Popular Vehicles Shares End At 6.4% Discount To IPO Price

Shares of Popular Vehicles and Services Ltd. made a muted debut on Tuesday and ended on the BSE at Rs 276 apiece, a 6.44% discount to its IPO price.

On the National Stock Exchange, the shares ended at Rs 276.4 apiece, a discount of 6.3% to the IPO price of Rs 295 apiece.

The shares listed on the NSE at Rs 289.2 apiece, a 1.9% discount. On the BSE, it debuted at Rs 292 per share.

The company's public offer was subscribed 1.23 times on its final day. The Rs 601.6-crore IPO was a combination of a fresh issue and an offer for sale.

Proceeds from the fresh issue will be used to repay certain borrowings and for general corporate purposes.

The major chunk of the proceeds from the public issue will go into debt reduction immediately and slowly, it will be ploughed back into market-expansion plans, Chief Executive Officer Raj Narayan said.

The company made its electric vehicles foray through partnerships with Ather in the two-wheeler segment and Piaggio in the three-wheeler segment, according to Narayan.

"Very clearly, we have been expanding and we will continue our expansion. Inorganic growth in terms of getting into new markets is one of the key strategies for the next year," he said.

"Service, being our clear strength, we would like to get into markets where car penetration is very high," Narayan said.

The company is into diversified automobile dealerships in India. It caters to the complete life cycle of vehicle ownership, right from the sale of new vehicles, servicing and repairing vehicles, distributing spare parts and accessories, to facilitating sale and exchange of pre-owned vehicles, operating driving schools and facilitating the sale of third-party financial and insurance products.

The company's automobile dealership business has three key segments — passenger vehicles, including luxury vehicles, commercial vehicles and electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler vehicles.