Triple Treat: Aegis Vopak, Schloss Bangalore, Prostarm Info IPOs Go Live This Week

Buzz around the primary market is just getting louder as investors gear up for three companies-- Aegis Vopak, Schloss Bangalore, and Prostarm Info Systems, to bring forth their main-board public offers. The three companies are set to snatch the limelight with their public offers opening for subscription this week, aiming to raise a staggering Rs 6,470 crore. Spanning diverse sectors, from hospitality and UPS manufacturing to storage solutions, these IPOs are sure to present investors with a varied bouquet.

While like-for-like comparisons may be tricky for these IPOs given their distinct business models, a closer look at their future outlook, financial health, market positioning, and valuation metrics may give investors a framework to decide where to place their respective bets.

How Big are These IPOs?

Schloss Bangalore (The Leela Hotels), the owner of hotel chain under the brand ‘The Leela’, has the biggest offer size among the three main-board IPOs set to open this week. The Rs 3,500-crore IPO, comprises of a Rs 2,500 crore fresh issue of shares along with Rs 1,000-crore of offer-for-sale component. Promoter Project Ballet Bangalore Holdings (DIFC) Pvt. Ltd. will offload its stake through offer-for-sale.

Aegis Vopak Terminals follows Schloss in terms of its offer size. The company is a joint venture between Aegis (India) and Vopak India BV (a subsidiary of Royal Vopak, Netherlands). Aegis’ offer consists only of fresh issue of shares worth Rs 2,800 crore. Similarly, the third company in line this week—Prostarm Info Systems—is also launching an IPO comprised entirely of a fresh issue of shares. The Rs 168 crore-IPO of Prostarm consists of 1.60 crore shares.

Price Band Breakdown

The IPOs are also staggered by pricing.

• The Leela Hotels: Rs 413–Rs 435

• Aegis Vopak: Rs 223–Rs 235

• Prostarm Info Systems: Rs 95–Rs 105

Both Schloss and Aegis opened for bidding today, while Prostarm’s issue will go live tomorrow.

Business Model and Outlook At a Glance

Knowing about the business operations, capacities and market positioning is a key part of understanding the fundamentals of any corporate that is coming up with its IPO. As all of these three firms operate in different fields, one cannot compare on the basis of financials itself, but analysing the market potential can definitely help in jotting down the positives and negatives.

Aegis

Aegis, which operates and owns a network of storage tank terminals for liquefied petroleum gas and liquid products, had an aggregate storage capacity of nearly 1.50mn cubic meters for liquid products and 70,800 tonnes of static capacity for LPG as of December 2024.

The company has the largest storage capacity in India’s LPG tank storage sector, while it is the third-largest company when it comes to storing liquid products, Aegis said in the red herring prospectus, citing CRISIL report. Aegis alone accounts for over 11% of the total national static capacity for LPG and over 25% for third-party liquid storage capacity, it said. With an increased traction for new energy sources, the demand for specialised storage facilities is also expected to increase significantly, putting Aegis in spotlight.

Leela

As of March 2025, The Leela Hotels had 3,553 keys across 13 operational hotels. Five of the said 13 hotels are directly owned, while one is owned and operated by a third-party, Schloss said in its draft papers. The remaining seven hotels are under its managed portfolio. The company has its presence in all seven top business markets and three of the top five leisure markets of India. It accounted for almost 18% of the total luxury keys across these markets as of December 2024, Schloss cited HVS Report. The company also remains a frontrunner in customer experience metric in FY24 with a net promoter score of 84.

Considering the operational metrics, The Leela Hotels appears to be better positioned in a scenario where travel and tourism sector in India is expected to see robust growth going ahead. India is expected to see foreign tourist arrivals and domestic tourist visits growing at 7% and 13% compound annual growth rate, respectively, over 2024 to 2030, HVS report said. Further, demand in the luxury hospitality sector in India is expected to grow at 10.6% CAGR over the FY24-28. The company plans to expand its portfolio with seven new hotels, aggregating almost 678 keys through 2028.

Prostarm

Lastly, Prostarm is engaged in manufacturing power solution products. Rising power shortages from widening demand-supply gaps, coupled with growing traction for renewable sources like solar energy, signal a positive growth outlook for Prostarm.

How do the Financials Stack Up?

If Prostarm did not take a lead in offer size and price band, it did in the case of financials. While the other two companies have turned profitable only recently, Prostarm achieved this landmark before them.

The power systems services provider recorded a consolidated net profit of Rs 11.39 crore in FY22, and this number more than doubled in two years to Rs 23.33 crore in FY24.

As for The Leela Hotel, profitability made its way only once in three fiscal years. The company recorded a net profit only in FY25, while in the other two its net losses were Rs 2.13 crore and Rs 61.68 crore, respectively.

Aegis also booked net loss in FY22 and FY23 of Rs 1.09 crore and Rs 7.5 lakh, respectively. For FY24, it registered a net profit of Rs 8.65 crore.

Apart from booking profits, all the three companies had net positive cash at the end of the last three financial years, according to their respective draft papers.

Both Prostarm and Aegis have seen a sharp rise in total borrowings between FY22 and FY24. Their total borrowings have soared more than 20 times and 26 times between the said period. However, The Leela Hotels has cut down its borrowings by 8% in FY24.

While Aegis worked on its cash flow in these two years and saw an over 15-fold increase in its net cash, Prostarm’s net cash has consistently fallen amid a consistent rise in its borrowings.

Expensive vs Cheap

The price bands of both The Leela Hotels and Aegis are pegged at a very expensive valuation, in comparison to industry average. At the lower-end, the hotel operator had a price-to-earnings ratio of 210, while that of Aegis was 223. Their industry average P/E ratio was 95 and 43, respectively. In fact, their P/E ratio on the IPO price is even more than the highest among its peers—198 and 49, respectively.

Prostarm, however, appears to be at a cheaper valuation in comparison to its peers. The company’s IPO price commands a P/E ratio of 17 while the industry average is over 233, Prostarm said in its draft papers.

What’s the Twist?

Now here are some loose ends. While customer concentration is a concern for Prostarm and Aegis, subdued performance of its material subsidiaries is weighing on The Leela Hotels’ story.

Prostarm derived over 38% of its revenue from its top five clients in FY24, thus exposing it to concentration risks. Apart from this 30% of its revenue came from clients which were government institutions.

Aegis too faces customer concentration issue as it derived nearly 31% of its revenue for FY24 from its top five customers. Any downturn in orders from these key customers due to any unforeseen reason could seriously impact its operations and financials. Also, most of its revenue (92% in FY24) came from terminals situated on the west coast of India.

The Leela Hotels, on the other hand, has seen many of its material subsidiaries underperforming and incurring a loss, which has weighed on the consolidated financials.

Subscription Status

It was more of a drizzle than a downpour as both IPOs opened to a lukewarm response today. While Aegis Vopak received 25% subscription by 03:45 PM today, Schloss Bangalore’s subscription crawled to just 6%.