Dispatch from Hyderabad 2025

Our Dear Leader has now arrived in Hyderabad on his first visit to India. Hyderabad is the fourth most populous city in India with a similar population to London. The name Hyderabad means "Haydar's City" or "Lion City" and it was established in 1591 by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. A popular legend suggests that he named it Bhagya-Nagar ("fortunate city") after Bhagmati, a local nautch (dancing girl) whom he married. She converted to Islam and adopted the title, Hyder Mahal; the city being subsequently named Hyderabad in her honour. Until the 19th century, Hyderabad was known for its pearl industry and was nicknamed the "City of Pearls” and was the only trading centre for Golconda diamonds in the world. Since then, it has emerged as India’s second major tech and innovation hub (after Bengaluru), often called “Cyberabad.” HITEC City hosts Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Deloitte, Accenture, and hundreds of startups and Hyderabad contributes about 10–12% of India’s IT exports. It also has what is known as “Genome Valley” and hosts one of Asia’s largest life-sciences clusters. Recently, it has emerged as a leader in manufacturing of EVs, autonomy and battery tech, so I think we can see why Andrew was so keen to visit. The traditional industry is still there, and rumour is that Andrew did have time to go shopping for his wife and bought her some local pearls.

Andrew was also intrigued by credit card PIN pads in India. Unlike in the UK, the numbers aren’t fixed in one position, so you can’t rely on a swipe pattern; you actually have to look carefully and know the number. The keypad layout changes every time to help prevent financial fraud, which makes sense, although Andrew suspects it could become quite a challenge after a few drinks when trying to pay the bill!

Andrew spent the weekend getting accustomed to new surroundings and, expecting a busy modern city, was surprised by the poor state of basic infrastructure and the chaotic roads. Traffic lights and lane markings were rare, and a constant blaring of horns from cars, motorbikes and tuk-tuks made travel slow and stressful. It made him realise how lucky we are with London’s transport; even Dubai, despite its wealth, also struggles with heavy traffic. He stayed near the large man-made Hussain Sagar Lake, but was saddened to see rubbish, untreated sewage and industrial waste being dumped into it, turning the water a murky green and creating a strong odour. Sadly, therefore there was no possibility of going for a swim.

However, on Monday Andrew realised his first impression of Hyderabad was a little unfair. Hyderabad is actually a twin city, and he had been staying on the older eastern side, Secunderabad, which has seen far less modern development. When he travelled to visit Atri Energy Transition Group on the Hyderabad side, he discovered a very different picture; a modern, rapidly growing city with major investment in infrastructure, including an 11.6km elevated expressway to the airport, where motorbikes and tuk-tuks are banned, and a 158km, eight-lane outer ring road.

Not often Andrew makes such a basic travel mistake!

Atri is based in the tech centre of Hyderabad and along with their partner Next Gen Mobility, they have between them recently invested in the £14mn placing in Aurrigo International plc (AURR LN) and the £25mn placing in Invinity Energy Systems (IES LN) both of which were led by VSA Capital and was of course the main reason for Andrew’s visit.

Atri have 3 main pillars of focus: Autonomous vehicles and PRT, Biomass treatment and Flow Batteries. They are also growing a business to electrify diesel buses and coaches. All specialist subjects for VSA and Andrew. All of this perhaps shows what we have come to expect from India; a country where huge poverty sits alongside great wealth and although the Indian economy is growing well there is still a long way to go. Andrew also feels that this maybe partially explains why resource companies sometimes end up in litigation with India; 30 companies across all industries have taken India to an arbitration tribunal. Currently VSA client Panthera Resources (PAT LN) has a US$1.58bn claim against the Indian Government over its Bhukia gold mine. Recently the timetable has been set for the phase one of the process with the key hearing in December 2026. We expect the shares to rally ahead of any decision to 80p from the current 24p. This is a risk adjusted level, net of fees, and is based on a risk adjusted level based on the performance of other mining litigation stocks which have already gone through the process. Click here to read the full research. VSA has also just been appointed as Joint Broker to Emmerson plc (EML LN), also undertaking an arbitration this time against Morocco. 

Finally, Andrew is delighted to be able to let everyone know that VSA will be hosting a new competitive small cap conference, after the amazing success of the VSA Aquis conference a few years ago. It will be an afternoon event on January 22^nd. We will be hosting eight companies competing to be the Best of British Business. The current line up is Aurrigo, Cornish Metals (CUSN LN), Equipmake (EQIP ASE), Ionic Rare Earths (IXR AU), Quadrise (QED LN), Recycle it Global and Star Energy (STAR LN). The guest speaker will be Richard Tice; Deputy Leader of Reform UK. A great opportunity for all investors and companies to start to understand what the policies of Reform might be and make the need of business heard. If you are interested in attending, then please watch out for an invitation in your inbox shortly.