Surat-based specialty chemicals maker Aether Industries Ltd has submitted draft papers to raise up to ₹1,000 crore through an initial public offering (IPO).

The public issue consists of fresh issue of equity shares of the company aggregating to ₹757 crore, and offer for sale of up to 27.51 lakh shares by Purnima Ashwin Desai, one of the promoters of the company.

Also, in its DRHP dated December 28, the company informed that it may consider pre-IPO placement by further issue of equity shares, through a preferential offer aggregating to ₹131 crore.

The company proposes to utilise the net proceeds from the public issue to partly fund its prepayment or repayment of all or a portion of outstanding borrowings with ₹211 crore.

New manufacturing facility

Aether is also setting up a new greenfield manufacturing facility at Sachin GIDC in Surat at a cost of ₹163 crore. The IPO proceeds will also be used to meet the capex plans.

The company also looks to partly utilise the proceeds for working capital requirements besides general corporate purposes.

For fiscal 2021, the company’s revenues from operations stood at ₹450 crore, up from ₹302 crore in the preceding fiscal of 2020. The company reported net profits of ₹71 crore for fiscal 2021, as against ₹40 crore in the preceding fiscal 2020.