Gopal Snacks collects Rs 194 cr capital from anchor investors ahead of IPO

Gopal Snacks Ltd on Tuesday said it has garnered Rs 194 crore from anchor investors, a day ahead of the start of its initial share sale.

The Rajkot-based company has allotted 48.36 lakh equity shares to 19 funds at Rs 401 apiece, which is also the upper end of the price band, according to a circular uploaded on BSE's website.

Those who participated in the anchor round are -- BofA Securities Europe SA, Bay Capital India Fund, ITI Mutual Fund, DSP Mutual Fund, Quant Mutual Fund, Edelweiss Mutual Fund and HDFC Life Insurance Company.

The issue, with a price band of Rs 381 to Rs 401 per share, will open for subscription on March 6 and conclude on March 11.

The proposed initial public offering (IPO) is entirely an offer for sale (OFS) of equity shares by promoters and other selling shareholders.

The OFS comprises the sale of shares by Bipinbhai Vithalbhai Hadvani, Gopal Agriproducts Private Ltd and Harsh Sureshkumar Shah.

Founded in 1999, Gopal Snacks is a fast-moving consumer goods company in India, offering namkeen, western snacks, and other products across India and internationally. As of September 2023, the namkeen makers' products were sold in 10 states and 2 Union Territories and has a network of 3 depots and 617 distributors.

The company operates three manufacturing facilities-- Rajkot and Modasa in Gujarat, and Nagpur in Maharashtra. Furthermore, it runs three ancillary manufacturing facilities that mostly produce besan, raw snack pellets, seasoning, and spices. These are mainly used internally to make finished products like namkeen, gathiya, and snack pellets.

The companies' revenue from operations increased from Rs 1,128.86 crore in fiscal 2021 to Rs 1,394.65 crore in fiscal 2023 and profit grew from Rs 21.12 crore in fiscal 2021 to Rs 112.37 crore in fiscal 2023.

Half of the issue size has been reserved for qualified institutional investors, 35 per cent for retail investors and the remaining 15 per cent for non-institutional investors.

Investors can place bids starting from a minimum of 37 equity shares, with the option to bid in increments of 37 equity shares thereafter.

Intensive Fiscal Services, Axis Capital and JM Financial are the book-running lead managers to the IPO. The equity shares of the company are proposed to be listed on the BSE and NSE.