The Rs.3,268-crore initial public offering of InterGlobe Aviation attracted strong demand with the operator of no-frills airline IndiGo receiving bids for more than six times the shares on sale. Foreign institutions were the most aggressive bidders in the issue -the largest in three years. High net worth investors led by billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala subscribed heavily on Thursday, the last day of the offer. The shares kept for retail investors, however, didn’t find enough takers. For the 3.01 crore shares on offer, the company received bids for a little over 18.52 crore shares, according to exchange data at 7.30 pm.
The portion reserved for qualified institutional buyers, which include foreign and domestic institutions such as mutual funds and insurance companies, was subscribed 17.80 times. Foreigners bid for almost 15 times and mutual funds bid for 2.58 times the total shares reserved for this category. The non-institutional portion was subscribed 3.57 times, thanks to strong demand from rich investors on Thursday. Jhunjhunwala has placed bids for Rs.400 crore worth of shares in the non-institutional portion, market sources said.
Response from retail investors was tepid, with only 92% of the shares kept for them finding subscribers. Most domestic brokerages, while assigning a ‘subscribe’ rating to the IPO for long-term investors, had said the offer was richly valued.