WEWORK

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By Vivek Kumar M and Kashish Tandon

Oct 14 (Reuters) - LG Electronics India LGEL.NS surged 50.4% in its trading debut on Tuesday and notched a valuation of $13.07 billion, eclipsing its South Korean parent's market capitalisation, as investors piled into the country's most bid-for IPO since 2008.

Shares of the Indian arm of LG Electronics 066570.KS made a strong debut on the National Stock Exchange of India, opening at 1,710.10 rupees and rising to 1,714.90 rupees, well above the issue price of 1,140 rupees.

The debut valued the company above its $8.73 billion target and its South Korean parent's roughly $9 billion market cap.

It also put the firm ahead of its India-listed peers such as Whirlpool WHIR.NS, Voltas VOLT.NS, and Havells HVEL.NS, which are valued between $1.7 billion and $10.4 billion.

The company's listing performance was the best for a billion-dollar IPO in India since 2021, and comes in the midst of what is India's second-busiest quarter on record for IPOs, with WeWork India WEWO.NS and Tata Capital TATC.NS posting lacklustre debuts in recent days.

"After a long time, we're seeing a genuinely strong IPO in the consumer space — solid fundamentals, reasonable valuations and sector-leading growth prospects," said Dhiraj Relli, managing director and CEO of HDFC Securities.

LG Electronics, India's second-biggest appliance maker, whipped up strong demand at the bidding stage. Investors snapped up its $1.3 billion IPO within hours of opening, with bids worth a staggering $50 billion.

The investor euphoria made it the most subscribed billion-dollar offering in nearly two decades, eclipsing interest seen in high-profile listings such as Life Insurance Corp of India’s LIFI.NS $2.7 billion issue in 2022, and Paytm's $2.5 billion debut and Zomato's ETEA.NS $1.3 billion flotation in 2021.

At the share sale, qualified institutional buyers bid 166.5-fold their allotted quota, while non-institutional and retail investors subscribed 22.4 times and 3.54 times, respectively, according to exchange data.

"Institutional investors are unlikely to be satisfied with the current 5 billion–6 billion rupee allocation and will be forced to participate aggressively in the listing and beyond to achieve reasonable sizing," Relli added.

($1 = 88.7680 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon, Vivek Kumar, Chandini Monnappa and Mridula Kumar; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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Oct 13 (Reuters) - WeWork India Management Ltd WEWO.NS:

• CLSA GLOBAL MARKETS SOLD 836,616 WEWORK INDIA MANAGEMENT SHARES VIA BULK DEAL - NSE DATA

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Further company coverage: WEWO.NS

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** Shares of WeWork India Management WEWO.NS settles 3% lower at 628.65 rupees in trading debut

** WEWO valued at 84.25 bln rupees ($950.1 mln) at close vs 86.85 bln rupees post-IPO

** Flexible workspace operator's 30-bln-rupee IPO was subscribed 1.15x

** Stock opened at 650 rupees, 0.3% higher than IPO price of 648 rupees

** Trading volume at 7.1 mln shares

** IPO comprised sale of 35.4 mln shares by Embassy Buildcon LLP and 10.9 mln shares by 1 Ariel Way Tenant

($1 = 88.6790 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vijay Malkar)

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