NHPC IPO closes; Udayan Mukherjee sees listing at Rs 42-43

The initial public offering (IPO) of India's biggest hydroelectric power generator, NHPC, closed today for subscription. The issue has received good response from all categories of investors. As per the data available on the NSE website, the NHPC IPO has already been subscribed 23.62 times so far. It has received bids for more than 3,961 crore shares as against the issue size of 167.73 crore shares. Qualified institutional investors (QIBs) were the major supportive investors with their portion being subscribed 29 times. Non-institutional and retail investors' portion subscribed 57 times and 3 times, respectively. Enam a book running lead manager, garnered 52% (USD 11 billion) of the QIB book. Udayan Mukherjee, Managing Editor, CNBC-TV18, said this morning that according to him NHPC would list between Rs 42 and Rs 43 regardless of market conditions. Here is a transcript of Udayan Mukherjee’s comments on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video. It is the last day and sometimes the last day’s subscription tends to surprise. The only thing is that this is not a great day for the market and on the margin, it might impact sentiment a bit. I wouldn't still be surprised if we see a 20 times kind of (subscription) figure by the end of today. So, we can easily get to 15-20 times over subscription which is a big number on such a big issue. If this kind of market environment persists and the Nifty is much lower than where it is today on the day of the NHPC listing, then the kind of levels that people were talking about earlier may not materialize (Read: Earlier reports suggested a grey market premium of Rs 10). But, I still think you will atleast get Rs 42-43 regardless of market conditions. But, Rs 50 and all looks like a bit of a stretch to me especially if the market conditions weaken. So, I expect today, a lot of people will still flock to the issue. Government paper always attracts people and I won’t be surprised if we get a very significantly large double-digit kind of application; not 6-7 times but closer to 15-20 times.