Orient Cables IPO Opens: Rs 552-Crore Issue Draws Strong Day-One Demand

New Delhi-based Orient Cables (India) opened its initial public offering for subscription on Friday, becoming the latest networking infrastructure player to test investor appetite in what has been an unusually busy stretch for India's primary market. The Rs 552-crore issue is priced in a band of Rs 258 to Rs 272 per share and will remain open for bidding through September 29, with the company aiming for a listing on the BSE and NSE around October 5.

The offer comprises a fresh issue worth Rs 320 crore and an offer for sale of roughly 85.29 lakh shares worth Rs 232 crore from existing shareholders. At the top end of the price band, Orient Cables would command a market capitalisation of close to Rs 3,100 crore. Investors can bid in lots of 55 shares, with half the issue reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 15 per cent for non-institutional investors and the remaining 35 per cent set aside for retail applicants.

Early demand has been brisk. The issue was reported to be roughly 91 per cent subscribed within the first few hours of trading on day one, a pace that suggests investors are willing to look past some of the more cautious brokerage notes around valuation. Ahead of the public offer, the company raised Rs 165.6 crore from twenty anchor investors at the top end of the price band, with names including Goldman Sachs, Nippon Life India Trustee, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund, Invesco Mutual Fund and Bandhan Mutual Fund among those taking allocations — a roster that lends some institutional credibility to the offer heading into the retail window.

Orient Cables has built nearly two decades of experience manufacturing networking cables and passive networking equipment, and today counts itself among the top four players in the segment with close to 23 per cent market share. Its customer base spans broadband and telecom operators, data centre operators, renewable energy projects, smart building and security systems, system integrators and the automotive and FMEG sectors — a spread that gives the company exposure to several of India's fastest-growing infrastructure themes at once, from 5G rollout to data centre expansion and the electric vehicle transition.

The company's financials show a business that is growing steadily if not spectacularly: for the June quarter of this fiscal year, Orient Cables reported a net profit of Rs 32.78 crore on total income of Rs 490.94 crore, while the full previous fiscal year saw a net profit of Rs 53.56 crore on revenue of Rs 1,181.67 crore. Brokerages tracking the issue have flagged the offer's valuation — around 51.6 times FY26 earnings — as demanding relative to peers, alongside concerns over customer concentration, working capital needs and an ongoing brand dispute involving the Orient Electric name. Even so, several have issued subscribe recommendations for investors with a medium-to-long-term horizon, pointing to the company's diversification across high-growth end markets as the more durable part of the investment case.

In the grey market, shares were commanding an unofficial premium of around Rs 113 to Rs 115, implying a potential listing gain of roughly 41 to 42 per cent over the issue's upper price band — though such estimates remain unregulated and can shift meaningfully by the time allotment and listing actually arrive.

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