Awfis IPO: Issue Subscribed Over 2X On Day 1 Driven By Retail Investor Interest

The public issue of coworking space provider Awfis was subscribed 2.03X on the first day of its IPO bidding on Wednesday (May 22).

As per BSE data, the Awfis IPO received bids for 1.74 Cr shares as against the 86.29 Lakh shares on offer.

Among these, the retail investors’ portion was oversubscribed by a massive 6.04X with the highest number of bids at 94.08 Lakh. A total of 15.58 Lakh shares were on offer for these investors.

On the other hand, the portion reserved for non-institutional investors (NIIs) was oversubscribed by 2.76X. Against the 23.38 Lakh shares on offer, this portion received bids for 64.63 Lakh shares.

However, the response of the qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) to Awfis’ IPO remained muted at the end of Day 1 of the bidding process.

The QIBs have been allotted 46.76 Lakh shares, but the portion received bids for only 14.02 Lakh shares.

Meanwhile, the shares reserved for employees received a 3.53X subscription with a total of 2.03 Lakh shares bid for, as against 57,636 shares reserved for them.

Bids for the IPO can be made for a minimum of 39 equity shares and in multiples of 39 thereafter.

Peak XV-backed Awfis’ IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth INR 128 Cr and an offer for sale (OFS) component of up to 1.23 Cr shares. At least 75% of the net offer in the IPO was allocated to the QIBs, 15% to non-institutional bidders, and 10% to retail investors.

A day before its IPO opening, on May 21, the startup finalised the allocation of 7.13 Lakh equity shares to anchor investors at the anchor investor allocation price of INR 383 per equity share.

Awfis raised INR 268.6 Cr from 32 anchor investors, which included Ashoka Whiteoak, HDFC Mutual Fund, Nippon Life India, Axis Mutual Fund, Canara Rebeco Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal, and Goldman Sachs, among others.

The startup has set a price band of INR 364-INR 383 for its IPO. Awfis is expected to raise INR 599 Cr at the upper end of the price band through its public issue that opened today and is ending on May 27.

Among the stakeholders offloading shares in the IPO are Peak XV Partners selling 6.6 Mn shares and Bisque Limited selling 5.5 Mn shares.

Founded in 2015 by Amit Ramani, Awfis has evolved from just being a coworking network to a tech-enabled workspace solutions platform, catering to freelancers, startups, SMEs, large corporates, and MNCs. 

It is to be noted that Awfis is another loss-making startup taking the public route. It posted a net loss of INR 18.9 Cr in the first three quarters of FY24 on an operating revenue of INR 616.5 Cr.

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