Most people have never heard of raffia machinery, and yet there’s a decent chance the woven sack that held your last bag of cement, rice, or fertilizer was made on equipment built by a Kanpur-based company called Lohia Corp. That’s the kind of business this is — invisible to the average consumer, essential to a dozen industries, and now working its way toward a stock market debut after a genuinely unusual filing history.
If you’ve searched around for the Lohia Corp IPO already, you’ve probably run into the same frustration everyone else has: half the trackers show a price band, the other half show blank dashes, and the dates don’t agree with each other. That’s not you doing something wrong — this IPO’s paperwork really is still working its way through the pipeline, and a lot of what’s floating around online right now is auto-generated filler rather than confirmed information.
This article separates what’s actually known from what isn’t, and walks through the company itself in enough depth that you’ll be ready to move the moment the official price band lands.
Who Is Lohia Corp Limited?
Lohia Corp has been building machinery for the woven plastics industry since 1981, originally set up as a joint venture between the Lohia group and Maschinenfabrik Starlinger & Co., an Austrian engineering firm. Over more than four decades, that partnership grew into one of the more recognized names globally in what’s called raffia machinery — the specialized equipment used to manufacture polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) woven fabric and sacks.
If that sounds like a narrow niche, it’s worth putting some numbers behind it. Lohia Corp held a 15.4% revenue-based share of the global woven raffia machinery market in 2024, which makes it one of the largest players in a category that quietly underpins packaging for agriculture, construction, food grains, cement, and industrial goods around the world.
What the Company Actually Manufactures
The product range has expanded well beyond the circular looms the company originally started with. Today, Lohia Corp’s machinery portfolio spans:
- Circular looms for weaving plastic fabric
- Extrusion lines for producing the raw tape and yarn used in weaving
- Winding machines
- Lamination equipment
- Printing and conversion machinery for finishing woven sacks and fabric
- Multifilament processing equipment
That breadth matters. A customer setting up a woven sack manufacturing plant can source most of the production chain — from raw yarn extrusion through to a finished, printed sack — from a single supplier, rather than piecing together equipment from multiple vendors. It’s the kind of full-stack positioning that tends to build long-term customer relationships in industrial machinery businesses, since switching even one machine in an integrated production line often means re-qualifying an entire process.
A Legal Restructuring Worth Understanding
Here’s a detail that occasionally confuses people researching this company: the legal entity going public isn’t the same one that’s been operating since 1981 in a strict paperwork sense. Lohia Corp Limited was originally incorporated as “Kanpur Packaging Machines Limited” on June 5, 2023. Through a Scheme of Arrangement, the company was renamed to Lohia Corp Limited, with a fresh certificate of incorporation issued on June 6, 2024.
This kind of restructuring is fairly common ahead of an IPO — group companies often get reorganized under a single listing entity to simplify ownership structures and consolidate operating businesses before going public. It doesn’t change the underlying four-decade operating history or the brand’s market position; it’s essentially a corporate housekeeping step rather than a red flag.
Lohia Corp IPO: What’s Confirmed So Far
| Detail | Status |
|---|---|
| IPO Type | Mainboard, 100% Book Built Offer |
| Issue Structure | Entirely an Offer for Sale (OFS) |
| Shares on Offer | Up to 4,22,59,970 equity shares (~4.23 crore) |
| Face Value | ₹1 per share |
| DRHP Filed | August 12, 2025 |
| Price Band | Not yet announced |
| Lot Size | Not yet announced |
| Opening / Closing Dates | Not yet announced |
| Listing Exchanges | BSE, NSE (proposed) |
| Registrar | MUFG Intime India Pvt. Ltd. (formerly Link Intime India) |
| Lead Managers | Equirus Capital Pvt. Ltd., Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Ltd. |
A note on the conflicting dates you may have seen online: Several IPO tracking platforms currently display specific-looking dates for this issue — some show April 2026, others show May 2026 — while listing the price band, lot size, and issue amount as blank dashes on the very same page. That mismatch is a strong signal these are auto-generated placeholder dates rather than confirmed information. Until Lohia Corp files its Red Herring Prospectus with a locked price band, it’s safest to treat any specific date you see for this IPO as unconfirmed and check back closer to when the RHP is actually filed.
This Is a Refiled IPO — Here’s the Backstory
One of the more interesting details about Lohia Corp’s path to the market is that this isn’t its first attempt. The company had filed for an IPO back in 2022, structured as a smaller Offer for Sale of around 3.16 crore shares. SEBI approved that filing at the time, but the company never actually launched the issue.
Fast forward to August 2025, and Lohia Corp refiled its draft papers with a larger OFS of 4.22 crore shares. Companies shelve and later refile IPOs for all sorts of reasons — unfavorable market conditions at the time, a decision to wait for stronger financials, or simply a shift in promoter timing preferences. Whatever the original reason, the fact that the company came back with a larger offer size the second time around suggests either improved confidence in the business’s valuation or a genuine change in how much promoter stake they’re now willing to dilute.
Promoter Holding
The promoter group — Raj Kumar Lohia, Gaurav Lohia, and Amit Kumar Lohia — collectively held 74.69% of the company ahead of the IPO. Since the entire issue is structured as an Offer for Sale, this IPO is purely a mechanism for existing shareholders, likely including the promoter group and possibly other pre-IPO investors, to sell down part of their holding. The company itself will not receive any of the proceeds from this listing.
Why the Entirely-OFS Structure Matters
This is worth sitting with for a moment, because it changes how you should think about this IPO compared to one that raises fresh capital.
Since 100% of the ₹4.23 crore-share offer is an Offer for Sale, not a single rupee raised through this IPO goes toward funding Lohia Corp’s own operations, expansion, or debt reduction. Every rupee flows directly to whoever is selling shares — most likely a combination of promoters and existing private shareholders looking to monetize part of their stake.
That doesn’t automatically make it a weaker investment case. Plenty of well-run, profitable companies list purely through OFS structures simply because the business doesn’t need fresh capital — it’s already self-funding its growth through internal cash flows. But it does mean you’re evaluating this purely as a bet on an already-established business at whatever valuation the market ultimately assigns it, rather than a company that’s using public market capital to fund its next phase of growth.
Unlisted Market Activity
For investors tracking pre-IPO or unlisted share activity, Lohia Corp shares have reportedly been trading around ₹472.50 in the unlisted market as of mid-June 2026. It’s worth treating this figure with some caution, though — unlisted share markets in India are thin, informally traded, and prone to wide bid-ask spreads with very few actual transactions backing any quoted price. A single trade or a handful of trades can move the quoted price meaningfully without reflecting genuine broad-based demand. Once the official price band is announced, that will be the number worth anchoring your expectations to, not unlisted market chatter.
Strengths Worth Noting
- Genuine global market leadership. A 15.4% share of the worldwide woven raffia machinery market is a meaningful competitive position, not a marginal foothold.
- Four-decade operating history. Few IPO-bound companies can point to over 40 years of continuous operation in a specialized industrial niche.
- International engineering pedigree. The original joint venture with Austria’s Starlinger brought European engineering standards into the business from day one, which likely helped establish credibility with international customers early on.
- Full-stack product range. Offering everything from extrusion to circular looms to printing and conversion equipment gives the company multiple touchpoints with each customer relationship, rather than competing on a single machine type.
- Diversified end-use exposure. Woven sacks and fabric serve agriculture, construction, cement, food grain storage, and industrial packaging — a genuinely broad demand base rather than dependence on one sector.
Risks and Concerns to Keep in Mind
- Pricing is still unknown. Without a confirmed price band, there’s simply no way yet to judge whether the eventual valuation is fair relative to the company’s earnings and growth prospects.
- Entirely an Offer for Sale. The company receives none of the IPO proceeds, meaning your investment funds an exit for existing shareholders rather than growth capital for the business itself.
- A previously shelved attempt. The fact that an earlier, SEBI-approved IPO in 2022 was never launched is worth understanding fully — it’s not necessarily a warning sign, but it’s a detail that deserves a look at the company’s own stated reasoning in the current RHP.
- Capital goods business cyclicality. Machinery manufacturers tend to see lumpy order flows tied to their customers’ own capacity expansion cycles, which can make revenue growth less smooth than a typical consumer or services business.
- Global market exposure. A meaningful share of Lohia Corp’s business likely comes from international customers, given its stated global market share, which brings currency risk and exposure to demand cycles in overseas packaging and industrial sectors.
- Thin, unreliable unlisted market pricing. The current unlisted share price shouldn’t be treated as a dependable proxy for where the official price band will land.
How Lohia Corp Fits Into India’s Industrial Machinery IPO Landscape
India’s capital goods and specialized machinery sector has seen a steady stream of mid-to-large IPOs over the past couple of years, as investors look for exposure to companies benefiting from both domestic infrastructure growth and India’s expanding role in global manufacturing supply chains. A company like Lohia Corp, with genuine global market leadership in a specific machinery category, fits into that broader theme — it’s less a story about domestic consumption and more a story about India-based engineering competing successfully on the world stage.
What to Watch For Before the Official Launch
- The official price band announcement, which will be the first real opportunity to judge valuation against comparable capital goods and machinery listings
- Confirmed opening and closing subscription dates once the RHP is filed with SEBI
- Full audited financials in the RHP — including revenue trends, export mix, and profitability metrics — none of which have been detailed in public filings reviewed so far
- Management commentary on why the earlier 2022 filing was shelved, which should appear in the current offer document’s background section
- Subscription trends once the issue opens, with QIB demand typically offering a more reliable read than early grey market chatter for a company with this kind of niche industrial profile
How to Apply Once the IPO Opens
- Log into your broker’s platform or your bank’s net banking portal.
- Navigate to the IPO section and locate the Lohia Corp listing.
- Choose ASBA through net banking, or the UPI mandate route through your broker.
- Enter your bid quantity and price within the announced band.
- Submit the application and approve the UPI mandate before the cut-off time.
As with any book-built mainboard IPO, your funds get blocked rather than debited immediately, and are released automatically if you don’t receive an allotment.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When will the Lohia Corp IPO open?
The exact opening and closing dates haven’t been officially confirmed. The company filed its DRHP on August 12, 2025, and the market is still waiting on the RHP and price band announcement.
- What is the price band for the Lohia Corp IPO?
The price band hasn’t been declared yet. Any specific figures circulating online before an official RHP filing should be treated as unconfirmed.
- Is the Lohia Corp IPO a fresh issue or an Offer for Sale?
It’s entirely an Offer for Sale of up to 4.23 crore equity shares. The company will not receive any proceeds from this listing.
- What does Lohia Corp Limited actually manufacture?
It manufactures machinery for the woven plastics and raffia industry, including circular looms, extrusion lines, winding, lamination, printing, conversion, and multifilament processing equipment used to produce woven sacks and fabric.
- Has Lohia Corp tried to go public before?
Yes. The company filed for a smaller IPO in 2022, which received SEBI approval but was never launched. The current filing, submitted in August 2025, is a larger refiled attempt.
- Who are the promoters of Lohia Corp?
Raj Kumar Lohia, Gaurav Lohia, and Amit Kumar Lohia are the promoters, collectively holding 74.69% of the company before the IPO.
- Who is managing the Lohia Corp IPO?
Equirus Capital Pvt. Ltd. and Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Ltd. are the book-running lead managers, with MUFG Intime India Pvt. Ltd. serving as registrar.
Final Thoughts: Should It Be on Your Watchlist?
Lohia Corp brings something genuinely rare to India’s IPO pipeline right now — a company with real, demonstrable global market leadership in a specialized industrial niche, built over more than four decades, rather than a fast-growing but unproven newer business. A 15.4% share of the worldwide raffia machinery market isn’t a marketing claim; it’s the kind of position that generally takes decades of engineering credibility and customer trust to build.
At the same time, this is a purely OFS-driven listing with no fresh capital going to the company, and it comes with the added wrinkle of a previously shelved IPO attempt that deserves a closer look once the full RHP is public. Combine that with a still-undeclared price band and scattered, unreliable date information across trackers, and the sensible move right now is to keep this one bookmarked rather than form a firm opinion.
Once the official price band and dates land, come back and reassess with the real numbers in hand — that’s the only way to judge whether Lohia Corp’s genuine industry leadership is being offered at a valuation worth paying for.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Details mentioned here reflect publicly available information at the time of writing and are subject to change once the company officially announces its price band and IPO dates. Please consult a SEBI-registered investment advisor and read the official RHP before applying.