Elevate Campuses shares list at 2% discount to issue price on NSE — should you buy, sell or hold?

As per the latest business developments, Shares of Elevate Campuses made a weak debut on the bourses on September 30, stock-exchange debut at a discount of nearly 2 percent to the offering price after the firm's initial public offering (IPO) received 1.79 times subscription during the three-day bidding period.

The stock opened at Rs 355.10 on the NSE, down 1.91 percent from its offering price of Rs 362 per share. On the BSE, Elevate Campuses shares debuted at Rs 356, marking a 1.52 percent discount to the offering price.

Following the stock-exchange debut, the firm's market capitalisation stood at around Rs 6,008.13 crore.

The stock-exchange debut was below the grey market indications. Elevate Campuses shares were commanding a grey market premium (GMP) of around Rs 6.5 in the morning, according to InvestorGain. This indicated a premium of around 1.8 percent over the upper end of the IPO price range.

That stated, GMP is an unofficial indicator based on activity in the grey market. It can change before stock-exchange debut and does not guarantee the actual stock-exchange debut price or post-stock-exchange debut returns.

The Rs 2,100-crore IPO received bids for 6,02,69,672 equity shares against 3,36,73,468 shares on offer, according to NSE data.

The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) portion was subscribed 2.52 times, while the non-institutional investor (NII) category was subscribed 84 percent. The retail portion received 1.01 times subscription.

The IPO had a price range of Rs 343-362 per share and comprised an entirely fresh offering of 5.80 crore equity shares. There was no offer-for-sale (OFS) component.

The minimum lot size was 41 shares, requiring retail market participants to invest Rs 14,842 at the upper end of the price range.

Ahead of the public offering, Elevate Campuses boosted Rs 945 crore from anchor market participants on September 22. The firm allotted 2.61 crore shares to 40 anchor market participants at Rs 362 per share.

Domestic mutual funds accounted for a substantial portion of the anchor book, with eight fund houses receiving 1.65 crore shares worth Rs 600 crore through 24 schemes. These included SBI Mutual Fund, HDFC AMC, WhiteOak Capital, Mirae Asset, Bandhan Mutual Fund, PGIM India, Edelweiss and Groww Mutual Fund.

Global market participants including Citigroup, BofA Securities, Societe Generale, Integrated Core Strategies (Asia), Amundi Funds and Government Pension Fund Global additionally participated in the anchor allocation.

Elevate Campuses plans to use Rs 1,100 crore from the IPO proceeds to acquire K-12 entities and campuses from fellow subsidiaries of its promoters.

Another Rs 750 crore will be used to repay debt availed by the firm and its wholly owned subsidiaries, including GHS Shoolini, GHS Sonipat, Data Ram Sons, Souk HIS UAE and Souk NLCS UAE.

The remaining proceeds will be used for unidentified acquisitions, other inorganic expansion opportunities and general corporate purposes.

Elevate Campuses operates student accommodation facilities located on or near elevated education institutions (HEIs) and additionally owns K-12 education assets.

The firm has a presence across 15 cities in India and one city in the UAE. As of March 2026, it owned seven student accommodation campuses with a total capacity of 20,368 beds across six Indian cities, along with two K-12 assets in Dubai.

Its managed portfolio comprised 14 student accommodation campuses with 55,487 beds under management as of March 2026.

JM Financial, IIFL Capital Services and Morgan Stanley India Firm are the book-running lead managers for the offering, while KFin Technologies is the registrar.