Indian Railway Finance Corporation to launch IPO on January 18; price band set at Rs 25-26

State-owned Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) has decided to open its maiden public offer for subscription on January 18 and has set the price band at Rs 25-26 per share.

The three-day public issue will close on January 20. The company aims to raise Rs 4,633.4 crore at the higher end of the price band.

The initial public offering of up to 1,78,20,69,000 equity shares consists of a fresh issue of 1,18,80,46,000 equity shares and an offer for sale of 59,40,23,000 equity shares by the Government of India.

The issue includes a reservation of equity shares worth Rs 50 lakh for subscription by eligible employees. The issue will constitute up to 13.64 percent of the post issue paid-up equity share capital of the company.

The dedicated market borrowing subsidiary of the Indian Railways is going to utilise net fresh issue proceeds for augmenting equity capital base to meet future capital requirements arising out of growth in the business; and general corporate purposes.

The company will not receive any proceeds from the offer for sale and the same will be received by the Government of India.

Bids can be made for a minimum of 575 equity shares and in multiples of 575 shares thereafter.

The primary business of IRFC is financing the acquisition of rolling stock assets, which includes both powered and unpowered vehicles such as locomotives, coaches, wagons, trucks, flats, electric multiple units, containers, cranes, trollies of all kinds and other items of rolling stock components as enumerated in the Standard Lease Agreement, leasing of railway infrastructure assets and national projects of the Government of India and lending to other entities under the Ministry of Railways, Government of India (MoR).

IRFC is registered with the Reserve Bank of India as an NBFC and is classified under the category of an 'Infrastructure Finance Company' of the Reserve Bank of India Act.

The book running lead managers to the issue are DAM Capital Advisors, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India), ICICI Securities and SBI Capital Markets.