Antony Waste Handling Cell IPO has opened for investors today, with the bidding process slated to close on March 6. The Rs 206-crore IPO has a fresh issue of shares of up to Rs 35 crore. The rest is an offer for sale of up to 57 lakh shares by Tonbridge (Mauritius) Ltd, Leeds (Mauritius) Ltd, Cambridge (Mauritius) Ltd and Guilford (Mauritius) Ltd. Antony Waste Handling Cell, which is among India’s top five municipal solid waste management players, has set the price band of the issue at Rs 295-300 per equity share. As of 11.30 AM, Antony Waste Handling Cell IPO has received bids for around 93,000 shares as against a total of 48 lakh shares. Analysts have mixed responses for this IPO, as it has hit the primary market at the time when SBI Cards IPO is already receiving a strong response from the investors.

“Antony Waste Handling Cell is a comparatively smaller IPO compared to the behemoth SBI Cards and due to the time clash we feel that Antony Waste’s IPO will not get traction. Fundamentally too, this company has delivered poor growth in the past 3 years,” Nirali Shah, Senior Research Analyst, Samco Securities said. investors are advised to look at its past record and stay away from buying this stock at this moment. “Although Antony Waste has bright future opportunities over the long term, at this point looking at its past record investors should wait before getting into this stock. Antony Waste Handling is an unsubscribe at the moment,” Nirali Shah added.

The company proposes to utilise the IPO proceeds to reduce borrowings and for general corporate purposes. “Valuation looks justified, considering the expected growth in earnings over the next few years. Given the positive industry outlook and uptick in revenues from FY20, we recommend ‘SUBSCRIBE’ to the issue with a long-term perspective,” Geojit Financial Services said in a recent research report.

However, the key risks to this IPO include dependency of municipal authorities for the majority of business, large concentration on a small number of customers and increased competition pressure likely to adversely affect the results of operation, as cited by Geojit Financial Services.