Between September 24 and November 2, the company's scrip had gained substantially going up from Rs 5, its 52-week low, to Rs 17, its 52-week high. However, thereafter, the rally in the scrip faded to take it to its current level of Rs 14.

Epic is offering 28,26,633 shares at a price of Rs 15 in the ratio of one equity share for every two equity shares held in the company. The company's shares are listed on the stock exchanges at Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi and Ahmedabad, but are not traded on other bourses due to non-payment of listing dues to theseexchanges.

Mumbai-based Epic manufactures speciality chemicals and agro chemicals including pesticides, mainly for exports. Since the machinery used in its plant is more than 10 year old, the company's maintenance costs are high.The main object of the current issue is to part finance its backward integration project of Rs 4.29 crore to manufacture 450 tpa of phenyl glyoxalic ethyl ester, an input for the manufacture of various pesticides, weedicides, etc. The new project is coming up at its existing manufacturing facility near Raigad.

The company's products are marketed in Europe through FCS which itself is a major player in the agro-chemicals industry worldwide. According to the offer document, the company expects to sell whole of its products abroad through FCS.

Epic had accumulated losses aggregating Rs 6.02 crore for the period ended June 1997, but managed to earn a marginal net profit of Rs 9.06 lakh during fiscal 1998 from a total income of Rs 17.33 crore. During the first quarter ended September1998, Epic earned a net profit of Rs 35.53 lakh from a total income of Rs 7.06 crore. Lead managed by Keynote Corporate Services Ltd, the date of opening the issue is yet to be finalised.