Alakh Pandey-led PhysicsWallah IPO receives muted response on Day 1; issue subscribed 7.5% so far

The Rs 3,480 crore initial public offering (IPO) of edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah saw a slow start on its opening day, with the issue subscribed 7.5% as of Tuesday evening, according to data from the stock exchanges. 

The IPO, which opened for bidding on November 11, comprises a fresh issue of Rs 3,100 crore (28.44 crore shares) and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of Rs 380 crore (3.49 crore shares).

The issue will close on November 13, with allotment expected on November 14, and listing tentatively scheduled for November 18 on the BSE and NSE. The price band is set at Rs 103-Rs 109 per share.

On the first day, the retail investor category saw a subscription of 0.35 times, while the non-institutional investor (NII) segment subscribed 0.03 times. Within NIIs, bNII (bids above Rs 10 lakh) stood at 0.01 times and sNII (bids below Rs 10 lakh) at 0.05 times. The employee quota was subscribed 1.18 times, but qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) did not place any bids.

About 60,000 applications were received for 1.34 crore shares against 17.58 crore shares on offer. Each retail investor can bid for a minimum of 137 shares, requiring an investment of Rs 14,933 at the upper price band. For sNII investors, the minimum application size is 1,918 shares (Rs 2.09 lakh), and for bNII investors, it is 9,179 shares (Rs 10 lakh).

The IPO follows a Rs 1,563 crore anchor round, where 57 institutional investors participated, including ICICI Prudential, Kotak, Nippon India, Aditya Birla Sun Life, DSP, Motilal Oswal, 360 ONE, Tata, Bharti AXA Life, Edelweiss, and Canara Robeco Mutual Fund.

The anchor round also saw strong participation from global institutional investors such as Capital Research, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, PineBridge, Eastspring Investments, and White Oak Capital.