Senco Gold IPO subscribed 73 times on final day; QIB portion booked 181 times

The initial public offering (IPO) of jewellery retailer Senco Gold has received overwhelming response from investors, with the issue subscribing 73.35 times on the final day as it received bids for over 69 crore shares as compared to 94.18 lakh shares on the offer. The quota reserved for qualified institutional investors (QIBs) was booked 181 times, while the non-institutional investors (NIIs) category was subscribed 65 times. The portion for retail investors attracted 15.45 times bid, as per data available on the BSE.

As per the document filed with SEBI, the Kolkata-based company had reserved up to 28.57% of the issue for QIBs, 21.43% for NIIs, and remaining 50% for retail individual investors (RIIs).

The three-day Senco Gold IPO opened on July 4 and will close today. The pan-India jewellery retailer aims to raise ₹405 crore by public listing of shares on the domestic bourses at a price band of ₹301-₹317 per share. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to ₹270 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of equity shares up to ₹135 crore by a shareholder, SAIF Partners India IV Limited. 

Ahead of the IPO, the company raised ₹121.50 crore from 21 anchor investors, including 5 domestic mutual funds through a total of 11 schemes, at the upper end of the price band at ₹317 per share. The key marquee investors that participated in the bid include Nippon MF, White Oak, Jupiter asset management, Bandhan MF, 3P India Equity Fund, Max Life Insurance, Sundaram MF, Franklin Templeton MF.

The company intends to utilise ₹196 crore of net proceeds from the fresh issue towards funding working capital requirements and the rest towards general corporate purposes. The firm, which primarily sells gold and diamond jewellery, generates nearly 85% of its revenues from gold jewellery, 10-11% from the sale of diamond jewellery, and the remaining 3-4% via sales of platinum, silver, and other products.

According to a CRISIL Report, Senco Gold is the largest organised jewellery retail player in the eastern region of India based on the number of stores. Also among eastern India-based jewellery retailers, it has the widest geographical footprint in non-eastern states.

In a conversation with Fortune India, Suvankar Sen, MD and CEO, Senco Gold said that one of the strengths of Senco is the “Calcutta Karigari” and the company works directly with them. “Calcutta Karigari is like French wine, Belgian chocolate and we want to take this forward.”

For the financial year 2022-23, the company’s revenue from operations stood at ₹4,075.56 crore compared to ₹3,534.64 crore in the previous fiscal. Meanwhile, profit after tax was at ₹160.91 crore against ₹130.15 crore in FY22.

As of March 31, 2023, Senco Gold has 136 showrooms (75 company operated showrooms and 61 franchisee showrooms) with a total area of approximately 409,882 sq. ft., in 96 cities and towns across 13 states in India. The company also sells products through various online platforms, while it also undertakes wholesale exports of its jewellery primarily to Dubai, Malaysia and Singapore.