Smartworks Shares List At 7% Premium Over IPO Price

Smartworks Coworking Spaces made its stock market debut today, with its shares listing at 7.14% premium on the BSE. Smartwork’s shares debuted at INR 436.10 apiece against the issue price of INR 407. 

On the NSE, the stock opened at INR 435, a 6.88% premium over the IPO price.

At 10:20 AM, the stock was trading 6.01% higher at INR 462.30 on the BSE with a market capitalisation of INR 5,280.86 Cr. 

This comes after Smartwork’s IPO closed with an oversubscription of 13.45X on July 14, with largest participation from QIBs. 

Smartworks set a price band of INR 387 to INR 407 for its IPO, which comprises a fresh issue of shares of up to INR 445 Cr and an OFS component of up to 33.79 Lakh shares.

The proceeds from the IPO will be used to repay borrowings, fuel capital expenditure towards security deposits and development of new centres. 

The listing at the premium comes a day after the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) dismissed an appeal that sought to halt the IPO of Smartworks. 

The appeal was filed by a non-governmental organization, Infrastructure Watchdog, which had raised various allegations against Smartworks, its promoters, and the market regulator SEBI.

It claimed that Smartworks was under an investigation by the Income Tax department, received funds from shell companies and some amounts through benami transactions, and more. To this, Smartworks had rubbished all the allegations. 

Just before IPO, Smartworks raised INR 173.64 Cr in its anchor round from Tata Mutual Fund, Baroda BNP Paribas, and Trust Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life, Axis Mutual Fund, SBI General Insurance, Societe Generale and Buoyant Capital.

Founded in 2016 by Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani, Smartworks is a managed workspace provider. It leases large buildings from landlords, converts them into campuses, and then rents them out to large enterprises. It maintains an average lease tenure of 48 months and currently manages 10 Mn sq ft of space.

Beyond leasing, Smartworks earns a small portion of its income from services such as meeting rooms, internet access, parking, electricity, and other client-used amenities.

On the financial front,  its net loss jumped 26.5% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 63.2 Cr in FY25 and operating revenue grew 32% YoY to INR 1,374 Cr. Smartworks’s management said that the company will achieve breakeven at the unit-building level in the next 12 months.