ideaForge IPO: Shares List At A Premium Of 94% On The BSE

Shares of leading drone startup ideaForge made a mega debut on the Indian stock exchanges on Friday (July 7), listing at 94% premium to the issue price.

On the NSE, ideaForge shares listed at INR 1,300, a premium of 93.45% to its issue price of INR 638-INR 672. On the BSE, the shares listed at INR 1,305.10 apiece – a premium of 94.21%.

During the pre-open trading, ideaForge saw its share price open at INR 1,344 apiece on both the BSE and the NSE, a premium of 100% over its upper band IPO price of INR 672. The share price reached as high as INR 1,478 on both bourses, 120% higher than the IPO price.

ideaForge shares were trading at a premium of 75% in the grey market till Thursday. The public issue was subscribed 106X, with significant demand from across investor categories – retail, qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), and non-institutional investors (NII).

While the portion reserved for QIBs was subscribed 125X, the retail category was subscribed 85.2X, and the NII category 80X.

ideaForge IPO comprised an offer for sale (OFS) of 48.7 Lakh shares and a fresh issue of shares worth INR 240 Cr. It was aiming to raise INR 567 Cr from the public offering.

The premium at the listing was still higher that the 89% premium that drone startup DroneAcharya received during the BSE SME debut in December 2022.

Founded in 2007 by IIT Bombay graduates Ashish Bhat, Ankit Mehta, Rahul Singh, Vipul Joshi, and Amardeep Singh, ideaForge is one of the pioneering drone manufacturers and startups in the country. The startup raised over $40 Mn in multiple funding rounds from private investors before the IPO. 

As per publicly available data on Tracxn, ideaForge’s pre-IPO valuation stood at over $174 Mn.

ideaForge’s stellar debut is expected to provide a ray of hope for new-age Indian startups eyeing public debut. Many startups have deferred their IPO plans over the last year or so due to negative market sentiment. 

Meanwhile, the market is largely of the opinion that while the overall sentiment on new-age tech stocks has improved, as is evident by the recent rally in Zomato, Paytm, PB Fintech, and others, it is ultimately positive cash flow that would sustain this momentum in the long run.

While ideaForge is one of the few profitable ventures among the new-age tech startups to take the IPO route, its profit after tax declined 27.3% to INR 32 Cr in FY23 on the back of hefty employee stock ownership plans (ESPOs).

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