Hindustan Copper OFS Opens for Retail Investors Amid Strong Institutional Demand
Hindustan Copper shares are set to remain in focus on Wednesday as the retail leg of the government's Offer for Sale (OFS) opens for bidding. The issue has received a strong response from non-retail investors, with the government exercising its greenshoe option to offload an additional 3% stake, increasing the potential sale size to 6%. At the floor price of ₹514 per share, the total OFS size could amount to nearly ₹2,982 crore. The retail portion has been reserved for at least 10% of the OFS size, with an additional 25,000 shares set aside for eligible employees.
According to Vaqarjaved Khan, Senior Fundamental Analyst at Angel One, retail investors may not get a discount as they expect, as the price at which retail investors can acquire shares is determined by the institutional book built on Tuesday. Khan noted that Hindustan Copper shares fell more than 7% on Tuesday, their steepest single-day decline in nearly five months.
Hindustan Copper's Q1 profit surged 163% year-on-year to ₹353 crore, with margins close to 54%. The company is investing ₹7,189 crore to expand its capacity to 12.2 MTPA by FY30. However, Khan cautioned that the improvement in margins is largely being driven by higher copper prices rather than the underlying mining operations.