Manyavar-owner Vedant Fashions debuts at 8% premium, surges 12% post listing

Shares of Vedant Fashions, which owns ethnic wear brand Manyavar, has made a decent debut on the domestic exchanges with shares of the company listing at a 8% premium to issue price of ₹866 on the BSE on Wednesday. The stock opened at ₹936 on the BSE, and ₹935 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Post listing, the stock gained as much as 12.6% to hit a high of ₹975 on both the exchanges. At 10:40 am, Vedant Fashions shares were trading at ₹941, at 8.66% premium to its issue price on the BSE. Around 3.23 lakh equity shares worth 30.53 crore changed hands on the BSE. The market capitalsation of the company stood at 22,543.92 crore.

Vedant Fashions is the third company to list on the domestic exchanges in the calendar year 2022 after fintech firm AGS Transact Technologies and FMCG major Adani Wilmar. The apparel retailer competes with Aditya Birla Fashion Retail, Trent, Metro Brands, V-Mart Retail, and TCNS Clothing, which are already listed on the domestic bourses.

The ₹3,149 crore initial public offering (IPO) of Vedant Fashions had received muted response from investors with issue subscribing by 2.6 times. The quota reserved for qualified institutional buyers received maximum bid with 7.49 times subscription, while non-institutional investors' portion was subscribed 1.07 times. The category for retail investors was subscribed only 39%.

The issue was completely an offer-for-sale (OFS) of 36,364,838 equity shares by promoters and existing shareholders. As per the document filed with market regulator SEBI, company promoters Ravi Modi, Shilpi Modi and Ravi Modi Family Trust, and existing shareholders — Rhine Holdings and Kedaara Capital Alternative Investment Fund — offloaded stake in the company.

The offer, with a price band of ₹824-866 a share, opened for subscription between February 4 to February 8. At the upper band of offer price of ₹866 a share, the company's market capitalisation stands at around ₹21,000 crore.

Ahead of the IPO, Vedant Fashions garnered ₹945 crore from anchor investors by alloting 1,09,09,450 equity shares at ₹866 apiece. As many as 75 anchor investors participated in the offer, including Government of Singapore, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Fidelity, Nomura, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte, BNP Paribas Arbitrage and Societe Generale. HDFC Life Insurance Company, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, SBI Mutual Fund (MF), ICICI Prudential MF, Axis MF, Kotak MF, Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Sundaram MF and UTI MF were also allocated shares, as per the information available on the exchange.

Vedant Fashions' 'Manyavar' brand is a market leader in the branded Indian wedding and celebration wear segment with a pan-India presence. The company's other brands include Twamev, Manthan, Mohey, and Mebaz.