Ahead of IPO, Afcons Infra collects Rs 1,621 cr from anchor investors

Shapoorji Pallonji Group's flagship infrastructure engineering and construction firm Afcons Infrastructure Ltd (AIL) on Thursday said it has mobilised Rs 1,621 crore from anchor investors, a day before its initial share sale opening for public subscription.

Foreign and domestic institutions participated in the anchor book include HDFC Mutual Fund (MF), ICICI Prudential MF, BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Group, Nomura, Nippon India MF, Enam Holdings, Mirae MF, Quant MF, Invesco MF, Eastbridge, Amundi, Invesco HK and SBI General Insurance.

The company has allocated over 3.5 crore equity shares to 80 funds at Rs 463 apiece, which is also the upper end of the price band.

This aggregates the transaction size to Rs 1,621.5 crore, according to a circular uploaded on BSE's website.

Of 3.5 crore equity shares, 1.17 crore equity shares worth Rs 542.2 crore were allocated to 15 domestic mutual funds through a total of 31 schemes. This accounts for 33.44 per cent of the total anchor book size.

The Rs 5,430-crore initial public offering (IPO) will open on October 25 and conclude on October 29. The price band has been fixed at Rs 440-463 per share.

The IPO is a combination of a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 1,250 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to Rs 4,180 crore by promoter Goswami Infratech Private Limited, the prospectus showed.

The offer size was reduced following a pre-IPO fundraising. In the March draft papers, the company had initially planned to raise Rs 7,000 crore through the initial share sale.

Currently, promoter and promoter group entities own a 99 per cent stake in Maharashtra-based Afcons Infrastructure.

The company will utilise Rs 80 crore from the fresh issue proceeds to buy construction equipment, Rs 320 crore for long-term working capital, Rs 600 crore to repay debt, and the rest for general corporate purposes.

Founded in 1865, Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SP Group) is a diversified institution and has a leading presence in engineering & construction, infrastructure, real estate, water, energy and financial services sectors across the globe.

In terms of listed industry peers, Afcons compares itself with Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T), KEC International Limited (KEC), Kalpataru Project International Ltd (KPIL), and Dilip Buildcon Ltd ( DBL).

ICICI Securities Ltd, DAM Capital Advisors Ltd, Jefferies India Private Ltd, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Ltd, Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd, and SBI Capital Markets Ltd are the book-running lead managers to the issue.