Ahead of IPO, Bharti Hexacom garners Rs 1,924 crore from anchor investors

PTI, Apr 3, 2024, 9:27 AM IST

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel’s arm Bharti Hexacom on Tuesday said it has collected about Rs 1,924 crore from anchor investors a day before its initial share-sale opening for public subscription.

This will be the first public offering in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

The telecom operator’s arm has allotted 3.37 crore equity shares to 97 funds at Rs 570 apiece, according to a circular uploaded on BSE’s website.

At this price, the company has garnered Rs 1,923.75 crore from anchor investors.

Small Cap World Fund Inc, BlackRock, Fidelity Funds, Wellington Management, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Schroder, Aberdeen, and Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte are among the anchor investors.

Additionally, 22 mutual funds were allotted 1.39 crore shares, representing 41 per cent of the total allocation. These mutual funds included SBI Mutual Fund (MF), HDFC MF, ICICI Prudential MF, Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Sundaram MF, Axis MF, Kotak MF and UTI MF.

The issue with a price band of Rs 542 to Rs 570 per share will be open for public subscription on April 3 and conclude on April 5.

The company’s Rs 4,275-crore IPO is entirely an offer of sale (OFS) of 7.5 crore equity shares, indicating a 15 per cent stake by Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd, with no fresh issue component.

Since it is an offer for sale or OFS, Bharti Hexacom will not receive any proceeds from the IPO.

At present, promoter Bharti Airtel holds 70 per cent stake and the remaining 30 per cent stake is owned by Telecommunications Consultants India.

Bharti Hexacom provides telecommunication services in Rajasthan and Northeast.

At the upper end of the price band, the IPO size will be Rs 4,275 crore. About 75 per cent of the issue size has been reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), 15 per cent for non-institutional investors and the remaining 10 per cent for retail investors.

Bharti Hexacom, which filed its preliminary IPO papers with Sebi on January 20, obtained its nod on March 11 to float the maiden public issue.

SBI Capital Markets, Axis Capital, BOB Capital Markets, ICICI Securities, and IIFL Securities are the book running lead managers of the public issue.