IRCTC offer subscribed 112x, highest in PSU IPOs

TNN
Mumbai: The maiden public offer for IRCTC, through which the government is targeting to mop up about Rs 645 crore, got an overwhelming response with the issue subscribed 112 times. This translates into a book size of more than Rs 72,200 crore. Merchant bankers said this was the most successful PSU IPO in recent years.
The government is divesting 12.6% in IRCTC, a mini-ratna company that provides online railway tickets and on-train catering services on trains.The shares will be listed on the bourses next week. Retail investors and the company’s employees will get a discount of Rs 10 per share on the final IPO price.
Of the total demand, the retail portion was subscribed 14.7 times, the employees’ portion 5.8 times, the institutional part 109 times and the high net worth investors portion was subscribed 355 times. Against the government’s target to sell a little over 2 crore IRCTC shares, at a price band of Rs 315-320 each, the total demand was for 225.5 crore shares.
The IPO for IRCTC, which is under the railways ministry, was managed by IDBI Capital Markets, SBI Capital Markets as well as Yes Securities.
The IRCTC divestment is part of the government’s total target of raising Rs 1.05 lakh crore through sale of stakes in various PSUs. In April, the government had divested a 12.2% stake in Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) to raise Rs 480 crore. In the previous fiscal, two more companies under the railways ministry — IRCON International and RITES — were listed through IPOs in which the government too divested some part of its stakes.