Chennai: After initial hiccups, India’s first pure-play artificial intelligence company, Fractal Analytics public issue got subscribed 2.66 times, receiving bids for 4.94 crore shares, supported by qualified institutional buyers. The category, which consists of foreign institutional investors, domestic banks, insurance companies and mutual funds, bid for 4.05 crore shares or 4.18 times reserved for the category, according to BSE data. While retail individual investors bid for 1.03 times, non-institutional investors bid 1.6 times. The shares reserved for the employees received 61% bids.The Rs 2,834 crore IPO, which opened on Monday, saw tepid responses, on the first two days despite the company cutting its IPO size by 42%. It received 9% bid on the first day and 20% on the second day. The company’s IPO allotment status is likely to be finalised on Feb 12 and is expected to debut on both BSE and NSE on Feb 16.Kranthi Bathini, equity strategist at WealthMills securities said due to severe disruption in AI, investors are staying away unless they have a very high risk appetite. “AI as a theme is still evolving, and many participants are in wait-and-watch mode. We are seeing serious money come in only after investors track at least a couple of quarters of performance post-listing. It also reflects a broader market consolidation phase,” he said.
