By Shivani Singh

BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s Star Well being and Allied Insurance coverage Co, backed by billionaire inventory investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, see-sawed in a weak debut on Friday, after failing to draw investor curiosity in a blockbuster yr for home listings.

Shares of the nation’s largest non-public well being insurer had been down 6% in pre-open commerce earlier than reversing course to achieve 4.4%. At 0635 GMT, shares had been buying and selling flat at 901.40 rupees.

On the day’s excessive of 940 rupees, the Chennai-based firm was valued at 66.86 billion rupees ($883.69 million).

Star Well being, which provides protection choices for retail well being, group well being, and abroad journey insurance coverage, witnessed a subdued response to its itemizing subscription final week and had reduce the dimensions of its preliminary public providing (IPO) to 64 billion rupees from 72.49 billion rupees.

Final month, digital funds start-up Paytm made one of many worst main Indian inventory market debuts, elevating questions round impending IPOs on the until-now scorching Indian market.

Urge for food for very massive IPOs in India has taken a beating since Paytm’s debut rout, although demand for a lot smaller IPOs from firms with established companies remained sturdy.

Comparatively smaller companies together with KFC and Pizza Hut eating places operator Sapphire Meals India and knowledge analytics firm Latent View have made sturdy debuts.

“Contemplating the undersubscription of the difficulty, the flat itemizing of Star Well being was anticipated. The monetary efficiency was impacted in FY21, however long-term progress prospects of the business stay fairly promising,” mentioned Ajit Mishra, vice-president, analysis, Religare Broking.

The insurer, which noticed a major enhance in claims throughout the resurgence in COVID-19 instances earlier this yr, expects to see an influence on its claims ratio for fiscal 2022.

“On the itemizing day, Star Well being and Allied Insurance coverage inventory was initially down primarily as a consequence of fears of the brand new Omicron variant as additional influence of the COVID-19 pandemic may enhance the claims,” mentioned Amarjeet Maurya, assistant vice-president, mid-caps, Angel One.

“We’re constructive on the inventory and each dip in share costs offers shopping for alternatives to long-term buyers.”

Jhunjhunwala, who owns a close to 15% stake within the insurer, didn’t put up any shares on the market within the IPO.

($1 = 75.6600 Indian rupees)