Aster DM Healthcare makes weak debut; lists 4% below issue price

The stock listed at Rs 182, a 4.2% discount to its issue price of Rs 190 per share on the BSE.

Aster DM Healthcare has made a weak debut by listing at Rs 182, a 4.2% discount to its issue price of Rs 190 per share on the BSE. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the stock opened at Rs 183.

At 10:04 am; it was trading at Rs 180, a 5% lower against its issue price on the BSE, as compared to 0.59% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The stock touched a high of Rs 188 and a low of Rs 176 so far. A combined 3.47 million shares changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE so far.

The Rs 9.80 billion initial public offering (IPO) of Aster DM Healthcare, which runs hospitals in India and West Asia, witnessed an overall subscription of 1.31 times.  The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category of the IPO was subscribed 2.1 times and retail individual investors (RIIs) category was subscribed 1.18 times, while non institutional investors category was under-subscribed 0.55 times.

Aster DM Healthcare is a Kochi-based (Kerala) healthcare service provider, with operations in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states of the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, India and Philippines.

Of the net proceeds, around Rs 5.6 billion, would be utilised to prepay and/or repayment of the debts availed by the company. Another, Rs 1.1 billion would be utilised for the purchase of medical equipment and rest for general corporate purposes.