Late FII buying helps Nuvoco Vistas IPO sail through on final day

MUMBAI: The Rs 5,000-crore initial public offering of Nuvoco Vistas Corporation was fully subscribed on the final day of the bidding process after a late surge in buying from foreign institutional investors.

Foreign investors subscribed to 77 per cent of the shares offered by the company in the IPO. At the same time, the retail and high net-worth investors' quota in the IPO was under-subscribed even after three days of bidding.

The qualified institutional buyers' quota was subscribed 4.2 times, while the HNI quota was subscribed only 66 per cent. The allotment for retail investors was subscribed only 72 per cent.


At 5:00 pm, the issue had received bids for 10,70,27,492 shares as against the issue size of 6,25,00,001 shares implying a subscription of 1.7 times. The issue has received tepid response from high net-worth investors, in particular, likely due to the muted grey market premium being offered for the issue.

The fifth-largest cement manufacturer in India has already raised Rs 1,500 crore by allocating 30 per cent of shares being offered in the issue to institutional investors through an anchor allotment process.

The Nirma Group company's issue comprises Rs 1,500 crore worth fresh shares and Rs 3,500 crore offer for sale (OFS) by promoters and will be sold in Rs 560-570 per price band.

Analysts are bullish on the IPO as they see valuations fairly priced and see good prospects for the cement sector going ahead.

Antique Stock Broking said that the cement maker is seeking a market capitalisation of Rs 20,400 crore and that its interactions with the industry suggests that Nuvoco's asking valuations at the time of filing draft IPO papers in May was much higher.

The company reported a net loss of Rs 25.91 crore for the financial year ended March 2021 as against a net profit of Rs 249.25 crore in the previous financial year. In 2021-22, there had been a slowdown in construction activity due to the second wave, which impacted Nuvoco's sales volumes in April and May. Demand revived in the month of June, the company said.