Tonbo Imaging IPO Soars 66% as Zetwerk, Bonfiglioli Debuts Lag

Four listings, four very different results

Four mainboard companies started trading on India's exchanges on Friday, October 23, 2026. All four had run their book-builds in the same window, October 15 to 19. Their debuts ranged from a 66% jump to an opening flat at the issue price, which shows how unevenly the primary market is rewarding deals right now. Defence electronics maker Tonbo Imaging India was the clear winner. Medical device company Sahajanand Medical Technologies opened about 8% higher on the NSE, and Zetwerk Manufacturing Business opened roughly 5% above its issue price.32 Bonfiglioli Transmissions, a gearbox and drive-systems maker, opened at exactly its ₹586 offer price on both the BSE and the NSE.24

The day says more about how investors are pricing IPOs than about any one company. Defence technology commanded a large premium. A big, loss-making manufacturing platform barely held its issue price. A heavily subscribed industrial name gave grey-market traders nothing.

Tonbo Imaging: a defence premium, but no new money for the company

Tonbo opened at ₹1,160 on the NSE, 65.71% above its ₹700 issue price, and at ₹1,162 on the BSE.2 The grey market had largely predicted this. The unofficial premium before listing was about 64%, or ₹450 a share, which pointed to a debut near ₹1,150.5 Retail investors who were allotted one 21-share lot, bought for ₹14,700, were sitting on a paper gain of ₹9,660 at the NSE open.6 The stock swung widely in its first session. It reached an intraday high of ₹1,211 and a low of ₹1,013.70, and later traded near ₹1,133.80, still about 62% above the issue price.8

Demand during the offer was very strong. Reported subscription figures differ slightly. Chittorgarh's final tally is 132.81 times, while CNBC TV18 and others report 135.9 times.42 On either number, institutions led the demand: the qualified institutional buyer portion was subscribed 293.56 times and the retail portion about 31 times.4 Before the issue opened, Tonbo also raised ₹255.36 crore from anchor investors.4

The details matter for anyone buying after listing. The ₹852-crore issue was entirely an offer for sale, so all the proceeds went to selling shareholders and none to the company.5 At the top of the price band, Tonbo was valued at about ₹4,010 crore.2 That works out to roughly 79 times pre-IPO earnings per share.4 One brokerage quoted by ET Now flagged weak cash flow, caused by high receivables and inventory, and a loss in Q1 FY27. It attributed the loss mostly to revenue that is concentrated in the second half of the year. The firm put the valuation at about 76 times FY26 earnings, roughly in line with peers, and recommended the stock only to long-term investors willing to take high risk.5 A separate analysis pointed to a recent fall in revenue as something to watch.7 Company disclosures say Tonbo has owned all the intellectual property in its products since FY24, after buying IP worth ₹183.19 crore from CEAQ Singapore in March 2024.1

Our reading: the 66% pop reflects how scarce listed defence electronics names are as much as Tonbo's own fundamentals. An all-secondary sale, a high earnings multiple and working-capital concerns mean the opening price already assumes a lot of growth.

Zetwerk: the day's largest issue had the weakest finish

Zetwerk's ₹5,012-crore offer was the largest of the four by far. It combined a ₹2,830-crore fresh issue with a ₹2,182-crore offer for sale, priced at ₹151 a share.31 The stock opened at ₹159.25 on the NSE, up 5.46%, and at ₹159 on the BSE.33 That was better than the grey market had signalled. The unofficial premium had fallen from ₹23 on October 13 to just ₹1 on listing day, which implied an opening of about ₹152.3738

The opening gain did not last. PTI reported that the shares reversed and fell to ₹133.64 on the NSE, 11.5% below the issue price, during a broad market selloff.35 The reported market capitalisation shows the swing clearly. ET Now put it at about ₹26,939 crore on the BSE around the open, while PTI's later figure was about ₹22,466 crore.3735 Late data from one brokerage showed the stock at ₹143.34, still below the offer price.40

Demand was cool throughout the bidding. The issue was subscribed 3.06 times overall, though NSE-based counts cite 3.10 times.3736 Institutions bid 4.73 times their quota, while the retail portion was not fully subscribed, at 0.73 times.37 The anchor round, by contrast, drew ₹2,251.23 crore from investors including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Nomura.35 That gap between strong anchor interest and weak retail interest is one of the clearest signals of the day.

The company's finances help explain the caution. Its net loss widened to ₹991 crore from ₹210 crore. Zetwerk plans to spend ₹2,160 crore of the fresh-issue money on repaying debt.38 It also lists acquisitions and general corporate purposes among its uses for the funds.35 Zetwerk calls its model a "universal factory": it pools capacity from 6,979 third-party suppliers in 26 countries with 26 of its own plants in India, Spain, the US and Germany.36 At the issue price, the company was valued at about ₹25,583 crore.31 Because the stock fell below that level on day one, buyers clearly doubted the platform story could justify that price while losses are growing.

Bonfiglioli: oversubscribed but flat

Bonfiglioli gave the day's most unusual result. Its ₹2,533.66-crore offer for sale was subscribed about 46 times. Institutions bid 120.78 times their quota, non-institutional investors 40.39 times and retail investors 5.90 times.25 One broker's page shows a lower overall figure of 31.73 times, but most coverage uses the 46-times number.2924 The company also raised ₹759.26 crore from 73 anchor investors at ₹586.23

Even so, the stock opened at exactly ₹586 on both exchanges. The grey market had priced it at about ₹652, a premium of ₹66 or roughly 11%.24 That premium had already fallen sharply: one tracker recorded it as high as ₹175 during the offer period, and another showed ₹135 on October 19.2328 At the top of the band, the company was valued at about ₹11,017 crore.30 Like Tonbo, Bonfiglioli received no money from the sale.30

Bonfiglioli shows that heavy subscription does not guarantee a listing gain. Grey-market signals that fade quickly, together with a weak broader market, were enough to wipe out the expected premium.

Sahajanand: a steady mid-sized debut

Sahajanand Medical Technologies opened at ₹371.15 on the NSE, 7.89% above its ₹344 issue price, and at ₹368.05 on the BSE, up 6.99%.13 One report cited ₹373 in places, but its headline and most other trackers use ₹371.1718 The ₹475-crore issue was entirely an offer for sale and was subscribed 14.2 times, with institutions bidding about 34.7 times and retail investors 3.03 times.18 The stock beat its last grey-market premium, which had pointed to a gain of about 4.9%.18 One tracker later showed it at ₹400.25, about 16% above the offer price.12 At the issue price, Sahajanand was valued at about ₹3,497 crore, or roughly 58 times earnings.12 The Surat-based company makes vascular and structural heart devices.12 By one count, its opening gain ranked mid-table among this year's mainboard listings.18

What the day shows about the IPO pipeline

Taken together, the four debuts show a market that is choosing carefully. Three of the four offers were pure secondary sales, which means promoters and early investors were cashing out rather than the companies raising capital.53011 Investors rewarded the story they found scarce and compelling, defence technology, and paid less attention to the mechanics of the deal. They were far less willing to pay up for large manufacturing platforms or industrial names when the broader market was weak.

The pipeline remains busy. Jio Platforms' roughly ₹30,213-crore IPO was drawing bids at the same time and was subscribed 3.47 times on its second day.38 Its offer window ran from October 21 to 23, with SFC Environmental, BLS Polymers and EAAA India Alternatives lined up for the following week.22 Upcoming issuers will likely take note: pricing that looks generous is getting rewarded, and big subscription numbers alone no longer guarantee a listing-day gain.