For Anjan Chatterjee, founder and managing director of Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta, it was a long cherished dream to see his company’s shares trading on the stock exchange. Here’s how he served up his company, Speciality Restaurants’ much-watched public listing. 

“The biggest learning I had was what not to do rather than what to do,” says the man behind some of the best known fine dining restaurants in India, including Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta, as he recalls his experience of steering his company through its initial public offering in a less than favourable market condition. In May this year, even as global markets fell, Anjan Chatterjee’s Speciality Restaurants (SRL), valued at over Rs175 crore by revenue, sold 11.73 million shares in three days during its maiden share sale. Pulling this off was clearly no mean feat. With this listing, 20-year-old SRL became the first Indian fine dining restaurant company to float shares in the open market. 

Not surprisingly, the master restaurateur celebrated the milestone by cooking a lavish meal for his family and friends at his bungalow in Lonavala. Chatterjee confesses he’d been marinating his IPO dreams from the first day he began serving up fish delicacies at his debut restaurant—the 32-seater Only Fish—in Mumbai in 1992. Today, SRL owns eight restaurants brands, including popular names like Sigree, Just Biryani and Sweet Bengal, besides the flagship Mainland China, and runs 82 restaurants across India. The ingredients for this impressive scale were meticulously measured for, even in the beginning years. 

The biggest learning I had was what not to do rather than what to do."
-Anjan Chatterjee 

“We had built this organisation carefully with a bigger picture in mind—of being a listed company one day. It’s been my life’s goal really,” explains Chatterjee, a hotel management graduate, and later, an advertising guy, who opened up his first restaurant on the behest of friends who didn’t want his cooking skills to go to waste. But, from his first kitchen in Only Fish, Chatterjee knew he’d found his calling—to build a restaurant company that was founded with sound business fundamentals, yet gave foodies a great eating experience. 

Confident though Chatterjee was, the response—“way beyond our expectations”—took even him by surprise. “I’ll never forget the last day of the listing all my life.

That dream began to seem more and more achievable when SAIF Partners invested Rs90 crore in SRL in early 2008. By October 2010, their IPO road map began to take serious form. Less than two years later, in May 2012, SRL went public, raising `182 crore from the issue. Despite the public issue being launched at a time when the markets were particularly choppy, and against conventional wisdom, SRL generated substantial investor enthusiasm and was oversubscribed 2.5 times and nearly 4.7 times in the qualified institutional buyer (QIB) segment. 

To Chatterjee, those three eventful days were like being tossed on a high fire. As he kept watch from the “war room” at Kotak Mahindra Capital’s office in Mumbai, nothing seemed to be going to script as global markets fell. On the last day, however, institutional investors and HNI buyers lapped up the last of the stocks, ensuring the issue was actually oversubscribed.

 Of course, post-IPO, both the stakes and the responsibility have got higher. “It’s a huge challenge, to make a promise and be able to keep it. I feel honoured that so many investors have trusted us. We have to work much harder. An IPO is not about accumulating public wealth. It’s about performance. It should be driven by need (to grow), not by greed.”

Yet, it must have been tough to allay scepticism that SRL was being a fool to forge ahead with its public issue when the stock markets were so volatile. Several analysts questioned the timing, especially because bigger companies like Samvardhana Motherson Finance and Plastene India were compelled to withdraw their public issues due to poor response. 

From his first kitchen in Only Fish to Mainland China that has now become a flagship brand for Speciality Restaurants. Chatterjee's calling has been to build a restaurant company that was founded with sound business fundamentals.

There were doubts around SRL’s price band as well. The company had kept it at Rs150, which experts considered too expensive. By then, Chatterjee says he couldn’t look back. Despite the volatility, he believed SRL had its IPO recipe pat down. “The way our road shows went gave me a lot of confidence that we had a good offer. There was no question of turning back.” That’s critical, he says, for all entrepreneurs thinking of the IPO route—to be clear about both your objectives, and having the confidence in the value you bring. 

Confident though he was, the response—“way beyond our expectations”—took even him by surprise. “I’ll never forget the last day of the listing all my life.” 

Yet, the master chef confesses there were still some flourishes he wishes he could have perfected, including marketing the IPO among the 1.5 million foodies that patronise SRL restaurants across India. SRL’s retail investors quota was only half-subscribed.

Now, it’s time to look ahead though. With its cash pantry stocked up, SRL’s focus is to increase their footprint, and tap Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India to drive growth. There are also longer-term plans to increase their presence overseas. Oh! Calcutta and Mainland China already have outlets in Dhaka and Beijing respectively.