State-owned engineering consultancy RITES Ltd on Tuesday said that it will launch its ₹466.2 crore initial public offering (IPO) on 20 June.
The sale will close on 22 June. The company has set a price band of ₹180-185 per share. The IPO is a pure offer for sale by the government, which is selling a 12% stake in the company.
The RITES share sale comes after over a month-long lull in the IPO market, as companies stayed away from launching IPOs due to volatility in the stock markets. The last IPO to hit the primary market was IndoStar Capital Finance Ltd, which raised ₹1,844 crore through its share sale in May.
So far this year, 15 companies have raised ₹20,435 crore through the IPO route, according to primary market tracker Prime Database. The activity was largely concentrated in the first quarter with 14 companies launching their share sales in January-March period.
RITES is a multidisciplinary engineering consultancy providing a diversified array of services from concept to commissioning in all facets of transport infrastructure and related technologies.
For the financial year 2016-17, RITES reported a revenue of ₹1,563.7 crore, up from ₹1,226.7 crore revenue reported in the previous year. In 2016-17, the company reported a profit of ₹362.4 crore, as against a profit of ₹282.7 crore in the previous fiscal.
The company has an experience spanning 44 years and has undertaken projects in over 55 countries including Asia, Africa, Latin America, South America and Middle East regions, according to its IPO prospectus.
RITES is the only export arm of Indian Railways for providing rolling stock overseas.
Investment banks Elara Capital (India) Pvt. Ltd, IDBI Capital Markets & Securities Ltd, IDFC Bank Ltd and SBI Capital Markets Ltd are managing the RITES share sale.
RITES is the first company under the ministry of railways to go public.
Other companies that the railways ministry plans to list include Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, Ircon International Ltd, Indian Railway Finance Corp. Ltd and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. Ltd (IRCTC).
Ircon International Ltd and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd filed their draft IPO prospectus with the regulators in March.
So far this year, three state-owned companies from the defence sector have launched their IPOs, as part of the government’s divestment program.
In March, the ₹4,229 crore IPO of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) was subscribed 99%, while those of Bharat Dynamics Ltd and Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd were subscribed 1.3 times and 1.21 times respectively.
State-owned companies that have filed for IPOs include Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd and India Renewable Energy Development Agency.
Source: Mint