Godavari Biorefineries says will launch over Rs 700-cr IPO 'at right time'

Ethanol and bio-based chemicals maker Godavari Biorefineries Ltd on Sunday said it is watching the geo-political situation and will make its share market debut "at the right time".

Godavari Biorefineries Ltd CEO and Managing Director Samir Somaiya told PTI that the company has already received the market regulator Sebi's final approval for its initial public offering (IPO).

"We got Sebi's final comments on our IPO request during November-end (2021). We have one year to get listed. We will look at the right time for the listing," he said.

Stating that the geo-political situation has changed in the last few months, Somaiya said: "We will see how the geo-political situation changes and if the time is right and the market is once again ready for the listing, then we will plan the listing."

The company has time till November this year to list the IPO. About Rs 370 crore would be the primary offering, he said.

Sources, however, said the cumulative size of IPO would be over Rs 700 crore from a mix of primary and secondary offerings.

"IPO funding is going for the investments that we are doing in Karnataka," Somaiya added.

Godavari Biorefineries Ltd has two manufacturing sites -- Bagalkot (Karnataka) and Ahmednagar (Maharashtra) besides research and development (R&D) units.

As there is huge opportunity in green and sustainable chemistry, Somaiya said the company has begun expansion of ethanol capacity from current 380 kilolitre per day (KLPD) to 570 KLPD and it will be completed by November this year.

The company is also in the "development stage" of manufacturing second generation ethanol and energy cane, he said.

"We are working much more on research. We have done a lot of work on 2nd, 3rd (generation) ethanol. We think the time for that will come (for 2nd generation ethanol). We know how to do it and gaps that need to be filled. I will say it is in the development stage," he added.

Recently, the company performed a 'bhoomi pujan' of a speciality chemical plant and opened a research lab at Ahmednagar.

Mumbai-headquartered Godavari Biorefineries exports both sugar and bio-chemicals. It has customers from over 20 countries.