FOR four decades, a Kanpur-headquartered engineering company has quietly shaped how the world packages cement, grain, and fertiliser. Lohia Corp Limited, the flagship company of the Lohia Group, designs and manufactures the machinery that produces woven polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) sacks, bags, and technical fabrics used across more than ninety countries. With a mainboard initial public offering now open on the Indian stock exchanges, the company is drawing fresh attention to a business that has long operated behind the scenes of global logistics and agriculture.

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❖  A FOUR-DECADE ENGINEERING LEGACY

The company's roots trace back to 1981, when it was incorporated as Lohia Starlinger Limited, a joint venture between the Lohia family and Austria's Starlinger & Co. GmbH, to manufacture circular looms for raffia (woven plastic) production. The partnership expanded in 1984 with the addition of tape extrusion lines and winders, broadening the company into a full-line machinery supplier. Following Starlinger's exit as a shareholder, the company was renamed Lohia Corp Limited in March 2013, marking its transition into an independently run, India-led engineering enterprise.

Today, Lohia Corp's manufacturing base and in-house research and development centre are located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, supported by subsidiaries and associate offices in the United States, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and the UAE, along with a wider network of sales agents across major woven-sack producing regions.

❖  WHAT LOHIA CORP ACTUALLY BUILDS

Lohia Corp's product range covers the entire raffia manufacturing chain, including tape stretching and extrusion lines, tape winders, circular looms, PP multifilament yarn spinning machinery, extrusion coating lines, printing machines, bag conversion lines, and specialised equipment for FIBCs (flexible intermediate bulk containers, or jumbo bags). The fabric and bags produced on this machinery serve a wide range of end uses, including cement and fertiliser packaging, food-grain sacks, leno and ventilated bags, tarpaulins, geotextiles, agro-textiles, and ropes and twines.

❖  MARKET POSITION AND SCALE

Lohia Corp has built a leading position in a specialised, technically demanding segment of industrial machinery. The company held roughly a 15.4% share of the global woven raffia machinery market by value in 2024, and an even stronger 40.7% share of the Indian market by value in FY25, according to independent industry analysis cited in its public offer documents. As of March 2026, its installed annual manufacturing capacity stood at approximately 240 tape extrusion lines, 13,800 circular looms, and 108,000 tape winders, supported by a permanent workforce of around 2,010 employees.

❖  FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

Lohia Corp's recent financial trajectory points to strong operating momentum. Total income rose from ₹1,386.47 crore in FY25 to ₹1,737.87 crore in FY26, an increase of roughly 25%. Profit after tax grew even faster, climbing from ₹117.84 crore to ₹193.45 crore over the same period, a rise of about 64%. Total assets expanded from ₹967.60 crore to ₹1,304.66 crore. The company has also reported a return on capital employed (ROCE) of approximately 40.92% and a conservative debt-to-equity ratio of around 0.23, indicating a relatively low-leverage balance sheet.

❖  THE 2026 INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING

Lohia Corp's mainboard IPO is a book-built issue worth approximately ₹1,101–1,102 crore, structured entirely as an Offer for Sale of about 2.59 crore equity shares by existing promoter and shareholder entities; the company itself will not receive any proceeds from the issue. The price band has been set at ₹404 to ₹425 per share, with a minimum lot size of 35 shares. The issue opened for subscription on July 23, 2026 and closed on July 27, 2026, with allotment finalised on July 28, listing tentatively scheduled for July 30, 2026 on both the BSE and NSE.

Ahead of the IPO, promoters Raj Kumar Lohia, Gaurav Lohia and Amit Kumar Lohia collectively held approximately 95.6% of the company, a stake expected to decline to roughly 75.2% following the Offer for Sale. Equirus Capital and Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors served as the book-running lead managers for the issue.

❖  WHY THE BUSINESS MATTERS

❖ Deep specialisation: Lohia Corp operates in a narrow but essential industrial niche, supplying capital equipment that underpins global bulk-packaging supply chains.

❖ Global diversification: an established presence across more than 90 countries reduces dependence on any single regional market.

❖ Financial discipline: rising profitability alongside a low debt-to-equity ratio points to efficient capital use.

❖ Long operating history: four decades of continuous engineering and R&D investment underpin its current technology base.

❖  OUTLOOK

As global demand for flexible packaging, agro-textiles and infrastructure materials continues to evolve, Lohia Corp's positioning as a leading, technically specialised machinery manufacturer places it at an important intersection of manufacturing and materials innovation. Whether viewed as an industrial technology story or as a newly listed public company, Lohia Corp's journey from a 1981 joint venture to a globally recognised raffia-machinery leader offers a compelling case study in sustained, focused industrial growth.

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  Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Figures relating to the IPO, market share and financials are drawn from publicly available company and market disclosures and may change. Readers should consult official offer documents and a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.