Wonderla public issue gets overwhelming response

The initial public offering of amusement park operator Wonderla Holidays received a thundering response from investors, as the issue was subscribed by over 38 times.

Thanks to the robust secondary market, the ₹180-crore IPO received bids for over 46.90 crore shares as against over 1.23 crore shares on offer, data available on the BSE till 7.45 p.m. showed.

In contrast to Loha Ispaat The response was in quite contrast to the recent public issue of Loha Ispaat, which was forced to withdraw due to lack of interest from investors despite the company extending the offer period and reducing the price.

Woderla Holidays entered the primary market by offering 1.45 crore equity shares (including anchor portion of 21.75 lakh equity shares) of face value of ₹10 each. The company has fixed the price band at ₹115-125 a share. Most of the bids were received at ₹125.

At the upper end of the band, the company would raise about ₹181 crore through the issue and at the lower end, it would be to the tune of ₹167 crore.

Wonderla Holidays had raised about ₹27 crore from anchor investors last week. The company allotted shares to Aditya Birla Private Equity Trust (6.75 lakh shares), TV Shriram Growth Fund 1B (7.75 lakh shares) and HDFC Trustee Company — HDFC Infrastructure Fund (7.25 lakh shares).

Crisil has rated Wonderla Holidays IPO at 4/5, indicating above average fundamentals.

Funds from the issue will be used to set up an amusement park in Hyderabad, the company’s third after Bangalore and Kochi, and for general corporate purposes.

Wonderla Holidays is promoted by Arun Kochouseph Chittilappilly and Kochouseph Chittilappilly, who founded V-Guard Industries. The promoters hold 95.48 per cent stake in the company and the remaining 4.52 per cent is with the employees of the firm and group companies.

Edelweiss Financial Services and ICICI Securities are the book running lead managers to the issue.