Education-focused publishing house S Chand & Company Ltd made a muted debut on the stock markets on Tuesday with its shares listing at a slight premium to its initial public offering price before slipping.
Shares of the New Delhi-based firm opened at Rs 707 apiece on the BSE, up 5.5% from the issue price of Rs 670, stock-exchange data showed. The shares fell to a low of Rs 658 immediately after opening. The benchmark Sensex was flat.
The subdued listing belies the strong investor turnout for its IPO, which was covered nearly 60 times. The IPO of 7.69 million shares had received bids for 456 million shares.
S Chand, which is backed by private equity firm Everstone Capital, is the sixth company to list on the bourses this calendar year.
Other companies that went public include stock-exchange operator BSE Ltd, D-Mart hypermarket chain operator Avenue Supermarts Ltd and Fairwinds PE-backed Shankara Buildings Products Ltd.
S Chand had raised Rs 325 crore by issuing new shares, according to the red herring prospectus it filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). It had earlier targeted to mop up Rs 300 crore.
The company had increased the size of its initial share sale as it looked to benefit from a rise in stock markets this year.
The IPO also included an offer for sale of about 6 million shares by Everstone and other shareholders, including the promoters. The selling shareholders mobilised about Rs 403 crore.
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