Aequs Ltd IPO (Dec 2025) – Aerospace Engineering Meets Negative P/E: India’s Most Ambitious Precision Machining Drama
1. At a Glance
Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts — Aequs Ltd is ready for take-off, but with an engine check light blinking. The aerospace precision manufacturer is coming to the primary market with a ₹921.81 crore IPO, split between a ₹670 crore fresh issue and ₹251.81 crore offer for sale. The price band? ₹118–₹124 per share. Minimum ticket size for retail investors: ₹14,880. Not bad if you love the smell of machined aluminium in the morning.
Aequs isn’t your regular nuts-and-bolts business — it’s a full-stack engineering ecosystem with operations across three continents, supplying components for Airbus and Boeing programs. Yet, here’s the punchline: in FY25, it posted a loss of ₹102.35 crore, after a smaller loss of ₹14.24 crore in FY24. Despite all that turbulence, the IPO values it at a market cap of ₹8,316 crore, which makes one wonder — did they use aerospace-grade optimism in their valuation formula?
JM Financial leads the issue, with Kfin Technologies acting as registrar. Listing is tentatively scheduled for December 10, 2025, on both BSE and NSE. The promoter group led by Aravind Melligeri will dilute from 64.48% pre-issue to somewhere just below 60% post-issue, still keeping the cockpit under firm family control.
So yes — the IPO’s financial flight path is shaky, but the engineering credentials? Jet-grade. Let’s dive in and see whether this aerospace dream is powered by innovation or just hot air.
2. Introduction
If aerospace had a Bollywood remake, Aequs would be that engineering prodigy from Belagavi who built his own plane — but forgot to check if it had fuel. The company’s tagline could easily be “Precision Manufacturing with Margin Erosion.”
Founded in 2000, Aequs started by building components for global aircraft manufacturers. Over time, it expanded into consumer electronics, plastics, and durable goods. The story sounds like a classic diversification play — except in this case, diversification also brought diversified losses.
Between FY23 and FY25, revenue wobbled between ₹840 crore and ₹959 crore, while net profit did backflips into the red. As of September 2025, the company has assets worth ₹2,134 crore and borrowings of ₹533 crore. So yes, there’s leverage — and it’s not just in their CAD models.
Despite the turbulence, Aequs has a serious runway: 1,892 permanent employees, 1,800+ contract staff, and operations that stretch across Asia, Europe, and North America. Its customer list reads like the who’s who of aviation, including Airbus, Boeing, and Safran. The question is: can all that technical wizardry finally translate into profits, or will Aequs continue making high-precision losses?
Let’s investigate.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Aequs is basically the “Tata Motors of Aerospace Components”, minus the passenger cars and (for now) the profits. It operates a vertically integrated manufacturing ecosystem inside a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Belagavi, Karnataka — think of it as a self-sufficient aerospace city.
Their main business segments are:
Aerospace Manufacturing: This is the crown jewel — precision-machined components for engines, landing gear, and aircraft interiors.
Consumer Products and Plastics: Serving global brands with plastic-molded products and consumer electronics.
Engineering Services: Providing design and assembly for major aerospace OEMs.
If you peek under the hood, you’ll find some pretty complex stuff — brackets, manifolds, actuators, landing gear fittings, power distribution trays — basically, all the things that make an aircraft move safely without falling apart mid-air.
But here’s where things get spicy. The aerospace division is profitable, yet the other segments — plastics, consumer durables — are dragging the consolidated numbers down faster than an engine flameout. The IPO proceeds are supposed to repay ₹433 crore in debt, which could ease pressure. But unless margins improve, even a debt-free runway won’t guarantee smooth takeoff.
4. Financials Overview
Let’s slice through the numbers like a CNC lathe through aluminium.
