On 12 October, a day before the initial public offering (IPO) of Coffee Day Enterprises (CDEL, also called CCD) was to open, brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher (PL) had advised investors to avoid the stock, suggesting the issue price was on the higher side.

"We estimate the value per share of CCD at Rs265 which is a significant discount to offer price band of Rs316‐328/share. We believe that unproductive investments, complicated organization structure and low throughput in the Café business are a drag. We recommend investors to avoid the stock."

Now, if only investors had paid heed to the advice, they would have not seen the kind of disappointment they have been subject to ever since the stock was listed on 2 November.

Opening at Rs 313, a discount to the issue price of Rs 328, the stock closed at Rs 270 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on 2 November, and it has been a downhill journey since then except for once, on 4 November, when it closed at Rs 280.

On 30 November, the last trading day of the month, the stock closed at Rs 255.20 on the BSE, a shade higher to its lowest of Rs 252.60 during the day.

The company raised Rs 1,150 crore from the IPO to use the proceeds mainly to repay repayment of holding company loans, with the rest meant for setting up new Cafe Coffee Day outlets, manufacturing and assembling of vending machines, setting up of a new coffee roasting facility, among others.

CDEL trimmed its losses to Rs 9.3 crore for the second quarter ended September 2015, from Rs 39.8 crore during the corresponding period last year.