Pakistan Stock Exchange held a gong ceremony to announce the listing of Octopus Digital Limited. Octopus successfully carried out its Initial Public Offering recently. BMA Capital Management played the role of the Lead Manager and the Book Runner to the Issue. Earlier on Tuesday, the company was listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange.
The Issue offered 100 percent of 27,350,000 ordinary shares through the book building method at a Floor Price of Rs 29/- per share. The bidders could place bids for 100% of the Issue size; however, the successful bidders were allotted only 75% of the issue size i.e., 20,512,500 shares. Meanwhile, the remaining 25% i.e., 6,837,500 shares were offered to retail investors.
The company attracted total participation of Rs 30.249 billion against the Issue of Rs 1.110 billion at the strike price. Per-share, the price was determined at Rs 40.60. It meant an oversubscription by an overwhelming 27.24x. Out of 1,821 bidders, 1,757 investors were declared successful as a large number of investors participated in the book-building process.
The retail portion of the IPO also recorded a tremendous response. Against the Issue size of 6,837,500 million shares, the IPO received applications for 30,032,500 million shares. The retail portion of the Issue posted an oversubscription by 4.39 times. Octopus Digital Limited said that it raised these funds to develop and launch various independent intellectual properties that are, specifically, digital dashboard platforms for industrial and manufacturing industries. Some of the funds are also slated also raised to meet the Company’s HR cost of Marketing and Sales teams.
Encouraging to see growing IT sector
Talking about the successful IPO & listing of Octopus Digital Limited, the MD PSX, Farrukh Khan, said, “It is an exciting development to welcome Octopus Digital to PSX. It is a welcome development that the IT sector is growing in Pakistan. We hope that the success of this IPO will also encourage other IT companies to come forth and raise growth capital from PSX.”
Khan said, “As a listed company, Octopus Digital Ltd. will benefit from raising capital and having a diversified domestic and foreign shareholder base who are keen to invest in the IT & digital sector of Pakistan. Octopus Digital is the 4th listing on the Exchange for the fiscal year 2021-22. We are very happy at the accelerating pace of IPOs at PSX and have a full pipeline for the rest of the year. We are particularly happy that Octopus Digital will add to the number of tech companies on PSX.”
“Truly overwhelmed”
Expressing his feeling about the IPO and Listing of Octopus Digital Ltd., Chairman Octopus Bakhtiar Wain said, “I am truly overwhelmed at the response we’ve received. It certainly is an achievement, thanks to the efforts of BMA Capital, our Financial Advisor, and the Octopus Digital Team. In addition, I would like to sincerely thank our customers and shareholders. It’s a brilliant start, and we will continue to set records and make history with our business results.”
Meanwhile, Chairman & CEO of BMA Capital Management Ltd. Moazzam Malik said, “BMA Capital is thrilled to bring Octopus Digital IPO to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). BMA Capital was the Lead Manager and Bookrunner. Octopus listing broke all previous records at the PSX, as shares on offer were oversubscribed by a record 27-times in the book-building and total bids received touched a whopping 30 billion rupees ($175m approx.).
“The public subscription portion was also oversubscribed with applications of 16,896, which is the highest ever participation in any IPO in Pakistan’s capital market history. This is a historic event for digital Pakistan and opens the gates wide open for tech companies to do exits on the PSX,” Malik added.
