Bollywood royalty Bachchan and SRK, ace investor Ashish Kacholia made no gains in Sri Lotus Developers IPO. Should you invest?

markets

A much-awaited luxury real estate IPO - Sri Lotus Developers and Realty - has a glittering cast of pre-IPO investors including Bollywood icons Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and ace investor Ashish Kacholia, but there is a twist. Eight months on, none of them have made even a rupee in return.

The company’s IPO is priced at Rs 140-150 per share, exactly the same as its November 2024 private placement round when it raised Rs 400 crore. At that time, shares were issued at Rs 150 apiece to 118 investors - the same price at the upper end of the IPO band.

That implies that the investments by Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan - each of whom received 6.67 lakh shares worth Rs 10 crore - haven’t appreciated. The same goes for other film industry names like Hrithik Roshan and Rakesh Roshan (Rs 1 crore each), Tiger Shroff (Rs 50 lakh), Jeetendra (Ravi Kapoor), Tusshar Kapoor, Sajid Nadiadwala, and Manoj Bajpayee, whose stakes ranged from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore.

Top share market investor Ashish Kacholia too has put in a massive Rs 50 crore bet, while others like Jagdish Master and DRChoksey Finserv each have invested Rs 10 crore. All these holdings remain at cost despite the eight-month wait and a rebound in market indices.

About the IPO

Sri Lotus Developers is aiming to raise Rs 792 crore through a fresh issue. Of this, Rs 550 crore will go to three subsidiaries - Richfeel Real Estate, Dhyan Projects, and Tryksha Real Estate - to partially fund high-end developments including Amalfi, The Arcadian, and Varun in Mumbai.

The IPO opens July 30 and closes August 1, with share allotment expected by August 4 and listing on August 6. Monarch Networth Capital and Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors are managing the issue.

Sri Lotus has delivered 0.93 million sq ft of developable area as of June 2025 and focuses on luxury and ultra-luxury residential units priced between Rs 3-7 crore, with some penthouses going even higher. The lack of share price appreciation so far could reflect aggressive private placement pricing or muted investor enthusiasm, but the company is hopeful that its high-end brand and marquee investor lineup will do the heavy lifting in the public market.