SP Apparels Ltd, the maker of menswear under the Crocodile brand, recorded moderate gains on its stock market debut on Friday with its shares listing at a 14% premium to the issue price before edging lower.
The company’s shares started trading at Rs 305 apiece on the BSE, up 14% from the initial public offering price of Rs 268 apiece. The shares fell to Rs 289.75 before closing at Rs 295, up 10% from the IPO price and giving the company a market value of Rs 742 crore ($111 million). The benchmark BSE Sensex gained 1%.
Investors’ response to SP Apparels hasn’t been as exciting as to some other companies such as business services provider Quess Corp, diagnostics firm Thyrocare Technologies Ltd and microlender Equitas. But it is in line with the debut on Thursday of construction company Dilip Buildcon Ltd, which rose 15%. It is also better than that of another textile firm, Monte Carlo Fashions Ltd, whose shares had fallen on their trading debut in December 2014.
In fact, the IPO of SP Apparels also hadn’t seen any bumper investor interest as some other recent offerings. This may send a cautious signal to other companies in the textiles and apparel sector looking to float an IPO.
The company’s IPO was oversubscribed only 1.6 times, led by net-worth individuals (HNIs) and corporate houses.
The overall public issue comprised a fresh issue of shares to raise around Rs 215 crore and an offer for sale of up to 9,00,000 shares by mid-market private equity firm Jacob Ballas, which owns the stake through New York Life Investment Management India Fund II LLC.
Ahead of the IPO, the company had raised Rs 71.5 crore ($10.7 million) from a clutch of mutual funds and portfolio investors as anchor allotment. The firm sold shares at the upper end of the price band of Rs 258-268 apiece to investors including funds managed by DSP Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, UTI, Morgan Stanley and Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund.
SP Apparels is the third portfolio firm of Jacob Ballas to go public in a little over a year. Last year, two portfolio firms of the PE firm—theme park operator Adlabs Entertainment and infrastructure and construction firm PNC Infratech—went public.
The Jacob Ballas fund had picked up a 10.71% stake in SP Apparels for Rs 36 crore in November 2006. It sold around half of this in the IPO.
The apparel maker, which operates 21 factories in Tamil Nadu, had filed its draft red herring prospectus for the IPO with capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India in December. It received SEBI’s approval in April.
SP Apparels, led by chairman and managing director P Sundararajan, posted a net profit of Rs 37.36 crore on revenue of about Rs 537 crore in the year through March 2016. That compared with a net profit of Rs 10.9 crore on revenue of Rs 476 crore the year before.
Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors and Centrum Capital managed the IPO
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