The initial public offering (IPO) of Aequs Limited stepped into its second day of public bidding on Thursday, December 4, with the issue subscribed 4.44 times so far, as per the provisional exchange data. The issue received an overwhelming response from investors and was fully subscribed on the first day of its public bidding. The Rs 921.81 crore public offer is a mix of fresh issuance and offer for sale (OFS).
Retail investors are leading the demand for the initial public offering (IPO) of precision component company Aequs on the first day of its subscription, with the issue fully subscribed less than three hours after it opened on December 3. According to data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Aequs' ₹921.81 crore offering has been oversubscribed by 1.59 times as of 12:55 PM on Wednesday.
Among the investor categories, retail investors have oversubscribed their reserved portion by 6.42 times, while non-institutional investors (NIIs) have closely followed, with their segment oversubscribed by 1.45 times. However, demand was relatively lukewarm among qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), who had placed bids for 36,480 shares against 2,26,10,608 shares allotted for their category.
The positive sentiment was also reflected in the grey market. Sources tracking unofficial market activity revealed that Aequs shares were being traded at approximately ₹171 per share in the grey market.This translates to a grey market premium (GMP) of ₹47 per share, or a 37.90 percent premium over the upper end of the issue price of ₹124 per share. Brokerages are largely upbeat about the Aequs IPO. Aequs’ scale has improved since FY23, with revenue increasing from Rs 812.1 crore in FY23 to Rs 924.6 crore in FY25 and EBITDA strengthening from Rs 63.1 crore to Rs 108.0 crore over the same period. However, the company continues to report losses of Rs 102.4 crore in FY25, with ROCE at 0.87%, ROE at –14.3% and ROA at –5.5%, indicating that despite operational gains, profitability remains constrained by high depreciation, finance costs and a leveraged balance sheet.