The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Surat-based Aether Industries Limited ("Company"), a speciality chemical manufacturer in India focused on producing advanced intermediates and speciality chemicals involving complex and differentiated chemistry and technology core competencies, received bids of 5,85,34,586 shares against the offered 93,56,193 equity shares, at a price band of Rs. 610-642, according to the data available on the stock exchanges. Overall the issue was subscribed 6.26 times on the final day of bidding.
Qualified institutional buyer portion was subscribed 17.57 times. The reserved portion of non-institutional investors witnessed a subscription of 2.52 times. Retail and Employee was subscribed 1.14 times and 1.06 times respectively. The issue kicked off for subscription on Tuesday, May 24.
The IPO consists of a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating to Rs. 627 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 2,820,000 equity shares. The proceeds from its fresh issuance worth Rs 163 crore will be utilised for funding capital expenditure requirements for the proposed greenfield project in Surat, Gujarat, Rs 137.9 crore for the repayment or prepayment of borrowings, in full or part of all or certain borrowings; and Rs 165 crore for funding working capital requirements; and general corporate purposes.
HDFC Bank Limited and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited are the book running lead manager to the issue and Link Intime India Private Limited is the registrar to the offer.
Company Information
Aether Industries started with a research and development (R&D) unit in 2013 and began commercial production in 2017. It caters to the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, material science, coatings, high performance photography, additives and oil & gas segments of the chemicals industry.
As of March 31, 2022, the Company's product portfolio comprised of over 25 products. The Surat-based company is the only manufacturer of 4MEP, MMBC, T2E, OTBN, NODG, DVL and Bifenthrin Alcohol in India and the largest manufacturer of 4MEP, T2E, NODG and HEEP in the world, by volumes; 4MEP, T2E, MMBC, NODG, BFA, OTBN, NMDG and DVL products were 100% imported into India from China four years ago and now Aether is selling these products in China.
The Company has two sites at Sachin in Surat (Gujarat, India). The initial manufacturing facility is a 3,500-square-metres space that houses R&D, analytical sciences laboratories, a pilot plant, a CRAMS facility, and a hydrogenation facility. The Second Manufacturing Facility is a large-scale manufacturing facility is a 10,500 square metres space and houses 16 production streams. It has an installed capacity of 6,096 MT per year and is divided into three buildings (and one SRP Plant Stream).
For the nine-months ended December 31, 2021, Aether Industries revenue from operations stood at Rs 442.54 crore and net profit at Rs 82.91 crore. The Company's revenue from operations grew 49.04% to Rs. 449.82 crores in Fiscal 2021 from Rs. 301.81 crore in Fiscal 2020, while its net profit climbed 77.98% to Rs 71.12 crore in Fiscal 2021 from Rs. 39.96 crores in Fiscal 2020. |
