Shares of Concord Biotech made a robust debut on the bourses today, August 18. The stock listed at ₹900.05 on NSE and BSE, a premium of 21.46 percent over its issue price of ₹741.
The ₹1,551-crore Concord Biotech issue was open for subscription between August 4 and August 8. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's RARE Enterprises-backed firm had set a price range of ₹705-741 for the issue. The biotechnology company IPO was the second IPO of August after SBFC Finance, which opened a day earlier.
The public issue received a solid response from the investors and was overall subscribed to 24.87 times in the 3 days of bidding. The portion for qualified institutional bidders was subscribed to 67.67 times, while those for non-institutional investors, retail investors and employees were booked 16.99 times, 3.78 times and 24.48 times, respectively.
The IPO was entirely an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 2.09 crore equity shares or 20 percent of paid-up equity by Helix Investment Holdings. The IPO will give an exit to Helix and the company will not receive any proceeds from the issue.
Incorporated in 1984, Concord Biotech is a homegrown research and development (R&D) driven biopharma company. The company manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) through fermentation & semi-synthetic process and finished formulations. It has a global presence and supplies its products to more than 70 countries including the USA, India, Europe, and Japan.
For the year ended on March 31, 2023, Concord Biotech reported a 37.2 percent rise in its net profit to ₹240.08 crore versus ₹175 crore in the year-ago period, driven by strong growth in topline and operating performance. Its revenue also jumped 20 percent to ₹888.48 crore as against ₹736.35 crore in the same period last year.
As of FY23, CBL had 23 APIs (89 percent of revenue), which it aims to increase further, especially in anti-infective/oncology segments. Its API customers include Intas Pharmaceuticals and Glenmark Pharma, while it had had an average of eight years of relationships with the 10 largest customers by revenue in FY23.
Most brokerages recommended subscribing to the issue on the back of fair valuations, a strong business model, global presence and healthy financial performance.
