Mach Conferences and Events makes decent debut, shares list at 33% premium to IPO price

Shares of small and medium enterprise (SME) Mach Conferences and Events Ltd made a decent trading debut on Wednesday, September 11, with the stock listing at a 33.3% premium on the BSE SME platform.

The Mach Conferences and Events stock opened the session at ₹300 apiece, up 33.3% compared to its initial public offering (IPO) price of ₹225. However, within minutes of the opening of the session, the share price tanked 5% to hit the lower circuit limit at ₹285 apiece.

As the minimum bid quantity in the Mach Conferences IPO was 600 shares, successful bidders who were allotted shares in the primary issue were sitting on listing gains of at least ₹45,000 (₹75 x 600) after the stock started trading on bourses.

The ₹125.28-crore Mach Conferences and Events IPO was open for subscription from September 4 to September 6. The issue was oversubscribed by almost 197 times, with the company receiving bids for over 72.6 crore shares against 36.9 lakh shares up on offer.

Non-institutional investors (NIIs) led the demand, with the portion reserved for them being overbooked by a whopping 404 times. The retail investors’ category was oversubscribed 136.5 times, while the qualified institutional buyers’ (QIBs) portion was booked 146.7 times.

The Mach Conferences and Events IPO was a 100% book-built issue. It was a combination of fresh issuance of 22.29 lakh shares, aggregating to ₹50.15 crore, and an offer-for-sale of 33.39 lakh shares aggregating to ₹75.13 crore.

The price band for the IPO was set at ₹214 to ₹225 per share. The lot size, or minimum bid quantity, for an application was 600 shares.

Ahead of the launch of the IPO, Mach Conferences and Events IPO had also raised ₹35.51 crore via its anchor investor round. The board of directors of the company at its meeting held on September 3 finalized allocation of 15.78 lakh equity shares of the company to a total of 21 anchor investors at an allocation price of ₹225 apiece.

The company had earlier said that the net proceeds from the fresh issuance of shares would be utilized towards meeting working capital requirements and for general corporate purposes.

Founded in 2004, Mach Conferences and Events offers a comprehensive range of customized services for the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) and events sector. It essentially arranges, coordinates and carries out formal meetings, incentives, conferences and events across the globe, which includes tasks like venue selection, accommodation, transportation logistics, local activities and on-site coordination.

The company said that it has conducted over 300 large and medium-sized events in the last three years involving more than 30 of the most elite brands.