Cochin Shipyard debut: stocks rise 22 per cent at Rs 522 a share

Mumbai: State-run Cochin Shipyard on Friday had an impressive debut on the bourses despite a slump in the markets.

Within seconds of being listed, the stock climbed up 9 per cent and within minutes it was trading over 22 per cent up at Rs 522 a share against the issue price of Rs 432.

The Initial Public Offer was oversubscribed 76 times, with the high networth individual segment witnessing a subscription of over 288 times of the allotted component.

The total money raised from the IPO is Rs 1,468 crore, which includes a divestment by the government by selling 11.32 million shares through an offer for sale, and issue of 22.65 million fresh shares.

The over-subscription meant investors had put Rs 1.11 trillion or 2.8 per cent of the country's GDP, bankers to the issue said ahead of the listing.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the investor confidence shows the faith in the Narendra Modi government's economic policies.

The shipyard, whose almost the entire revenue of Rs 2,059 crore last year came from government, should diversify and cater to the private sector too, Gadkari said. "Don't depend on only government orders. Now you have to go for cruise, catamaran, hovercraft and my ambition is sea-planes, go for it," he said.

Cochin Shipyard is currently building India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant.

Gadkari said looking at the opportunity in the inland waterways sector, the shipyard has also partnered with a state-run yard in Hoogly near Kolkata to build and maintain smaller vessels.

The Cochin Shipyard scrip was trading over 20 per cent up at Rs 522 a piece on the BSE at 1208 hrs, against a 0.57 per cent correction in the benchmark.