Western Carriers shares: GMP falls just before market debut; will it disappoint stock investors?

Shares of Western Carriers India are to make their Dalal Street debut on Tuesday and the logistics solution provider may disappoint investors on its debut. The company has lost its ground in the grey market, which is signaled by the falling premium in the unofficial market following a muted bidding for the issue.
 

Ahead of its listing, the grey market premium (GMP) for the shares of Western Carriers India crumbled to Rs 10-13 per shares, suggesting a listing pop of merely 7-8 per cent for the investors. However, the premium in the unofficial market was around Rs 20 on the last day of the bidding.
 

The five-day IPO of Western Carriers India was open for bidding between September 13-19. The company had offered its shares in the fixed price band of Rs 163-172 per share with a lot size of 87 shares. It raised a total of Rs 492.88 crore from its IPO, which included a fresh share sale of up to Rs 400 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 54 lakh shares.
 

Western Carriers has generated decent market demand, with its issue subscribed nearly 31 times and set to list on Tuesday, expecting a premium of only 6 per cent above the upper band price, said Akriti Mehrotra, Research Analyst at Stoxbox. As a dominant player in India’s logistics sector, She recommended investors to hold their positions for the medium to long term.
 

The issue was overall subscribed a total of 30.57 times. The quota for qualified institutional bidders (QIBs) was booked 27.99 times. The quota for non-institutional investors was subscribed 44.71 times. The portions reserved for retail investors saw bidding for 25.95 times during the five-day bidding process.
 

Incorporated in 2011, Western Carriers India is a multimodal, rail-focused, 4PL asset-light logistics company. The company offers fully customizable, multi-modal logistics solutions encompassing road, rail, water, and air transportation and a tailored range of value-added services to sectors such as metals, FMCG, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, engineering, oil and gas and retail.
 

Brokerages were mostly positive on the issue suggesting investors to subscribe to it for a long term. JM Financial and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company were the book running lead managers of the Western Carriers India IPO, while Link Intime India was the registrar for the issue. Shares of the company shall be listed on both BSE and NSE.