India's Mankind Pharma soars 32% in rare successful market debut
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BENGALURU -Shares of India's Mankind Pharma Ltd ended with gains of 31.7% in their trading debut on Tuesday, valuing the maker of Manforce condoms at 569.76 billion rupees ($6.97 billion) in a rare instance of a successful domestic public listing this year.
Mankind's 43.26 billion rupees initial public offering (IPO) ranks as India's biggest so far in 2023, and the third-biggest ever. It is also the biggest among Indian pharma companies since Gland Pharma Ltd went public in 2020.
Shares of the company, which also owns India's top at-home pregnancy test kit Prega News, opened at 1,300 rupees, well above its IPO price of 1,080 rupees, before surging 32.4% to a session-high of 1,430 rupees in heavy volumes.
The company's successful debut comes amid a gloomy market for domestic listings. Since peaking in 2021 — when 183 firms went public, per data from Tracxn — the IPO market has fizzled out amid concerns of companies' valuations and profitability as well as the volatility in global markets.
In the past six months, apparel retailer Fabindia, jeweller Joyalukkas, skincare startup Mamaearth and e-commerce firm Snapdeal have scrapped their IPO plans, mostly blaming volatile stock markets.
Even the companies that did go public in that period have not fared so well.
For instance, KFin Technologies Ltd, Elin Electronics Ltd and Avalon Technologies Ltd are all trading below their IPO prices. Sula Vineyards Ltd had a weak debut in December, but has since recovered.
Mankind's debut could help revive the IPO market, said Hemang Jani, equity strategist at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
The company "clearly stands out as after a long time a company with good business model and performance numbers is listing. The strong debut will likely lift the sentiment for the IPO market overall."
Its Manforce condoms is the top brand in the male condom category by sales in the Indian market, according to the company's IPO prospectus. It competes with Reckitt Benckiser Group's Durex and TTK Group's Skore in the domestic market.
The company has become India's fourth-largest pharmaceutical company by addressing affordability, accessibility and quality through lower pricing, brokerage Macquarie Research said, starting coverage of the stock with an "outperform" rating.
About 33.19 million Mankind shares were traded on Tuesday, making it the tenth most active stock across Indian exchanges. The benchmark Nifty 50 index closed up 0.01%.
The company's IPO comprised shares worth 43.26 billion rupees sold by existing shareholders, including founder Ramesh Juneja. It allocated 12.98 billion rupees worth of shares to 77 anchor investors including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Singapore government, Goldman Sachs and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. ($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
