A day before offering closes, IndiGo shares lapped up 1.36 times

Retail participation is low so far

IndiGo's parent InterGlobe Aviation’s Rs 3,100-crore Initial Public Offering (IPO) was oversubscribed on Wednesday, a day before its close. The IPO so far has received 32.6 million bids, 1.36 times the 30 million shares on offer (excluding anchor investors).

IPO is selling shares in a company for the first time.

Most bids are from institutional investors, with qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) offering 4.5 times their quota. (QIBs are registered institutional investors, such as mutual funds and hedge funds. They possess the financial muscle to invest in capital markets.) In the QIB segment, most bids were from foreign investors.

Retail and high net worth investors (HNIs) subscribed 16 and 4.2 per cent of their quotas, respectively. HNIs are wealthy investors. They can make bets to capture listing-day gains. Sebi says, non-institutional investors investing with a ticket size of more than Rs 2 lakh fall in the HNI category.

Market players said retail and HNI demand was expected to remain lukewarm, due to doubts over listing-day gains, given the rich valuations. (A stock with rich valuation may have a risk/reward payoff that is not attractive to investors.) The company has priced the issue between Rs 700 and Rs 765 per share. Analysts have given a thumbs-up to the operational performance.

“The proposed issue price band means an EV/Ebitda (enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) of 13.6-14.8 and EV/sales of 1.8-2, which factors in all major positives of lower-than-industry cost structure, low crude oil prices and sustained mid-teen available-seat-kilometres growth. The valuation commands a premium over select global peers trading at EV/sales of 1.5 and EV/Ebitda of 9.3,” said ICICI Direct.

Ambit said, “At 10.2 FY15 EV/Ebitdar (higher end of peer sector range), the proposed issue price factors profits on aircraft trading and lower-than-sector aircraft maintenance costs in perpetuity, plus the benefits of lower crude oil prices and mid-teen volume growth over 10 years.”

Ebitdar is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and rent.

At the top end of the price band of Rs 765, InterGlobe will be valued at around Rs 27,000 crore, making it one of the world’s most-valuable low-cost carrier.

On Monday, InterGlobe raised Rs 832 crore from 43 anchor investors. InterGlobe allotted 10.88 million shares at Rs 765 apiece, which is the top-end of the price band.

The InterGlobe IPO is being managed by Citigroup Global Markets, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Bank, Kotak Mahindra Capital, and UBS Securities.