India's Cello World surges 29% on listing at $2.1 bln valuation (updated)

Cello World

06/11/2023 05:05

(Adds share movement in paragraph 2, analyst comment in
paragraph 4)
       BENGALURU, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Shares of Indian
kitchenware products maker Cello World  CELO.NS  rose as much as
29.2% in their trading debut on Monday, valuing the company at
177.72 billion rupees ($2.14 billion).
    The stock climbed to a high of 837.40 rupees in early trade
after opening at 829 rupees and has so far in the session stayed
above its initial public offer (IPO) price of 648 rupees.
        Last week, the company's IPO received strong interest
from investors who oversubscribed its shares on offer by 38.9
times, bidding for more than 858.3 million shares, exchange data
showed.
        "Despite the premium valuation, the IPO received a
positive response from investors due to the company's strong
brand recognition and pan-India presence," said Shivani Nyati,
Head of Wealth, Swastika Investmart, adding that after a strong
listing, investors may book profit.   
    The Mumbai-based company's smaller rivals like Stovekraft
 STVE.NS  and Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances  BUTT.NS  have a
market value of 17.05 billion rupees and 19.47 billion rupees,
respectively.  
    Cello World's shareholders, including its promoters- an
Indian market term for large shareholders who can influence
company policy- are selling stock worth 19 billion rupees in the
IPO, while the company itself is not offering any shares.
    The company, which also makes products like dinnerwares,
drinkwares and cleaning supplies, joins a host of successful
debutantes in the past few months such as Mankind Pharma
 MNKI.NS  and Concord Biotech  CONB.NS , helped by robust
investor appetite that has also powered the blue-chip stock
market index to a record high.
    As of October end, 173 Indian companies have gone public,
raising $4.46 billion, compared with 115 companies that raised
$6.06 billion in the same period last year, according to LSEG
data.
   
($1 = 83.1600 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita
Bhattacharjee and Sohini Goswami)
 ((ramavenkat.raman@thomsonreuters.com; https://twitter.com/ramavenkat0607;
 +91 8095218099;))