Aether Industries' IPO subscribed 6.3 times on final day of offer

Aether Industries’ initial public offering (IPO) garnered 6.3 times due to strong demand from qualified institutional buyers (QIBs). 

Aether’s Rs 808-crore offering capped a busy month for IPOs, which saw a cumulative mop up of Rs 30,140 crore by eight companies. The record IPO fund raise came despite a selloff in the secondary market. 

The QIB portion of Aether’s IPO was subscribed 17.6 times, high networth individual portion 2.52 times and retail portion 1.14 times. Aether Industries is a manufacturer of advanced intermediates and active ingredients, catering to the pharma and speciality chemical industries. The company raised Rs 627 crore of fresh capital through the IPO. The issue also consisted of secondary share sale worth Rs 181 crore. 

The price band for the issue is Rs 610-642 per share. At the top-end, Aether is valued at nearly Rs 8,000 crore on a post-dilution basis. 

The top-end of the price band is 75.6 times its trailing 12-month earnings per share of Rs 8.5. Peers Clean Science & Technology and Fine Organic are trading at P/E multiple of 82.7x and 80.2x, respectively, as per analysts.