Wonderla Holidays IPO oversubscribed 38 times on last day

In a strong investor response, the initial public offer of shares by amusement park operator Wonderla Holidays, the first in the current financial year, was oversubscribed 38 times on the last day today.

Bids were received for over 46.79 crore shares against about 1.23 crore shares offered, according to data available on the National Stock Exchange as of 6 pm.

The qualified institutional buyers portion was subscribed about 16.71 times, the non-institutional investor category about 159.04 times, while retail individual investors bid for 7.03 times the shares kept for them, the company said in a statement.

Bangalore-based Wonderla entered the primary market offering 1.45 crore equity shares, including 21,75,000 equity shares bought by anchor investors, in a price band of Rs 115-125 each. The company raised about Rs 27 crore from the anchor investors.

At the upper end of the band, the IPO could fetch about Rs 181 crore, while at the lower end, the proceeds would be to the tune of Rs 167 crore. The offer opened on Monday.

Funds from the issue will be used to set up an amusement park in Hyderabad, the company's third after Bangalore and Kochi, and for general corporate purposes.

Wonderla is promoted by Arun Kochouseph Chittilappilly and Kochouseph Chittilappilly, who founded V-Guard Industries.

The promoters hold a 95.48 per cent stake in the company and the remaining 4.52 per cent is with employees of the firm and group companies.

Wonderla commissioned its first amusement park in Kochi in 2000 and the second in Bangalore in 2005.

Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd and ICICI Securities Ltd were the book running lead managers to the issue.