The ₹41.80 crore SME initial public offering (IPO) of Crayons Advertising, which opened for subscription between May 22-25, received an overwhelming response from the bidders, clocking 147.61 times subscription worth ₹4,104.67 crore. The advertising solution company had set a price band of ₹62 to ₹65 per share for the IPO. The allotment of shares will be done on May 30, while stock will be listed on NSE’s SME platform on June 2.

The retail portion was subscribed 169.94 times as the company received bids for 36.33 crore shares against 21.38 lakh shares on offer. The non-institutional investor category (NII) was subscribed 171.71 times, while the quota reserved for the qualified institutional buyer (QIB) category was booked nearly 45.2 times. 

The company offered a total of 42.78 lakh fresh equity shares (₹10 paid up) through the book-building process. As per the offer document filed with SEBI, 50% of the net offer was reserved for the qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), 15% for the Non-institutional investor (NII) or HNI investors, and not less than 35% for the retail investors. The company had set aside 329,600 shares for the market maker of the IPO, SS Corporate Securities.

Ahead of the IPO, the company issued 18.30 lakhs shares to the anchor investors, including Europe’s bank Societe Generale ODI, Aegis Investment Fund PCC, Rajasthan Global Securities, Nav Capital VCC- Nav Capital Emerging Star Fund, among others.

On listing, Crayons Advertising will become India's first major homegrown integrated advertising agency to make debut on the domestic bourses. Corporate Capital Venture Private Limited is the lead manager to issue and Skyline Financial Services is the Registrar to the issue. The shares of the company will be listed on NSE Emerge.

Incorporated in 1986, Crayons Advertising provides a high-end ecosystem and end-to-end ad-tech communication solutions platform for advertising media services consisting of brand strategy, events, digital media, Print Media, and Outdoor (OOH) Media services, which cover advertisement modes such as Newspapers, Brochures, Magazines, Television Channels, FM channels and display of Outdoor Hoardings, etc.

The company plans to invest in setting up its own film and animation studios and enhance its existing foundation of Web3 capabilities to offer more dynamic Metaverse solutions, including AR, VR and other emerging immersive tech. It also plans to enhance a wide array of event offerings with new-age technology applications to allow omnipresence, scale up the OOH business and acquire talent from the international market. The public issue proceeds will be utilised for capital expenditure on infrastructure & cutting-edge technology.

In the last three fiscals, Crayons Advertising posted a total revenue of ₹163.68 crore (FY20), ₹106.61 crore (FY21), and ₹194.05 crore (FY22). The net profit for FY20, FY21, and FY22 stood at ₹1.17 crore, ₹0.13 crore, and ₹1.61 crore. For 9M of FY23, net profit was at ₹12.67 crore on total revenue of ₹203.75 crore. 

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