Mankind Pharma jumps 32% on stock market debut due to strong demand- QHN

Shares of Mankind Pharma jumped more than 32 per cent during their stock market debut on Tuesday, thanks to a strong follow up demand from institutional investors.

Stock of the pharmaceutical company — popular for its Manforce brand of condoms and Prega News pregnancy test kit — closed at Rs 1,430, up Rs 350, or 32.4 per cent over its issue price of Rs 1,080 on the National Stock Exchange, where shares worth Rs 4,480 crore changed hands. This was the best listing day performance of a stock in nearly six months.

At the close, Mankind was valued at more than Rs 57,000 crore, making it the country’s fifth largest pharma company in terms of market value, behind Cipla and ahead of Torrent Pharma. The company is the country’s fourth largest pharma firm in terms of sales.

The stellar listing day performance comes even as retail investors gave the Rs 4,326-crore initial public offering (IPO) — the largest in more than a year — a miss. The retail portion of the IPO was subscribed 92 per cent. Institutional investors were gung-ho on Mankind’s prospects, with a quota allotted to them seeing 50 times oversubscription.

On Tuesday, Macquarie initiated coverage on the company with an ‘outperform’ rating and price target of Rs 1,400 based on 25 times its estimated earnings per share (EPS) of Rs 56 in the 2025-26 financial year (FY26).  

“Mankind Pharma appears to be well positioned to double its net profit by FY26,” the brokerage said in a note. “We believe continued sales outperformance to the India market, focus on chronic therapies and improved salesforce productivity are growth drivers.”

The company has a strong local presence, with nearly 98 per cent of revenue from the domestic pharma market. Within its domestic business, around 90 per cent of revenue comes from prescription pharmaceuticals and the rest from the consumer health business.

“It has one of the largest networks of medical representatives in India and over 80 per cent of doctors prescribe its products. We believe growth potential in the chronic segment would likely drive meaningful margin expansion,” Macquarie said in its note.

However, following the 32 per cent up move on day one, Mankind shares now trade at a premium to most of its peers.

The company’s IPO was entirely an offer for sale by its promoters, global private equity firm Cairnhill, Beige and a few other investors.