Four IPOs were live on the same day this week, and by closing time on July 16, the four had gone in four completely different directions. One SME issue barely scraped past half subscribed. Two others got buried under institutional money in the last two hours. The fourth, India's biggest IPO of the year, spent its first two days looking sleepy before QIBs showed up and changed the story entirely.

Here's where all four stood as bidding wrapped up, and what the numbers actually mean if you applied, or are still deciding whether to.

IPO	Status	QIB	NII	Retail	Overall
Sotefin Bharat	Open (Day 1)	0.00x	0.20x	0.30x	0.20x
Alpine Texworld	Closed today	1.04x	0.86x	1.19x	1.36x
Millworks Technologies	Closed today	5.01x	119.73x	106.15x	80.17x
SBI Funds Management	Closed today	140.10x	22.45x	3.61x	41.64x

Four issues, four shapes of demand. Worth going through each one separately, because the number on top doesn't tell you who's actually going to get shares.

Sotefin Bharat: day one, and it shows

Sotefin Bharat opened today, so a 0.20x subscription isn't a verdict on anything yet, it's just Day 1 behaving like Day 1 usually does. Retail came in ahead of the pack at 0.30x, NII lagged at 0.20x, and QIB hadn't moved at all, which is normal since institutional money almost always waits until the final day to place real bids.

The company makes automated parking systems, robotic, puzzle, tower and stack, and books most of its revenue from government contracts in Mumbai and Delhi. Revenue grew 26% and profit jumped 54% in FY26, which is a decent enough setup, but a good business and a well-subscribed IPO aren't the same thing until the last day proves it. This one closes July 20, so there's time to watch how QIB and NII money behaves before deciding anything. Track it on the Sotefin Bharat IPO page.

Alpine Texworld: just barely got there

Alpine Texworld crossed the finish line at 1.36x, which sounds fine until you notice how close that number sits to 1. This was a mainboard textile IPO with only 1% of the issue set aside for QIB, so the retail and NII books were always going to carry most of the weight, and they did, but without much room to spare. Retail closed at 1.19x, NII at 0.86x, meaning the non-institutional book didn't even fully cover itself.

For an applicant, this is actually good news in a narrow sense: at 1.36x overall, most retail applicants stand a real shot at getting at least one lot, since the odds of a lottery only get brutal once oversubscription runs into double or triple digits. What it isn't good news for is listing day excitement. GMP has been sliding through the week, sitting around ₹2 to ₹3 as bidding closed, down from ₹10 a couple of days earlier. A subdued subscription number and a fading grey market premium usually point the same direction: a flattish listing, not a blowout one. Full breakdown is on the Alpine Texworld IPO page.

Millworks Technologies: retail and NII went wild, QIB stayed cautious

This is the one that got the most attention this week, and the numbers explain why. Overall subscription closed north of 80x, with NII running hottest at nearly 120x and retail close behind at over 106x. That is an enormous amount of demand chasing a fairly small SME issue.

What's more interesting is the QIB number sitting at just 5.01x, which is low compared to everything else in this table. Institutional investors clearly liked the company, precision engineering for railways, aerospace, defence and semiconductor equipment, with revenue that's already grown several times over inside a year, but they didn't chase it the way retail did. That gap between a red-hot retail book and a comparatively modest QIB number is worth sitting with. It doesn't mean the IPO is bad. It does mean the retail frenzy might be running a little ahead of the institutional read on fair value.

For allotment, retail investors applying here should assume a lottery, not a guarantee. At over 100x in the retail category, the vast majority of applicants will not get shares, and the ones who do will get them through the proportionate draw, not because they applied early or applied big. Details and the day-wise trend are on the Millworks Technologies IPO page.

SBI Funds Management: the QIB rush that changed everything

This is the most interesting subscription pattern of the four, and it's worth walking through because it's a good example of how mainboard IPOs with big QIB quotas actually behave. SBI Funds Management sat at a sleepy 0.71x after Day 1 and 2.82x after Day 2. Then Day 3 happened. QIB demand alone jumped to 140.10x, dragging the overall number up to 41.64x by late afternoon.

That's the standard playbook for institutional investors on a large offer for sale: sit out the first two days, do the diligence, and place the real money on the last day once the picture is clearer. Retail, by contrast, stayed modest throughout and closed at just 3.61x, a level that gives retail applicants a genuinely reasonable shot at allotment, unlike the 100x-plus lottery situation over at Millworks.

The scale here is also just different from the other three. This is a ₹9,812.91 crore offer for sale by SBI and Amundi, no fresh shares, meaning the company's own balance sheet doesn't change, only who owns the existing shares does. With QIB now past 140x and NII at 22.45x, the institutional vote of confidence looks real. Whether that carries through to listing day gains is a separate question, since a strong subscription number and a strong debut don't always move together. Track it on the SBI Funds Management IPO page.

So what does allotment actually look like for each of these

Retail allotment math is simple once you strip away the noise: the lower the retail subscription number, the better your odds, because allotment is proportionate above 1x and only turns into a full lottery once demand massively outstrips supply.

• Sotefin Bharat: still open, retail at 0.30x as of Day 1. If it stays under 1x through July 20, every retail applicant gets full allotment. If institutional money floods in on the last day the way it usually does, that could still change.
• Alpine Texworld: retail closed at 1.19x, just over subscribed. Expect most applicants to get at least one lot, with a small proportion missing out.
• Millworks Technologies: retail at 106.15x. This is a straight lottery. Applying for more lots doesn't meaningfully improve your odds here, since allotment is randomized per application, not per share applied for.
• SBI Funds Management: retail at 3.61x. Oversubscribed, but nowhere near lottery territory. Reasonable odds of at least partial or full allotment depending on the exact final cut-off.

Basis of allotment for Alpine Texworld, Millworks Technologies and SBI Funds Management is expected July 17, with listing across July 21 (Alpine and SBI, on both BSE and NSE) and July 21 for Millworks on BSE SME. Sotefin Bharat's allotment lands July 21, with listing tentatively set for July 23 on BSE SME.

None of this is investment advice, just a read of what the subscription books are actually saying. GMP moves fast and has already swung meaningfully on more than one of these issues this week, so treat any grey market number as a mood indicator, not a price target. Check each IPO's live page for allotment status once it's out.