Logistics company Western Carriers’ ₹493-crore initial public offer was subscribed 30.57 times on the last day of the bidding on Thursday, led by strong demands from investors across categories.
The initial share sale got bids for 63,78,53,898 shares as against 2,08,68,467 shares on offer, as per BSE data till 07:00 pm on Thursday.
The Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) category received 27.99 times bidding, while the quota for non-institutional investors (NIIs) was subscribed 44.71 times. The portion for Retail Individual Investors (RIIs) got subscribed 25.95 times.
Anchor investors
Kolkata-based Western Carriers (India) on last Thursday raised ₹148 crore from as many as 15 anchor investors ahead of the IPO, which opened on September 13. Some of the marquee names from the anchor investors were Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance, Motilal Oswal MF, Kotak MF, Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, BNP Paribas, Nippon India MF, Societe Generale and Citigroup Global.
The IPO included a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to ₹400 crore and an offer for sale by promoter Rajendra Sethia, aggregating up to 54 lakh equity shares. The price band of the offer was ₹163 to ₹172 per equity share.
The company has proposed to utilize net proceeds from the fresh issue towards prepayment or scheduled repayment of a portion of certain outstanding borrowings, funding of capital expenditure requirements and general corporate purposes.
JM Financial and Kotak Mahindra Capital were the book-running lead managers to the offer.