Sula Vineyards shares fall 5% post flat debut

Shares of Sula Vineyards made a tepid start on the domestic bourses on Thursday, with the share price of the country’s largest wine producer listing at a 1.1% premium at ₹361 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) against the issue price of Rs ₹357 apiece. On the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the stock made a debut at ₹358, which was in line with the Dalal-Street expectations. Given muted investor response to the highly anticipated IPO of the wine producer and weak equity market sentiment, analysts were expecting a quiet debut for Sula Vineyards shares.

Post listing, Sula Vineyards share price declined as much as 5% to hit a low of ₹339 on the BSE, while the market capitalisation slipped to ₹2,865.70 crore. On the NSE, the stock touched a high and low of ₹363 and ₹340, respectively. In comparison, the BSE Sensex was trading 162 points lower at 60,905 levels, and the NSE Nifty dropped 40 points to 18,159. 

The ₹960 crore initial public offering (IPO) of Sula Vineyards, which was entirely an offer for sale (OFS), was subscribed 2.33 times as it received bids for 4,38,36,912 shares against 1,88,30,372 shares on offer. The price band for the issue was ₹340-357 apiece with a lot size of 42 shares. This means a retail investor can make a maximum investment of ₹194,922 to buy up to 13 lots or 546 shares.

The issue of the Nashik-based company, which opened between December 12-14, got lower than expected response from investors with a quota reserved for qualified institutional buyers subscribing 4.13 times. The portion set aside for high net-worth individuals was booked 1.51 times. The portion for retail investors received 1.65 times bidding.

As the issue was a completely an OFS, which means the capital raised from the IPO will go to shareholders and the company will not receive any fund proceeds.

Ahead of the IPO, Sula Vineyards garnered  ₹288.10 crore from anchor investors by allocating 80.70 lakh shares at the upper end of the price band of ₹340-357 per share. A total of 22 investors participated in the bid including some marquee investors such as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BNP Paribas Arbitrage, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Goldman Sachs, New York State Teachers Retirement System, Segantii India Mauritius, and Morgan Stanley. Among domestic players, HDFC Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Aditya Birla Sun Life Trustee, HDFC Life Insurance, and Max Life Insurance also purchased shares of the company via anchor book.

Established in 2003, Sula Vineyards is India's largest wine producer and seller, which owns some popular brands including RASA, Dindori, The source, Satori, Madera & Dia, with its flagship brand Sula being the "category creator" of wine in India.