PhysicsWallah shares stage strong market debut with 33% listing premium

Shares of PhysicsWallah Ltd, one of India's most-followed edtech platforms, made a decent market debut on Tuesday, listing at Rs 145 on NSE -- a 33.03 per cent premium to the company’s initial public offering (IPO) price of Rs 109. On BSE, the stock opened at Rs 143.10, reflecting a 31.28 per cent premium.

The Rs 3,480-crore IPO -- among the largest from the edtech sector -- closed with moderate subscription.

The IPO, open for bidding between November 11 and 13, received applications for 33.62 crore shares against 18.62 crore shares on offer, reflecting an overall subscription of 1.81 times, according to NSE data.

The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) segment led demand with a 2.7 times subscription. The retail investor portion saw marginal interest at 1.06 times, while the non-institutional investors (NIIs) category remained undersubscribed at 0.48 times.

The issue comprised a fresh equity sale of 28.44 crore shares, amounting to Rs 3,100 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of 3.49 crore shares worth Rs 380 crore.

The company plans to utilise the proceeds for fit-outs at new offline and hybrid learning centres, lease payments at existing facilities and investments in its subsidiary Xylem Learning, in addition to general corporate purposes.

Founded in 2016 by educator Alakh Pandey, PhysicsWallah has grown from a YouTube-based learning channel into a multi-format edtech enterprise.