Chemcon Speciality freezes at 20% lower circuit after stellar debut

The Rs 318 crore IPO had received robust response from the investors and was over-subscribed by 47 times

Shares of Chemcon Speciality Chemicals were frozen at 20 per cent lower circuit at Rs 584.80 on the BSE on Thursday after making a stellar debut at the bourses earlier in the day. The stock of the specialty chemicals company was listed at Rs 731, a 115 per cent premium against the issue price of Rs 340 per share on the BSE. It touched a high of Rs 743.80 intra-day on the exchange today.

However, eventually, the stock ended at the maximum permissible down limit of the day and closed 72 per cent higher against its issue price. A combined around 17.8 million shares have changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE. There were pending sell orders for 430,000 shares, the exchanges data shows.

The Rs 318 crore initial public offering (IPO) of Chemcon Speciality Chemicals had received a robust response from the investors. The issue was over-subscribed by 47 times wherein the portion of share sale reserved for retail investors was subscribed 41 times, while those reserved for non-institutional investors and qualified institutional buyers were subscribed 113 and 449 times, respectively, data available on the exchanges showed.

Established in 1988, Chemcon Speciality is the only manufacturer of Hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) in India and 3rd largest in the world. Besides, it is the largest player of Chloromethyl Isopropyl Carbonate (CMIC) in the country and 2nd largest worldwide. Both these chemicals are predominantly used in the pharmaceutical industry.

According to the company’s prospectus, HMDS and CMIC constituted 43.8 per cent and 13 per cent of the total revenue from the pharmaceutical chemicals segment (which contributed 57.4 per cent towards total revenue from operations) in FY20.

"Post Covid-19, there has been anti-China sentiment across the world which, we believe, will benefit Chemcon given that it has already expanded capacity for HMDS and is likely to increase capacity for CMIC in the coming time. It is evident that the company could likely to capture import share in the years to come in a view that it maintains pricing dynamics in line with the Chinese players," analysts at ICICI Securities said in an IPO note.

Road ahead

After today's bumper listing, analysts have turned cautious on the stock given the stock's stretched valuation post debut. Notably, the share price of Chemcon pared its listing gains partially, and was trading at Rs 614 on the BSE. 

"Even at the IPO price, the company had stretched valuations. Plus with the sharp run up today, the valuation currently is quite expensive. While the long term growth story is intact as the company is a leader in its category, one needs to have 2-3 year view to hold the stock. If not, we would recommend to book profit and wait for the correction to re-enter," says Ajit Mishra, VP Research at Religare Broking.

That said, Keshav Lahoti, associate equity analyst at Angel Broking continues to be positive on the company due to its position as a leading manufacturer of its products globally. "It also has a long standing relationship with diversified customers. Chemcon's expansion plan of increasing their total installed production capacity by approximately two-third of the current capacity gives us good revenue visibility for the next few years," he says.