Craftsman Automation makes weak debut on exchanges, list 9% lower than issue price

Shares of Craftsman Automation were listed on the bourses today (Thursday, 25 March) at Rs 1,350 on the BSE against the issue price of Rs 1,490 per share, a discoun of nine percent.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE) the shares were listed at Rs 1,359, declining by 8.8 percent compared to the issue price.

The company had its initial public offering (IPO) on 15 March and concluded after three days on 17 March. The company had fixed a price band of Rs 1,488 to Rs 1,490. The issue was oversubscribed by 3.82 times during the intial offering.

Shares reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) saw oversubscription of 5.21 times followed by the non-institutional investors’ (NII), who oversubscribed 2.84 times and retail investors (3.44 times).

The purpose of the IPO was to use the proceeds to repay or pre-pay the company's borrowings and to meet general corporate purposes.

The auto components manufacturer's public offering consisted of a fresh issue of equity shares up to Rs 150 crore and an offer for sale of up to 45,21,450 shares by the promoter and existing shareholders.

Rs 247 crore was raised by Craftsman Automation from anchor investors just ahead of the IPO. The lead managers for the public offering were Axis Capital Limited and IIFL Holdings Limited while the registrar was Link Intime India Private Ltd.

The company was incorporated in the year 1986 and designs, develops, and manufactures a range of engineering products. As many as 12 state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities are owned by the company across seven Indian cities.