Mumbai: Shares of Matrimony.com Ltd debuted nearly 2% lower on the bourses on Thursday, after the online match maker’s Rs500 crore initial public offer (IPO) was subscribed 4.4 times last week.
Matrimony.com shares opened unchanged on the BSE at Rs985 apiece, the same as the upper end of the price band of Rs983-985.
At 10.05am, they were down 2.75% at Rs957.95, while the benchmark 30-share Sensex index traded 0.3% lower at 32,304.62 points. Earlier in the day, the shares touched a high of Rs1,025 and a low of Rs950, respectively.
Brokerage firms had recommended investors to apply for the company’s IPO due to its unique business, even though it had a track record of poor financials. They expect the recent earnings recovery for the company to strengthen going ahead.
Matrimony.com returned to profitability in fiscal year 2017 after three consecutive years of losses, according to its share sale prospectus. It posted a consolidated net profit of Rs43.8 crore for fiscal year 2017 against a net loss of Rs75.07 crore a year ago. In the June quarter, too, it reported a profit of Rs14.65 crore.
The company’s business comprises two segments—matchmaking services and marriage services. The company operates multiple portals such as BharatMatrimony.com, CommunityMatrimony.com and EliteMatrimony.com.
The company raised Rs130 crore in primary capital through the IPO, while some existing shareholders sold their holdings in the company.
For Matrimony.com, this was the second attempt at going public in recent times. It had first filed its draft IPO papers in August 2015, but did not go ahead with the share sale.
In May this year, the company re-filed its draft papers and received regulatory approval in July to go ahead with its public offering.
The company intends to use the share sale proceeds for advertising and business promotion activities, purchase of land for construction of an office in Chennai, and repayment of overdraft facilities.