Investors give a thumbs up to the offer for sale of Axis Bank

Investors gave a thumbs up to the offer for sale (OFS) of Axis Bank. According to data available on the exchanges at 7 pm, the OFS was subscribed 3.68 times on Wednesday, the second day of the offer. The investors bid for 28.37 million shares against 7.7 million reserved for them. Both retail and non-retail investors had made bids for Wednesday’s sale.
 
On Tuesday, the portion for non-retail investors was subscribed 1.68 times, and the Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) informed the exchanges it has decided to exercise the greenshoe option to sell an additional 26 million or 1.02 per cent of equity shares in the company.

 
Earlier, SUUTI said it proposed to sell up to 50.7 million shares, with an option to additionally sell 26.3 million shares it owns in Axis Bank. The floor price was set at Rs 689.52 a share, roughly a discount of 3 per cent to the February 11 closing price of Rs 710.35 a share.
 
The government is expected to raise Rs 5,316 crore through the sale. SUUTI, which was created to take over parts of the assets and liabilities of the now-defunct Unit Trust of India (UTI), owned 9.56 per cent stake in Axis Bank at the end of December 2018. The sale is a part of the government’s efforts to meet its disinvestment target of  Rs 80,000 crore.
 
The shares of Axis Bank closed at Rs 697.25, higher than the offer price. ICICI Securities, Morgan Stanley India, and Citigroup Global Markets India were the managers for sale.