India's Cello World surges 29% on listing at $2.1 billion valuation

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Shares of Indian kitchenware products maker Cello World rose as much as 29.2% in their trading debut on Monday, valuing the company at 177.72 billion rupees ($2.14 billion).

The stock climbed to a high of 837.40 rupees in early trade after opening at 829 rupees and has so far in the session stayed above its initial public offer (IPO) price of 648 rupees.

Last week, the company's IPO received strong interest from investors who oversubscribed its shares on offer by 38.9 times, bidding for more than 858.3 million shares, exchange data showed.

"Despite the premium valuation, the IPO received a positive response from investors due to the company's strong brand recognition and pan-India presence," said Shivani Nyati, Head of Wealth, Swastika Investmart, adding that after a strong listing, investors may book profit.

The Mumbai-based company's smaller rivals like Stovekraft and Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances have a market value of 17.05 billion rupees and 19.47 billion rupees, respectively.

Cello World's shareholders, including its promoters- an Indian market term for large shareholders who can influence company policy- are selling stock worth 19 billion rupees in the IPO, while the company itself is not offering any shares.

The company, which also makes products like dinnerwares, drinkwares and cleaning supplies, joins a host of successful debutantes in the past few months such as Mankind Pharma and Concord Biotech, helped by robust investor appetite that has also powered the blue-chip stock market index to a record high.

As of October end, 173 Indian companies have gone public, raising $4.46 billion, compared with 115 companies that raised $6.06 billion in the same period last year, according to LSEG data.

($1 = 83.1600 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Sohini Goswami)