Bengaluru-based contract-manufacturing unicorn Zetwerk Manufacturing Businesses opened its ₹5,012.33-crore mainboard initial public offering for public subscription on Thursday, October 15, in one of the most closely watched startup listings of the year. The issue closes on October 19, with listing tentatively scheduled for October 23 on both the BSE and NSE.
The price band has been set at ₹143 to ₹151 per share, with a lot size of 99 shares. At the upper end of the band, the company would carry a post-issue market capitalisation of approximately ₹25,583 crore — a valuation that places it among the most valuable newly listed manufacturing companies in India.
The issue is a mix of a ₹2,830-crore fresh issue and a ₹2,182-crore offer for sale, in which promoters and marquee early backers including Peak XV, Accel, Lightspeed and Kae Capital will part-sell their holdings. The substantial OFS component means investors will be reading the subscription numbers as a verdict on both the company’s growth story and the exit valuations its private investors are targeting.
The offering got a strong vote of confidence a day before opening. On October 14, Zetwerk raised ₹2,251.23 crore from 99 anchor investors at the upper price of ₹151, allocating 14.91 crore shares. The anchor roster reads like a who’s who of global and domestic capital: BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Nomura, Capital Group, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global and ADIA, alongside domestic institutions including SBI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential and HDFC Mutual Fund.
The bulk of the fresh proceeds is earmarked for balance-sheet repair and expansion — ₹1,250 crore for debt repayment by the company and ₹550 crore for its subsidiaries, with the remainder directed towards acquisitions. The debt-reduction focus signals that management is using the listing to de-leverage rather than simply fund capacity additions.
Zetwerk’s financials present a study in contrasts. Revenue rose around 40 per cent in FY26 to ₹15,913 crore, underscoring the scale the company has built as a manufacturing partner across industries. But the net loss widened to ₹1,606 crore from ₹371 crore, a deterioration the company attributes to one-time non-cash accounting adjustments and charges flowing from its discontinued civil-infrastructure business.
The IPO thus poses a classic growth-versus-profitability question for public-market investors. The company’s pitch rests on India’s contract-manufacturing tailwinds and its asset-light, platform-driven model; the sceptics will point to the losses and the large OFS as reasons for caution.
With a blockbuster anchor book behind it and the issue now open to retail, HNI and institutional bidders, the subscription trajectory over the next four days will determine whether Zetwerk’s public-market debut lives up to its unicorn billing.
