The company’s shares rallied by its daily 10% limit to 181.50 rupees ($2.1654) Tuesday, taking their gains over IPO price of 70 rupees apiece to 159%.
India has been among the busiest places globally for capital raising, thanks to strong demand for new shares from both foreign and domestic investors. While majority of the IPOs have been smaller than $50 million, the country has already seen debuts of more than 90 firms this quarter, compared to 53 in the US.
Bajaj Housing, which manages assets of about 970 billion rupees, has been focused on seven or eight key markets, which account for most of the housing demand in the country, Bajaj said. “There is enough opportunity in these states. We will keep growing and add new cities each year,” he said.
Bajaj Housing has been growing faster than the industry rate of 12% to 13%, he said. “We expect that to continue,” he added.
After almost a decade, the total inventory of vacant homes has fallen in the last year or two, Bajaj said.
“That’s a good sign because this is a starting of another cycle of construction and lending to the sector for the coming years,” he said. In addition, outside the large metros of Delhi and Mumbai, home prices have been “reasonably steady and growing at a steady pace,” Bajaj said.