India's IRB InvIT Fund seeks up to $724 million in IPO

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's IRB InvIT Fund is seeking to raise as much as 46.5 billion rupees ($723.6 million) in an initial public offering next week, kicking off the first-ever listing of an infrastructure investment trust in the country.

IRB InvIT Fund, which is sponsored by IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd, plans to raise up to 43 billion rupees by selling new shares in a price range of 100 rupees to 102 rupees per share.

IRB Infra and other shareholders are also selling a further up to 34.8 million shares in the IPO, which will open on May 3 and close May 5.

There will be a greenshoe option of up to 25 percent of the issue size, IRB InvIT said in a statement.

Infrastructure Investment Trusts and Real Estate Investment Trusts are entities that invest in rent-yielding assets and distribute most of their income to shareholders as dividends.

India's capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), late last year eased regulations for REITs and InvITs to woo more investors to the country's capital-starved property and infrastructure sector.

"We would expect at least three to four more issues to hit the market this year on the InvIT side. Probably, REIT will also pick up in the latter half of the year," said Ajay Saraf, executive director at ICICI Securities, one of the four banks managing the IRB InvIT IPO.

IRB InvIT will own, operate and maintain a portfolio of six toll-road assets in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The proceeds from the IPO will be used to pay down some debt.

IDFC Bank, Credit Suisse and IIFL are the other banks managing the IPO.

($1 = 64.2650 rupees)

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy and Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)