Key takeaways
- Founded in 1937, Crompton Greaves became India’s largest maker of transformers, switchgear and motors.
- A 2019 fraud under the Avantha Group crashed the stock from ₹50 to under ₹10.
- The Murugappa Group’s Tube Investments rescued it in 2020 and restructured it to net cash.
- A 2024 move into semiconductor packaging (OSAT) plus grid demand drove a 50x rise from the lows to a market cap above ₹1.2 lakh crore.
- 1937 Crompton Greaves is founded in Bombay from R.E.B. Crompton’s UK electrical business and Greaves Cotton, with its first plant in Worli.
- 1947 It lists on the Bombay Stock Exchange after Independence.
- 1970–1990s It becomes India’s largest transformer, switchgear, motor and consumer-fan manufacturer.
- 2005 The Avantha Group under Gautam Thapar acquires it, followed by international buys, Pauwels, Ganz and Sonomatra.
- 2016 It is renamed CG Power and Industrial Solutions; the consumer business is demerged as Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals.
- Sep 2019 A financial fraud is uncovered and a SEBI investigation opens against the Avantha Group; the stock crashes from ₹50 to under ₹10.
- Nov 2020 Tube Investments (Murugappa Group) acquires a majority stake at ₹8.5 a share, infusing roughly ₹700 crore.
- 2021–2022 An operational turnaround and asset rationalisation cut debt from over ₹1,800 crore to net cash.
- 2023 CG Power posts its first clean, profitable year and the stock crosses ₹400 for the first time since the fraud.
- Sep 2024 It announces a $760 million (₹6,500 crore) semiconductor assembly-and-test (OSAT) plant at Sanand, Gujarat, one of three approved under the India Semiconductor Mission.
- 2025 It acquires Renesas’s BiCMOS ASIC business, adding specialty semiconductor design alongside OSAT; FY25 revenue rises 21% to ₹9,907 crore with ₹1,460 crore profit and net cash.
- 2026 CG Power is the only listed Indian company at the intersection of two structural capex cycles, grid transmission and semiconductor packaging; the stock has compounded over 50x from its post-fraud lows to a market cap above ₹1.2 lakh crore.
CG Power is a 90-year-old electrical franchise that was nearly destroyed by fraud and then rebuilt into one of the best turnarounds the Indian market has seen, a 50-bagger from its lows, with a brand-new semiconductor leg the previous owner never imagined. Here is the journey, year by year.
The pattern is the point
The Avantha era nearly destroyed a 90-year-old industrial franchise; the Murugappa Group bought the asset at a distressed price, restructured it to net cash, and bolted on a semiconductor leg the previous owner never imagined. The best turnarounds are not merely operational, they pair a cleaned-up balance sheet with a genuinely new growth engine, which is exactly what re-rated CG Power.
