India IPO Watch: SBI Funds Demands 41x, Alpine Texworld 1.4x
Two Indian IPOs close with wildly different institutional demand, setting up a stark pricing divergence ahead of their Tuesday market debut.
Bidding closed on two Indian initial public offerings on July 16, with share allotments finalizing on July 17 ahead of a Tuesday listing. SBI Funds Management and Alpine Texworld will begin trading on July 21, but their market receptions are expected to diverge significantly based on subscription data and grey market premiums.
SBI Funds Management attracted heavy demand for its ₹11,692.91 crore offering. The issue was subscribed 41.66 times overall, driven primarily by qualified institutional buyers whose portion was booked 140.11 times. Non-institutional investors followed with a 22.51 times subscription, while retail individual investors booked their segment 3.60 times.
The asset manager's offering is a 100% offer for sale of 20.37 crore equity shares, meaning the company receives no capital from the float. Parent State Bank of India and partner Amundi India Holding are offloading up to 17.09 crore shares. SBI will reduce its stake by 6.3% to 55.46%, while Amundi will pare its holding by 3.7% to 32.56%.
Ahead of the public issue, SBI Funds Management secured ₹1,655 crore through a pre-IPO placement, allotting 2.88 crore shares to 30 institutional investors. Unofficial grey market trading currently indicates a premium of ₹91 over the upper price band of ₹574, pointing to a potential listing gain of 17.42%.
Alpine Texworld presents a sharp contrast in both scale and demand. The textile manufacturer's ₹126.25 crore IPO was subscribed just 1.40 times overall. Retail investors led the modest demand, booking their portion 1.53 times, while both institutional and non-institutional categories barely cleared their bases at 1.09 times each.
Unlike the SBI offering, Alpine Texworld is a 100% fresh issue of 1.20 crore shares. The company plans to use the proceeds to construct a new weaving unit in Ahmedabad to increase grey fabric capacity, repay outstanding borrowings, and fund general corporate purposes. The grey market premium sits at just ₹1 above the upper price band of ₹105.
