Gaja Alternative Asset Management opens public offering with strong anchor demand
Gaja Alternative Asset Management has opened its public offering with strong institutional backing, offering investors a rare chance to back a high-fee alternative asset manager capitalizing on India's expanding private wealth sector.
Gaja Alternative Asset Management opened its initial public offering for subscription on Wednesday, pricing the issue at the upper end of its ₹152 to ₹160 per share band. The offering, promoted by Gopal Jain, has already secured ₹165 crore from anchor investors, including ₹30 crore commitments each from Nippon India Mutual Fund and Invesco Mutual Fund.
Life insurers HDFC Life and SBI Life, alongside prominent private investors Akash Bhansali, Mukul Agarwal, and Ashish Kacholia, also participated in the anchor book. Grey market indicators suggest strong debut expectations, with premiums indicating a potential listing price of ₹190, representing an 18.75% premium to the upper price band.
The listing provides public market exposure to India's alternative investment fund sector, which brokerages expect to grow rapidly as high-net-worth individuals and family offices increase private-market allocations. SBICAP Securities highlighted the firm's superior unit economics, noting management fees of 190 basis points in the 2026 fiscal year compared to the 37 to 52 basis points typical of traditional mutual fund peers.
Gaja Capital reduced the total size of the offering to ₹550 crore, comprising a ₹450 crore fresh issue and a ₹100 crore offer-for-sale, down from an earlier ₹656.2 crore target. The company plans to deploy roughly ₹372 crore of the fresh proceeds into sponsor commitments for existing and new funds, increasing general partner skin-in-the-game from 6.5% to 10%.
Swastika Investmart described the valuation, at 22 times fiscal 2026 earnings and three times book value, as reasonably priced with a moderate margin of safety. However, the brokerage cautioned that earnings from alternative asset management can be volatile due to the lumpiness of private-equity performance fees, which may limit short-term listing gains.
The public issue reserves 50% of shares for qualified institutional buyers, 35% for retail investors, and 15% for non-institutional investors. JM Financial and IIFL Financial Services are acting as merchant bankers for the offering, which closes on August 21 ahead of an expected listing on August 26.
