Infibeam files IPO papers with Sebi; to raise Rs 450 cr

Online shopping portal Infibeam today approached capital markets regulator Sebi to mop-up an estimated Rs 450 crore through an initial public offer, becoming the first e-commerce firm to tap the IPO route.
Gujarat-based Infibeam Incorporation Ltd said it has filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with Sebi for a public issue of its equity shares through which it aims to raise up to Rs 450 crore.
Infibeam competes with Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and others in the e-commerce space.
The capital markets watchdog last week announced a new set of easier norms for listing of startup firms on a separate platform of stock exchanges. However, Infibeam has decided to go for listing on the main board.

Started in 2007, Infibeam runs several e-commerce services such as Infibeam.Com, Indent, BuildaBazaar, Incept and Picsquare. Last year, Sony Music had bought a 26 per cent stake in Indent.
It has proposed to list its shares on the NSE and BSE.

The Book Running Lead Managers to the issue are SBI Capital Markets, Elara Capital, ICICI Securities and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited.
Infibeam plans to utilise the IPO proceeds towards setting up of cloud data centre and shifting and setting up of registered and corporate office of the company, setting up of 75 logistics centres, purchase of software and for General Corporate Purposes.

Under the public offer, at least 75 per cent of shares would be allotted on a proportionate basis to Qualified Institutional Investors, while up to 60 per cent of this portion can be given to Anchor Investors on a discretionary basis.
Five per cent of the QIB Portion (excluding the Anchor Investor Portion) would be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to mutual funds only.
All potential investors, other than Anchor Investors, can participate in this issue through an Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) process providing details of their respective bank account which will be blocked by the concerned banks.

Apart from Infibeam, InterGlobe Enterprises, which runs the country's biggest airline by market share under 'IndiGo' brand and staffing firm Teamlease also filed their draft papers today with Sebi to float their respective IPOs.
After last year's lull, IPO markets have begun to heat up as more than 30 companies have lined up plans to raise funds totalling over Rs 20,000 crore through public offers, including big names like IndiGo, Cafe Coffee Day, Matrix Cellular and GVK Airport.
At least 21 of these firms have already got the go-ahead from market regulator Sebi to launch their respective IPOs, while draft papers of four firms are currently "under process" but may be cleared soon.

So far in 2015, eight companies have launched their IPOs and have collectively raised nearly 4,000 crore. In comparison, a total of six IPOs had hit the market in the entire 2014 and together garnered just Rs 1,528 crore.