Lohia Corp IPO Review: A Global Machinery Leader, Strong Financials, and a GMP That's Cooling Fast

Quick Answer

Lohia Corp, a Kanpur based global leader in machinery for woven sack and technical textile manufacturing, is currently open for subscription, closing 27 July with listing expected 30 July on BSE and NSE. The financial profile here is genuinely strong, high growth, high returns on capital, low debt, but this is worth applying to with eyes open: it's a 100% Offer for Sale issue that raises no money for the company itself, and grey market premium has cooled sharply over the past few days, from around 18% down to roughly 3%, alongside subscription numbers that remain soft outside of retail demand. With four days still left in the window as this is written, the final picture could still shift.

Key Details at a Glance

What Does Lohia Corp Ltd Do?

Picture the woven plastic sack holding cement at a construction site, or the large bulk bag used to ship grain or fertiliser. Lohia Corp doesn't make those bags itself, it makes the specialised machinery that other manufacturers use to make them. You can track this and other IPO GMP data on the IPO GMP Live homepage.

Headquartered in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, the company builds tape extrusion lines, circular looms, winders, coating lines, and conversion and recycling machinery for producing polypropylene and HDPE woven fabric and sacks, technical textiles used across cement, fertiliser, food-grain, and industrial bulk packaging, along with tarpaulins and geotextiles. This is a genuinely global business, holding a 15.4% share of the worldwide woven raffia machinery market as of 2024, and it backs that position with real intellectual property, over 127 patents globally along with a substantial portfolio of trademarks and design registrations, an unusually deep IP moat for an industrial machinery manufacturer.

How Strong Are the Financials?

This is one of the cleaner financial profiles among the IPOs reviewed on this site. Revenue grew approximately 25% to Rs 1,737.87 crore in FY26, and profit grew even faster, up approximately 64% to Rs 193.45 crore, suggesting genuine operating leverage and improving margins rather than just top-line growth. Return on Capital Employed stands at a strong 40.92%, and the debt-to-equity ratio is a low 0.23, together painting a picture of a business that generates strong returns without relying heavily on borrowed money.

The caveat worth flagging clearly, and one that at least one reviewer specifically raised, is durability. The more important long-term question isn't whether FY26 was strong, it clearly was, but whether that profitability holds up, whether Lohia Corp can maintain its global market leadership, and specifically whether it can arrest what's been described as some domestic market share erosion. Strong recent numbers are a good starting point, not a guarantee the trend continues.

Why Has the GMP Cooled So Sharply, and What Does That Mean?

This is genuinely the most time-sensitive part of this story, worth paying close attention to if you're still deciding whether to apply. Grey market premium moved quickly in the days leading into the IPO opening, jumping from around Rs 20 to Rs 56 between 19 and 20 July, and trackers were quoting a range as high as Rs 50 to Rs 77 (roughly 12% to 18% implied gain) just before the issue opened on 23 July. Since then, it's fallen steadily, down to just Rs 11 to Rs 13 by 24 July, implying only about a 3% gain, a meaningful cooling of sentiment happening in real time during the subscription window itself.

That cooling lines up with the subscription numbers so far: QIB and NII demand are both running below full subscription (0.51x and 0.25x respectively as shown on the page), with only retail demand close to fully subscribed. It's worth being clear that this is Day 2 of a 5-day window, and institutional demand in particular often shows up disproportionately in the final one to two days of a mainboard IPO, so these numbers are far from final. But the direction of travel on GMP specifically, cooling rather than building, is a genuine signal worth weighing alongside the strong underlying financials rather than ignoring.

Should You Apply for the Lohia Corp IPO?

Conservative investors: The strong ROCE, low leverage, and substantial patent portfolio are genuine positives for a business this size, but a 100% OFS structure means your money goes entirely to existing shareholders selling down, not toward the company's own growth, and the cooling GMP suggests the market's initial enthusiasm has moderated. Waiting to see how subscription develops over the final two days, and how the stock actually performs on listing, is a reasonable, lower-risk approach.

Moderate investors: Chanakya Nipothi's "Apply, subject to reasonable valuation" call is a fair summary of where this stands, the business quality looks genuine, but the valuation needs to be judged against where GMP and subscription ultimately settle, not against where they were a few days ago. If you're already comfortable with the price band based on the financials, the underlying business case is reasonably solid.

Aggressive investors: A genuine global market leader with real IP protection and strong recent profitability is a credible long-term holding if you're willing to look past a potentially muted or even negative listing given the cooling GMP. The specific question of domestic market share erosion is worth researching further before committing, since that's the risk most likely to matter over a multi-year holding period rather than the listing day itself.

Honest take. Lohia Corp brings a genuinely strong financial profile and a credible global leadership position to this IPO, the kind of clean growth, high-return, low-debt combination that's relatively rare among recent listings reviewed on this site. But the sharp GMP cooldown during the subscription window itself, from roughly 18% down to around 3% in just a few days, is a real, live signal that shouldn't be ignored simply because the fundamentals look good on paper. My honest read, in line with Chanakya Nipothi's conditional call, is this is a reasonable apply if the final pricing and demand hold up, but anyone applying purely for a quick listing gain should watch the final one to two days of subscription and GMP data closely before committing, rather than assuming the early cooling reverses on its own.

Where Is the IPO Money Going?

This is worth stating plainly: none of the Rs 1,101.28 crore raised in this IPO goes to the company. Since this is a 100% Offer for Sale, every rupee of proceeds goes to the promoter group selling down part of their stake, from about 95.61% pre-IPO to roughly 75.24% afterward. Lohia Corp itself receives no fresh capital from this listing, so anything the company does going forward, capacity expansion, R&D, further international growth, will need to be funded from its own strong operating cash flow (consistent with the healthy ROCE and low leverage already discussed) or future borrowing, not from this IPO.

Contact Details

Company: Lohia Corp Ltd.

Location: Panki Industrial Estate, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh

Business: Global manufacturer of machinery for technical textiles, specialising in PP and HDPE woven fabric and sack (raffia) manufacturing equipment, including tape extrusion lines, circular looms, winders, coating lines, and recycling machinery

Registrar: MUFG Intime India Pvt. Ltd.

Lead Managers: Equirus Capital Ltd., Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Ltd.

Listing: BSE and NSE, Mainboard (expected 30 July 2026)

This page is not investment advice. GMP is indicative, unofficial, and can change quickly, as this IPO's own recent cooling shows. Please consult a SEBI registered financial advisor before investing, and check the latest subscription and GMP figures before the issue closes on 27 July.