Awfis IPO Receives Strong Response, Issue Oversubscribed 108X On Final Day

Coworking space provider Awfis’ initial public offering (IPO) received an overwhelming response on the final day for bidding on Monday (May 27), with the issue getting oversubscribed 108.56X.

As per the BSE data, the IPO received bids for 93.68 Cr shares as against the 86.29 Lakh shares on offer.

Qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) placed bids for 54.68 Cr shares as against 46.75 Lakh shares reserved for them, resulting in an oversubscription of 116X.

Closely trailing QIBs in terms of bids were non-institutional investors (NIIs), who bid for 30.34 Cr shares versus 23.27 Lakh shares reserved for them. The portion reserved for them was oversubscribed 129.8X. 

Meanwhile, the portion reserved for retail individual investors (RIIs) was oversubscribed 54.58X. They placed bids for 8.5 Cr shares as against 15.58 Lakh shares on offer.

Shares reserved for employees also saw a healthy increase in subscriptions on the final day, with employees bidding for 14.52 Lakh shares as against the 57,636 shares reserved for them. This resulted in an oversubscription of 25.2X. 

Post this, shares of Awfis will be listed on the BSE and the NSE. The startup is looking to raise INR 599 Cr through the public offer at the upper end of the price band, which was set at INR 364-INR 383. 

The IPO comprised a fresh issue of shares worth INR 128 Cr and an offer for sale (OFS) component of up to 1.23 Cr shares. Peak XV Partners and Bisque Limited are among the investors selling stake via the OFS. 

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. 

For the first nine months of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), it posted a net loss of INR 18.9 Cr. For the fiscal year FY23, its net loss fell by a little over 18% to INR 46.6 Cr from INR 57.1 Cr in FY22. 

The company filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) back in December 2023. The capital markets regulator greenlit its public listing plans in April. 

Awfis plans to utilise INR 52.5 Cr from the net proceeds of the IPO in setting up new coworking setups. It also plans to open 15 new centres under the ‘Awfis’ format in FY25, in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar and Jaipur. 

It is pertinent to note that a number of new-age tech startups, including Ola Electric, FirstCry, Swiggy, are looking to go public in 2024. Earlier this month, shares of insurtech unicorn Digit were listed at INR 281 per share on BSE, a 3.3% premium of than the issue price of INR 272.