times, left Sterlite with net cash of Rs 483 crore and an ICRA upgrade to AA 24.
Quarterly revenue nearly doubled in a year on AI data-centre demand
Data
| Revenue | |
|---|---|
| Q1 FY26 | Rs 1,019 cr |
| Q4 FY26 | Rs 1,441 cr |
| Q1 FY27 | Rs 1,910 cr |
The hire is what the currency is for
The QIP was the fundraising; Iyer is the shopping list. Foreign investors lifted their stake from 11.47 per cent in March to 19.71 per cent in July, and the market cap sits near Rs 44,630 crore 2.
In her first week, Sterlite launched Neuralis cable trunks carrying up to 6,912 fibres 5, though the stock closed 5 per cent lower that day 6. Next stop is Nuvama's Emerging India CEO Forum in Mumbai on 28 September, where the company says only public-domain information will be shared 7. The shares closed at Rs 833.80 on 25 September, up 704 per cent since 1 January and roughly 8 per cent below the high 82.
What the filing gives is a mandate, not a transaction: no target, no raise, no deal has been announced 1.
The bill comes due in FY29
The multiple is 52.3 times EV/EBITDA against a plan that needs revenue to quadruple to Rs 20,000 crore by FY29 at 27 per cent margins, from a company loss-making through March 2025 2. Management lifted FY27 margin guidance to 23 per cent in July and is de-bottlenecking, but it is capacity-constrained, selectively taking orders, and fighting germanium and helium costs, with new capacity not fully live before FY29 24. Two analysts still rate the stock a Buy, average target Rs 1,250 8.
Watch the calendar, then the filings
Iyer's first test is sequencing. If her title produces a term sheet before the new capacity lines produce cable, buyers of the FY29 story will learn which kind they own.
How this brief was made
01Gathered & sourced402 channels · 1,034 articles▾
Agents swept 402 channels and ingested 1,034 articles, then de-duplicated and ranked them for signal.
02Verified & cross-validated8 claims · 10 data feeds▾
Every one of 8 load-bearing claims was checked against primary sources, with 10 live data feeds reconciling the figures and charts.
- 1scanx.trade, "Sterlite Technologies appoints Lakshmi Iyer as Chief M&A officer," 22 September 2026
- 2Dalal Street Investment Journal, "Sterlite Technologies Has Returned 746% Year to Date. Here Is What Changed and What the Market Is Pricing," 23 September 2026
- 3Moneycontrol, "Sterlite Tech's Q1 profit jumps to record Rs 197 crore; revenue rises 87%," 24 July 2026
- 4Investing.com, "Earnings call transcript: Sterlite Technologies posts record Q1 2027 results," 24 July 2026
- 5STL press release via TMCnet, "STL strengthens its Neuralis portfolio with Pre-Terminated Fiber Trunk Assemblies to power hyperscale data centers," 24 September 2026
- 6CNBC-TV18, "Sterlite Technologies launches high-capacity fibre cables for data centres," 24 September 2026
- 7TipRanks via The Globe and Mail, "Sterlite Technologies to Engage Investors at Nuvama Emerging India CEO Forum," 24 September 2026
- 8MarketScreener (S&P Capital IQ), "Sterlite Technologies Limited Announces Appointment of Lakshmi Iyer as Chief M&A, Investor Relations and Capital Markets Strategy Officer," 22 September 2026
03Reviewed & edited1 human editor▾
One editor read the draft against the evidence, tuned the framing, and signed off before it shipped.
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