Today is the second day of Smartworks IPO. It has been subscribed 60% till 10 am. The IPO started well. On the first day, Thursday (10 July), this IPO was subscribed 52.22%. The company has received bids for 52.51 lakh shares as compared to one crore shares. Retail investors bought up to 57% of their share. At the same time, among the big investors, the share of non-institutional investors was subscribed 1.04 times. The company wants to raise around Rs 583 crore from this IPO. It will use it to expand the business and reduce debt. This issue will close on 14 July. It is the country’s largest ‘managed campus operator’ company. It manages one crore square feet of space. 700 companies like Google, Grow, Make My Trip, LT, Bridgestone and Philip Global are its clients.
Harsh Binani, co-founder of Smartworks, a company providing services in 14 cities, says, ‘We have come a long and wonderful journey from starting the company to bringing IPO. When I went abroad for studies, I saw the concept of smart office closely. Employees get a happy and positive energy environment in such an office. I also realized that there is no such concept in a fast-growing country like India. With the intention of filling this empty space, I started bringing it on the ground in 2016 with founder Nitish Sarda. During this time we also saw two challenging years of Covid. Currently we are managing about 1 crore square feet of space in 14 cities of the country. Business model: Focus on strong companies, so that investors’ money is safe Binani said, ‘We provide hotel-like workspace to the client. These have facilities ranging from gym, restaurant and grocery to laundry. We take land on lease from developers. We convert it into a hi-tech and smart work station and give it to companies. We provide smart cabins of 5-10 seats. This is a leasing business, so we provide space only to fast-growing companies with large and strong balance sheets. Companies like Google, Persistent Systems, Grow and Make My Trip are our clients. Operational income doubled in 2 years Invested money returned in 32 months It takes an average of 30-32 months for Smartworks to earn back the money invested from old, established office centers. The industry average is 50 months. That means Smartworks’ money is growing faster. These big factors will support this business in the future. It is 40% more than last year. The size of this market is estimated to reach Rs 9.5 lakh crore by 2030. By then, the number of employees will increase to 25-28 lakh. Office space companies like Smartworks will play a major role in meeting this demand.
