Aether Industries IPO: Ahead of public issue, company garners Rs 240 cr from anchor investors

Speciality chemicals company Aether Industries on Monday said it has raised a little over Rs 240 crore from anchor investors ahead of its initial share-sale, which opens for public subscription on Tuesday.

The company has allocated a total of 37,42,495 equity shares to anchor investors at Rs 642 apiece, taking the transaction size to Rs 240.26 crore, according to a circular uploaded on the BSE website.

A total of 25 funds have been allocated shares in the anchor round. This included Goldman Sachs, Nomura, SBI Mutual Fund (MF), Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Kotak MF, Axis MF, IDFC MF and Tata MF.

The company has cut the size of the fresh issue of equity shares to Rs 627 crore from Rs 757 crore planned earlier following the pre-IPO placement.

Apart from the fresh issue, there will be an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 28.2 lakh equity shares by the promoter.

The public issue, with a price band of Rs 610-642, will open for subscription on May 24 and conclude on May 26.

Proceeds from the fresh issuance will be used to fund capital expenditure requirements for a proposed new project in Surat, Gujarat, fund working capital requirements and for payment of debt.

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Half of the issue size has been reserved for qualified institutional investors, 35 per cent for retail investors and the remaining 15 per cent for non-institutional investors.

Investors can bid for a minimum of 23 equity shares and in multiples of 23 thereafter.

Aether Industries is a speciality chemicals manufacturer in India focused on producing advanced intermediates and speciality chemicals involving complex and differentiated chemistry and technology core competencies.

It started with a research and development (R&D) unit in 2013 and began commercial production in 2017. It caters to the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, material science, electronic chemical, high performance photography and oil and gas industry segments.

The company's operating revenue grew to Rs 450 crore in FY21, from Rs 302 crore in FY20. Its net profit climbed to Rs 71 crore in FY21, from Rs 40 crore in FY20.

HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company are the book running lead managers to the issue.