Wealth Destroyer: IPO subscribed nearly 200x, retail nearly 250x, but stock below IPO price

Shares of Quadrant Future Tek, among the first IPOs of 2025, has seen gains of as much as 17% on Friday, December 19, briefly reclaiming its IPO price, eventually trading below it.  The stock also snapped a three-day losing streak in the process.

Quadrant Future Tek's ₹290 crore IPO saw strong subscription during the three-day period. Overall subscription figures stood at 187 times the total number of shares on offer.

Retail investors piled into the issue, placing bids for 26.04 crore shares, compared to the 10.5 lakh shares reserved for them, taking their overall subscription number to 247 times.

The portion reserved for institutional and non-institutional investors were subscribed 132.5 times, and 254.7 times respectively.

Shares made a steady debut on the bourses, gaining 20% on listing day, and went on to make a post-listing high of ₹744 on February 6, which implied a 2.5x return on the issue price of ₹290, in just under a month of listing.

However, the stock has been on a downtrend since.

Quadrant Future Tek is involved in developing new generation train control and signaling systems, specialty cables, and interconnect products for security and other services to passengers.

Revenue for the September quarter grew by 20% sequentially, but was down from the same quarter last year. The company has also reported an EBITDA loss for two quarters in a row.

At the end of the first half of financial year 2026, the company had an order book of ₹1,156 crore, compared to ₹77 crore last year.

As of September 30, India's Mutual Funds had a 3.16% stake in the company, of which, Kotak Manufacture in India Fund had a 2.19% stake. Close to 40,000 retail shareholders have a 13% stake in the company. Retail shareholders are those who have authorized share capital of up to ₹2 lakh.

Shares of Quadrant Future Tek are trading 9% higher at ₹278.65. The stock remains below its IPO price of ₹290.