New Delhi, July 21 -- Anthem Biosciences Ltd, which counts private equity firms True North and Faering Capital as its investors, made a strong stock market debut on Monday with its shares notching a gain of 28% on the first day of trading.

Anthem's shares began trading at Rs 723.10 apiece, up 27% from its initial public offering of Rs 570 and touched a high of Rs 746.70 before ending the day at Rs 730.35 on the BSE. At the closing price, the company commands a market value of Rs 41,017 crore, or $4.75 billion.

The strong debut comes after the company's IPO was subscribed nearly 64 times after sailing through on the second day of the issue last week. The IPO didn't include any fresh issue and involved only an offer for sale worth Rs 3,395 crore ($396 million) by PE firms True North and Faering Capital, US-based drugmaker DavosPharma, Anthem's founders and some individual shareholders.

Ahead of the IPO, anchor investors such as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Norway's sovereign wealth fund and several local funds such as HDFC Mutual Fund and ICICI Prudential AMC subscribed to shares worth Rs 1,016 crore.

Anthem Biosciences filed for the IPO on Dec. 31, 2024, months after VCCircle first reported in February 2024 that it was aiming to go public in 2025. The IPO received regulatory approval in April.

The IPO helped True North and Faering to churn out benchmark-beating returns on their investment in the contract drug researcher and manufacturer they backed about four years ago by selling about half their stake, VCCircle previously reported.

True North and Faering, via a special purpose vehicle, had picked up an 8.33% stake in Anthem for Rs 620 crore ($85 million then) in April 2021. This valued the company at $1 billion, or around Rs 7,500 crore at the time. The special purpose vehicle sold shares worth Rs 1,325 crore in the IPO, or more than double the amount it had invested.

Anthem was founded in 2007 by former Biocon executives Ajay Bhardwaj, KC Ravindra and Ganesh Sambasivam. It offers drug discovery, development and manufacturing services. It operates two manufacturing plants near Bengaluru. The company recorded a 30% jump in revenue to Rs 1,844.5 crore in FY25. Net profit rose to Rs 451.3 crore from Rs 367.3 crore for FY24, according to its red herring prospectus.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.