IRCTC makes splash on debut, doubles issue price (Lead)

Mumbai, Oct 14 (IANS) The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation made a strong debut on the exchanges on Monday. The Railway catering company almost doubled its issue price of Rs 320 during the early trade.IRCTC on the BSE, at 12.34 a.m., was up 11.49 per cent at Rs 718 a share after it touched an intra-day high of Rs 743.80 apiece. The company recently made its Rs 645-crore initial public offering which was subscribed 112 times."It may be best of the returns we have witnessed in listing gains of recent IPOs. This is a very unique business model in India that is listed and also very robust numbers in its BS for the last three years," said Mustafa Nadeem, CEO, Epic Research.IRCTC is a state-run company and only entity authorised by Indian Railways to provide catering services to railways, online railway tickets and packaged drinking water at railway stations and in Indian trains.
--IANS ravi/in