California-based VC laps up about a third of DreamFolks’ anchor investor pie

• DreamFolks Services, airport services aggregator platform, is planning to raise ₹560 crore from the public.
• The IPO is open for subscription from today, August 24, and will conclude on August 26.
• The price band of the issue is fixed at ₹308-₹326 per share.

Airport services aggregator platform DreamFolks Services has raised ₹252 crore from anchor investors, a day before its initial public offering (IPO) opened for retail investors.

The company allocated 77.59 lakh shares to 18 anchor investors at the upper price band of ₹326 per share. Smallcap World Fund, a California-based venture capital firm, bought a large pie i.e 28.46% of the shares set aside for anchor investors.

This was followed by several mutual funds including Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Invesco MF, Sundaram MF and others.

Anchor investors are marquee institutional investors who are allotted shares in an IPO before the issue opens to the public. As the name suggests, they ‘anchor’ the IPO issue by agreeing to subscribe to shares at a fixed price and thereby indicate a healthy demand for the soon-to-be listed shares.

The IPO is a complete offer for sale by promoters, shareholders and will raise ₹560 crore with a price band of ₹308-₹326 per share.

Shares of the company are currently commanding a grey market premium (GMP) of ₹75 per share more than ₹65 earlier. Grey market premium is a premium at which IPO shares are traded in an unofficial market before they are listed in the stock exchange.

The airport service aggregator began operations in 2013 facilitating airport lounge access services and has now become an end-to-end technology solutions provider. Covid restrictions have severely impacted the airport service provider’s financials, however, it is now recovering from the lows as the travel industry has picked up and is as busy as pre covid times.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), prior to Covid in the last five years between 2015-2019, the CAGR for the domestic air travel industry was at 12%. However, due to the onset of Covid, the Indian aviation market is expected to experience a linear recovery.

DreamFolks Services provides access to various other services such as food and beverage offerings, spa services, ‘meet and assist’, airport transfer services, transit hotels / nap rooms access and baggage transfer.

Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Ltd and Equirus Capital Private Ltd are lead managers handling the IPO.

Here are some of the important details of the IPO:

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