Harsha Engineers makes a strong debut on Dalal Street as shares list at 36% premium

Harsha Engineers International — an Ahmedabad-based manufacturer of precision bearing cages — made a strong debut on stock exchanges on Monday, shrugging off a market-wide sell-off triggered by fears that steep hikes in key interest rates will impact global growth. The Harsha Engineers stock listed on BSE at Rs 444 apiece — a premium of 34.5 percent over the upper end of its IPO price range of Rs 314-330.

On NSE, Harsha Engineers shares began their journey at Rs 450 apiece, a premium of 36.4 percent.

The stock finished its first day in the listed space at Rs 482.9 apiece on BSE and Rs 472.5 apiece on NSE.

The strong listing was in line with the trend in the grey market in the past few days, where dealers said Harsha commanded a premium since the launch of the IPO. Grey market is an unofficial market for unlisted securities.

Harsha Engineers' management exuded confidence that the company will exceed industry revenue growth of 6-8 percent on the back of its strong product portfolio.

"We are working on a lot of outsourcing of cages and we see how the whole China Plus One strategy plays out... There are a lot of factors going into that. ...Because of China Plus One and outsourcing, we are quite confident that we can hit the teen numbers again," Vishal Rangwala, CEO of Harsha Engineers, told CNBC-TV18.

The company does not expect to raise significant debt over the next two years, he said.

Harsha Engineers International's IPO, to raise up to Rs 755 crore, was open for subscription from September 14 to 16, and saw an overall subscription of almost 75 times the shares on offer. Potential investors could bid for the company's shares in a price band of Rs 314-330 apiece in multiples of 45.

The IPO was a combination of fresh issuance of shares worth up to Rs 455 and an offer for sale (OFS) by existing shareholders.

Harsha Engineers' was the fourth initial share sale to hit Dalal Street within a little over a month, following the primary market offerings of Syrma SGS, DreamFolks and Tamilnad Mercantile Bank.

Many brokerages had recommended subscribing to the Harsha Engineers IPO.

Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 dropped as much as 1.5 percent in early deals dragged by financial, oil & gas and auto shares, as the market awaited the outcome of a meeting of the RBI's rate-setting panel due this week.