Amid market volatility and an uncertain global environment, renowned investor Porinju Veliyath has identified three value stocks that he believes long-term investors can consider this Onam. He has selected the stocks with both return potential and a margin of safety in mind.
Porinju, managing director of Equity Intelligence India Pvt Ltd, says the Indian market may have entered a new bull-market phase following the recovery in the broader market since March 2026. However, he cautions investors against expecting returns similar to those seen during the post-Covid bull run.
He believes the continued strength of domestic flows, particularly through systematic investment plans (SIPs), will provide support to the Indian market. At the same time, the correction over the past two years has made several fundamentally sound companies available at attractive valuations.
For this Onam, Porinju has picked TTK Healthcare, Thomas Cook (India) and NIIT Ltd. He says investors may consider the three stocks as a single portfolio, with a long-term investment horizon.
He also discloses that he and Equity Intelligence have investment interests in all three companies.
TTK Healthcare operates across five major segments — animal welfare, consumer products, medical devices, protective devices and foods. It is part of the TTK Group, which also owns kitchen-appliance maker TTK Prestige.
The company has been present in the Indian market since 1928. Its Woodward’s Gripe Water is one of the world’s oldest FMCG brands and is a market leader in India in the baby colic segment. Its Skore brand also has a significant presence in the Indian condom market.
TTK Healthcare has also developed digital-first brands such as Love Depot and MsChief.
The company’s medical devices business includes orthopaedics, particularly joint-replacement products, and heart valves. It has the capacity to manufacture around 20,000 heart valves a year.
An important part of Porinju’s investment thesis is the company’s cash position. In 2023, TTK Healthcare sold its human pharma business to BSV Pharma for ₹805 crore. In July 2026, it agreed to sell its Eva personal-care brand and Good Home home-care brand to Wipro Enterprises for ₹256 crore. Together, these two brands generated about ₹148 crore in revenue in FY26, or around 17 percent of the company’s total turnover.
Once these transactions are completed, the company is expected to have more than ₹1,100 crore in cash and investments.
At the current share price, Porinju estimates that the remaining businesses, which generate more than ₹700 crore in annual sales, are effectively available at an enterprise value of only around ₹300–350 crore.
The company also owns land in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu, whose current market value could be substantially higher than its book value.
According to Porinju, this provides an additional margin of safety. Patient investors with a long-term horizon can consider accumulating the stock, with the key question being whether the company will return the surplus cash to shareholders or reinvest it in other businesses.
Thomas Cook (India), which began operations in 1881, is one of India’s leading travel-services companies and is part of the Fairfax Group.
Its operations include foreign exchange, corporate travel, MICE, leisure travel, visa services and other travel-related businesses. Travel and related services contribute around 80 percent of its total revenue.
The company’s Sterling Holidays business is another important part of the investment story. It currently operates across 65 locations and aims to expand to 95 resorts by 2027.
Porinju points to the company’s successful shift from the traditional vacation-ownership model to a more profitable asset-light model.
The proposed demerger and separate listing of Sterling Holidays could unlock substantial value for Thomas Cook shareholders. Following the demerger, Porinju believes Sterling Resorts alone could command a market capitalisation of more than ₹3,000 crore.
The geopolitical tensions in West Asia have temporarily affected overseas travel bookings and weighed on travel margins in FY26. However, Porinju expects this weakness to be temporary.
Trading near its multi-year lows, Thomas Cook offers an opportunity for investors seeking exposure to the tourism and hospitality theme, he says. The company combines diversified operations, a debt-free/net-cash balance sheet and steady cash generation.
NIIT specialises in providing employee-training programmes for some of the world’s largest companies, including Fortune 500 businesses, under long-term contracts. It is among the world’s leading learning-services companies.
The business model requires relatively little capital investment and generates strong cash flows. Around 95 percent of its revenue comes from outside India and is earned in US dollars.
The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence has raised concerns that AI could disrupt the corporate-training industry. This sentiment has also weighed on the stock.
Porinju, however, sees the AI disruption differently. He believes the same technological shift that threatens traditional corporate training could create a major opportunity for NIIT.
The company is investing in becoming an AI-native organisation. AI-related services currently account for around 13 percent of revenue. NIIT has developed its own AI learning platform and strengthened its AI-content capabilities through acquisitions.
As companies worldwide rush to train employees in AI-related skills, NIIT could position itself as an outsourcing partner for this massive reskilling requirement.
Porinju believes the market is currently pricing in the threat from AI while overlooking the potential opportunity. With a debt-free balance sheet and substantial cash reserves, the company has the flexibility to undertake buybacks or acquire businesses that can strengthen its AI capabilities.
For patient investors with a horizon of more than two years, he believes the current transition phase could offer an attractive entry point.
Porinju’s three picks reflect his broader value-investing philosophy: look beyond short-term market sentiment and identify businesses whose intrinsic value is not adequately reflected in their share prices.
He advises investors to moderate their return expectations and focus on companies where valuations provide a sufficient margin of safety.
The three stocks — TTK Healthcare, Thomas Cook (India) and NIIT — come from very different industries, but share characteristics that appeal to a value investor: cash-rich or debt-free balance sheets, identifiable triggers and the potential for the market to revalue their businesses over time.
(Note: These are the views of Porinju Veliyath and are not a substitute for an investor’s own research and assessment of risk.)