Shankara Building Products Limited (Shankara) which is tapping the capital with its simultaneous offer to raise fresh equity of Rs 45 crs and an offer for sale of 65,21,740 equity shares was oversubscribed and received excellent response from all buckets. The issue was subscribed an overall 41.88 times. The price band is Rs 440-460.

The company had earlier completed allocation to anchor investors. The company allotted 22.5 lakh shares to 13 anchor investors comprising of 16 entities. The highest allocation was made to Franklin India and DSP Blackrock who were allocated 3,04,320 shares or 13.53% each.

The issue had opened on Wednesday the 22nd of March and closed on Friday the 24th of March. Full details of the subscription are given below. What is heartening to note is that retail subscription saw 10.70 lakh applications being received which means that the issue was subscribed about 13 times on the basis of applications. It appears that in any well received issue the new norm for number of applications is around 9-11 lakh applications against the 6-7 lakh applications received earlier. Credit should be given to the last two issues in particular like BSE and Avenue Supermarts which has increased retail interest significantly.

Full details of the subscription are given below.

The simultaneous offer with the fresh issue component of 21.80 lakh shares and an offer for sale of 25.80 lakh shares from CL Educate was subscribed. The price band was Rs 500-502. The issue was subscribed 1.90 times with the QIB portion subscribed 3.65 times, HNI undersubscribed at a mere 0.21 times and retail at 1.63 times. There were a total of 73,000 applications which means that the issue on number of lots was subscribed 1.33 times.

Earlier the company had allotted 14.28 lakh shares to nine anchor investors comprising of 17 entities. Four anchor investors each have been allotted 1,99,230 shares or 13.95% of the anchor portion.

The overall response to the issue was a low key on primarily two grounds. The first is that the company had entered into owning schools and a college which they have recognised as a folly and are in the process of disposing off. This has affected their returns from the capital employed perspective and is hurting the performance of the company and hence the valuations look extremely stretched. Second the last few companies that are in the sector and are listed have done quite badly and have not generated returns for the investors. This leads to a lack of interest in the sector and explains the poor response to the issue. One hopes that the sector and this company in particular does help restore confidence in education.