Tonbo Imaging IPO Lists at 66% Premium as Zetwerk Gains 5%

Four debuts, four different results

Four companies listed on India's stock exchanges on Friday, October 23. They had raised money in the same week and in the same market, but their first trades ended up far apart. Tonbo Imaging India, a defence electronics maker, gained about 66%. Zetwerk Manufacturing Businesses, the largest of the four issues, rose about 5%. Sahajanand Medical Technologies rose about 7–8%, and Bonfiglioli Transmissions opened exactly at its offer price. Together the four had raised roughly ₹8,873 crore in subscription windows that ran from October 15 to October 19.21

Tonbo opened at ₹1,160 on the NSE and ₹1,162 on the BSE, against an issue price of ₹700. That works out to gains of 65.71% and 66%.22 Zetwerk's ₹151 shares opened at ₹159.25 on the NSE and ₹159 on the BSE, premiums of 5.46% and 5.30%.23 Sahajanand opened at ₹371.15 on the NSE, 7.89% above its ₹344 issue price, and at ₹368.05 on the BSE.34 Bonfiglioli opened at ₹586 on both exchanges, the same as its issue price.34

The day's main point is that a lot of investor demand does not guarantee a gain on listing day, and demand from big institutions guarantees it even less. How much a company is worth, who gets the money and the price at which the shares were sold mattered more than the number of times the issue was oversubscribed.

Tonbo: demand that held up

Tonbo's debut was clearly the strongest. Its ₹852-crore offer was subscribed 135.9 times. Qualified institutional buyers bid for 293.56 times their quota, non-institutional investors for 170.94 times and retail investors for 31.06 times.27 One outlet put overall subscription at 132.81 times.29 That gap likely reflects provisional versus final exchange data, and either number shows demand far beyond what was on offer.

The listing price was close to what grey-market trading had suggested. Unofficial premiums before the debut were around ₹450 a share, which pointed to a gain of about 64–65%.21 Tracker data shows the grey-market premium moved between ₹55 and ₹520 during the offer period.1 On the BSE, the opening price gave the company a market value of about ₹6,656 crore, compared with roughly ₹4,010 crore at the top of the price band.2810

The stock gave back some of its gain during the session. It closed at ₹1,133.65 on the BSE, about 62% above the issue price but 2.44% below where it opened.28 It held up well given the wider market: the Sensex fell 409 points to 72,840.33 that day.5

Investors should keep two points in mind. First, the company receives none of the money. The issue was entirely an offer for sale of about 1.22 crore shares by existing shareholders, so Tonbo gets no proceeds.28 Second, the valuation was already high before the listing jump. ICICI Direct estimated the issue at about 80 times FY26 earnings and still recommended subscribing. Sushil Finance was more cautious. It noted that revenue depends on tenders and comes in uneven bursts, and that the top 10 customers accounted for 77.83% of FY26 revenue. SBI Securities put the order book at ₹314 crore as of June 2026.8 After a 66% first-day rise, those multiples are much higher still. In this writer's view, the stock is now priced on the hope that India keeps buying more defence equipment from domestic makers, not on the orders Tonbo already holds.

The company was bought out of Sarnoff Corporation in 2012 by its co-founders, Arvind Lakshmikumar, Ankit Kumar and Cecilia D'Souza.28 It reports more than 28,000 tactical systems deployed across 24 countries.5

Zetwerk: a large issue that beat low expectations

Zetwerk had the biggest issue and the most to prove. Its ₹5,012-crore IPO combined ₹2,830 crore of new shares with a ₹2,182-crore sale by existing investors.11 At the issue price, the company was valued at about ₹25,583 crore.14 It also raised the size of the offer late in the process. The new-share portion went up from ₹2,600 crore in its updated draft prospectus, and the number of shares sold by existing investors rose about 49%.14

The response was lukewarm. The issue was subscribed about 3.06–3.10 times overall. Institutions bid for about 4.7 times their quota, but retail investors took up only 0.73 times theirs, so part of the retail allocation went unsold.1317 By one tracker's count, it was among the five or six largest mainboard IPOs of 2026 but ranked in the high 70s for subscription. The median for the year was in the 20s.15

Because expectations were so low, the 5% opening counts as a modest success. Grey-market quotes fell from about ₹23 on October 13 to just ₹1 on listing morning, which pointed to an almost flat open.13 One tracker recorded the premium starting near ₹30.15 The opening price came in about ₹7 above that final grey-market estimate.15 Reports also differed slightly on which exchange printed ₹159.25 and which printed ₹159. Most say ₹159.25 was the NSE price.2316

The muted demand is easy to explain. The company is losing money: it reported a loss of ₹1,606 crore in FY26 and ₹733 crore in the June 2026 quarter alone.12 One analysis valued the issue at about 1.6 times FY26 revenue and around 61 times adjusted EBITDA, and argued that buyers were paying for profit margins Zetwerk hopes to reach, not the ones it has now.20 Unlike Tonbo, Zetwerk does receive money from the IPO, which it plans to use to pay down debt and fund acquisitions.14 Peak XV, Accel, Lightspeed and Kae Capital were among the investors selling shares.20 A strong anchor book of ₹2,251 crore helped support the issue.20

For India's startup listings, Zetwerk's debut sends a mixed signal. A heavily backed, loss-making business-to-business company can raise more than ₹5,000 crore from the public market. But individual investors did not want it at the asking price, and the first-day gain was small.

The quiet debuts: Sahajanand and Bonfiglioli

The two other listings showed that a large oversubscription does not settle the outcome. Sahajanand, a maker of cardiac stents, ran a ₹475-crore offer for sale that was subscribed 14.20 times.35 Its opening was slightly better than grey-market estimates, which had pointed to a premium of about 5–6%.31

Bonfiglioli was the day's clear disappointment. Its ₹2,533.66-crore offer was subscribed 46.06 times, with institutions bidding for 120.78 times their quota.32 Grey-market trading was still showing a premium of about ₹66 on the morning of the listing.33 Despite that, the shares opened flat at ₹586. Unusually, coverage disagreed on how to describe this. One market data outlet described the flat open as a sign that the market absorbed the shares smoothly.36 Most mainstream coverage called it below expectations.31

The second reading is more convincing. The entire offer was sold by the Italian parent, Bonfiglioli S.p.A.35 At the issue price, the company was valued at about ₹11,017 crore, or roughly 11 times book value.33 When the seller is the parent company and the price already reflects good fundamentals, heavy institutional bidding may say more about the size of allocations than about real demand to own the stock after listing.

What the day says about India's IPO market

Read together, the coverage points to a few patterns. Grey-market premiums turned out to be a mixed guide. They closely predicted Tonbo's gain, underestimated Zetwerk and Sahajanand, and overestimated Bonfiglioli.251333 Three of the four issues were made up entirely of shares sold by existing holders, which means much of the ₹8,873 crore went to early investors and parent companies rather than into the businesses.3528

The weak wider market also matters. With the Sensex and Nifty both falling, Tonbo's gain shows that investors are still willing to pay up for a clear growth story such as domestic defence manufacturing.5 For ordinary manufacturing companies sold at full prices, they are much more selective.

More large issues are in line, including Jio Platforms.35 For companies planning to list, the lesson from Friday is that pricing matters more than the number of times a book is oversubscribed. Tonbo left room for the stock to rise and was rewarded. Zetwerk set expectations low and beat them slightly. Bonfiglioli sold at the top of its price band, and its shares stayed exactly there.