KOCHI: Kerala is not known for its manufacturing prowess, and the last private company from the sector that hit the stock market from the state was back in 2008 through V-Guard. Now, when Tolins Tyres Ltd’s Rs 230 crore initial share sale opens on Monday, it will be the first private manufacturing company from Kerala after 16 years to hit the stock market.
Cochin Shipyard, which listed its shares in 2017, is a manufacturing company but it’s a public sector undertaking and largely caters to the government sector. Apollo Tyres is considered a Kerala company only on paper as all of its key top management sits out of Gurugram, and most of its factories are outside the state.
At the IPO price band of Tolins Tyres is Rs 215-226 per share. Thanks to the remittances by the huge expatriate population, most of them in the Gulf, the state had led to the launch of banks, jewellers and late gold finance companies. And several including Federal Bank, South Indian Bank, CSB Bank, Dhanlaxmi Bank (all banks); Muthoot Finance, Manappuram Finance, Muthoot FinCorp (gold finance companies); jewellers (Kalyan Jewellers), stockbroking (Geojit Finance), ESAF (microfinance and later small finance bank) got listed on the stock market.
The biggest in terms of m-cap among the listed Kerala firms is Muthoot Finance (nearly Rs 80,000 crore). Kalyan Jewellers, Federal Bank, Cochin Shipyard, FACT all have around Rs 50,000 crore m-cap. In comparison, Tolins Tyres will be valued around Rs 900 crore.
The manufacturing companies from Kerala are limited to a very few such as V-Guard, Kitex Garments, and PSUs Cochin Shipyard, FACT, among others.
This makes the entry of Tolins Tyres a key milestone for the state, which topped the ranking in ease of business reforms last week. Tolins Tyres, which is into manufactures of bias tyres (diagonal tyres) for light commercial, agricultural and two/three-wheeler vehicles and precured tread rubber, besides tyre flaps and tubes, operates three manufacturing facilities out of which two are located at Mattoor in Kalady, and the third one in Al Hamra Industrial Zone in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE.
Founded in 2003, Kalamparambil Varkey Tolin, who is the chairman and managing director, owns 83.31% of the company along with his wife, Jerin Tolin. Jerin’s father, Jose Thomas, holds another 8.47%. Before incorporating the company, Tolin was associated with the family business of manufacturing tread rubber.
The company will issue fresh equity shares worth Rs 200 crore through the initial share sale. In addition, promoters Tolin and Jerin will sell Rs 15 crore worth of their shares through the offer. Ahead of the IPO, the firm on Friday collected Rs 69 crore by selling shares to some selected investors.