OFS today: Aether Industries' Purnima Desai to sell 6.77% stake in offer for sale; key details

Aether Industries Ltd, a specialty chemicals manufacturer, has announced an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 89.79 lakh equity shares by promoter Purnima Desai, totaling Rs 628.54 crore. This represents 6.77 per cent of the company’s total outstanding equity. The floor price of the offer is set at Rs 700. This is at 13.18 per cent discount to the stock's Monday closing price of Rs 806.30 apiece.

To be sure, the promoter holding in the Surat-based company stood at 81.77 per cent at the end of March quarter. As per regulatory requirement, the timeline for Aether Industries to meet its minimum public shareholding was May 31. With the OFS, public shareholding in the company would reach 25 per cent, as mandated. 

The OFS would take place over two trading days on a separate window of the stock exchanges on May 13 and May 14 from 9:15 am to 3:30 pm IST on both days.  Only non-retail investors can bid today (T+0). They may also indicate their willingness to carry forward their un-allotted bids to T+1 day for allocation to them in the unsubscribed portion of retail category. 

For retail investors and non-retail investors, who choose to carry forward their un-allotted bids, the bid date is May 14.

In its earnings call on May 3, the company management had said it was in discussion with its bankers regarding meeting of the shareholding norms. The management said there were only certain mechanisms, which are allowed by SEBI for allowing the company to reach the minimum public shareholding norms and that it would be abiding by those requirements. 

HDFC Institutional Equities recently suggested 'Buy' on the stock with a target of Rs 1,197, saying the company has commissioned Site 4 to execute a strategic supply agreement with Baker Hughes. 

It noted that the commercial supply for products will start in Q1FY26 and ramp up over the next two years. 

"The expansion project at Site 3++ is on track to be commissioned by the end of FY26. Phase-I of the greenfield project at Panoli (Site 5) is on track to be commissioned by December-25. These developments will drive revenue growth," it said.

This brokerage is expecting revenue, Ebitda and PAT CAGRs of 27 per cent, 30 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively, for Aether Industries  over FY25-29E. It sees return on equity (RoE) to improve to 10.9 per cent in FY29 from 7.8 per cent in FY25.

Aether Industries' products find application in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, material science, coating, high-performance photography, additive, and oil and gas segments of the chemical industry.