Bajaj Housing Finance IPO: Capitalmind’s Deepak Shenoy thinks Rs 3.2 lakh crore bids is ‘scary’

Deepak Shenoy, founder and CEO of finance advisory firm Capitalmind, thinks that the outrageous response to Bajaj Housing Finance’s initial public offering (IPO) is a rather scary scenario. He said it is far more scary than “a little two-showroom SME getting bids of Rs 4,000 crore”. 

Bajaj Housing became the first company to cross Rs 3 lakh crore bidding value for a Rs 6,560-crore IPO during the initial share sale phase.

“This is way more scary than a little 2 showroom SME getting bids of (Rs) 4000 cr. Because when you have (Rs) 300,000 cr. locked in bank accounts, this much money is not available for people to buy if the market tanks in the next two days. Just two days, of course. Number way scarier though,” he said in a post.

The IPO received stellar response from qualified institutional buyer (QIB) category, with a subscription of 209.36 times on the third and final day of bidding process.

The non-institutional investors (NIIs) portion was subscribed 41.51 times and the category reserved for shareholders was booked 17.52 times. Retail investors and employee portions saw 7.04x and 2.05x bids, respectively.

Shenoy’s reference to the SME IPO pertained to Resourceful Automobile's SME public offering. Resourceful Automobile's IPO recorded massive bids worth Rs 4,800 crore for an offering of just Rs 12 crore. Another SME, Boss Packing Solutions, which had an issue size of a little over Rs 8 crore, received bids worth Rs 1,073 crore.