Shiprocket and Behari Lal Engineering conclude their IPOs with exceptional subscription levels, signalling robust investor confidence and a positive week for India’s primary markets.
Investor appetite remained robust on the final day of bidding for two mainboard initial public offerings, with Shiprocket and Behari Lal Engineering both drawing heavy interest, driven largely by institutional buyers. The Hindu BusinessLine reported that Shiprocket ended with 99.38 times subscription, while Behari Lal Engineering closed at 108.44 times.
Shiprocket’s ₹1,617.5-crore offer was dominated by qualified institutional buyers, whose portion was subscribed 122.80 times. Non-institutional investors bid 88.99 times their allocation, while retail demand reached 46.42 times. The employee segment was subscribed 55.51 times. The company had set a price band of ₹92 to ₹97 a share and earlier raised ₹727.41 crore from anchor investors. At the upper end of the band, the business would be valued at about ₹7,058 crore after the issue. According to the company’s prospectus details reported by Mint, the issue combines a fresh share sale with an offer for sale by existing backers, including Lightrock, Tribe Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Agility International Investment, Gautam Kapoor, Saahil Goel and Vishesh Khurana.
Shiprocket, which is backed by Temasek and Zomato, has expanded from a shipping service into a broader e-commerce enablement platform serving direct-to-consumer brands and small businesses. The company plans to use the new capital for marketing, technology upgrades across its core and emerging businesses, debt reduction, possible acquisitions and general corporate needs, according to the issue documents cited in the reports.
Behari Lal Engineering’s ₹302-crore public issue also saw strong demand, with the qualified institutional buyer portion subscribed 165.33 times and the non-institutional segment 165.32 times. Retail demand stood at 53.27 times. The company fixed a price band of ₹271 to ₹285 a share and raised ₹90.48 crore from anchor investors. Its offer includes a fresh issue worth ₹93 crore and an offer for sale of 73.20 lakh shares. Proceeds from the fresh issue are earmarked for equipment, machinery, related civil work at its plants, rooftop solar panels, debt repayment and general corporate purposes. The company makes metal rolls, engineering castings, alloy steel products and forging ingots for steel, power and heavy engineering clients.
Both companies are scheduled to list on the BSE and NSE on August 19, capping what has become a strong week for primary market investor demand.
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