Blackstone backed Nexus Malls sets IPO price band at Rs 95-100 per unit

India's Nexus Malls, Blackstone Inc-backed mall real estate investment trust portfolio, has set price band for its 32 billion rupees initial public offering at 95 rupees to 100 rupees per unit

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Nexus Malls, a Blackstone Inc-backed mall real estate investment trust portfolio, has set the price band for its 32 billion rupees ($391.1 million) initial public offering at 95 rupees to 100 rupees per unit, a newspaper advertisement showed on Wednesday.

The REIT, formally known as Nexus Select Trust, plans a fresh issue of units worth 14 billion rupees and an offer for sale of units from existing holders worth 18 billion rupees, according to an offer document.

Nexus Malls owns 17 assets covering 9.6 million square feet across 13 Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Losses for the REIT, which has over 3000 stores and more than 135 million footfalls a year, narrowed sharply to 109.5 million rupees for the year ended March 31, 2022, from nearly 2 billion rupees a year ago.

Revenue from operations for the period climbed 45.3%.

The IPO, the first-ever by an Indian retail REIT, comes at a time when volatile markets and global macroeconomic challenges have scuppered or delayed various listing plans in India.

Earlier this year, personal care products startup Mamaearth put its IPO on hold, while apparel retailer Fabindia and jeweller Joyalukkas withdrew their plans.

The bidding date for anchor investors is set for May 8, while retail investors can make an offer from May 9 to May 11.

Axis Capital, IIFL Securities, BofA Securities India were among the book running lead managers to the IPO.

Nexus Malls is set to start trading on the stock exchanges on May 19.

($1 = 81.8300 Indian rupees)

 

(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Sonia Cheema)