The promoters of Havells India seem to be soaking in the adulation on the Street, what with the stock outperforming the benchmark index since the year began. While the stock is up over 22.1% year-till-date, the Sensex is up only 5.7%. In fact, group entity Ajanta Mercantile has bought over 50,000 shares at ₹679 a share, thus increasing its stake marginally from 10.97% to 10.98%. The promoters currently hold over 61% stake and have not pledged any shares. Analysts continue to be bullish on the stock, after the initial period of scepticism over the acquisition and performance of Havells’ European subsidiary, Sylvania, which resulted in Havells posting a loss of ₹160 crore in FY09. But since then revenues have shown a CAGR of 5% from ₹5,477 crore to ₹7,248 crore in FY13, while profits have been robust, clocking ₹581 crore in FY13. More importantly, Sylvania has managed to generate higher profitability with profit after tax more than doubling to €31 million in FY13 over the previous year. Not surprisingly, analysts and investors are keeping the faith in the stock and expect earnings to grow 15-20% for FY14. Among major institutional holders, the Singapore-based private equity firm Nalanda India Equity Fund, run by Pulak Prasad, too, has held on to its 4.19% stake.