India's JSW Cement filed draft papers for an initial public offering worth up to 40 billion rupees ($476.7 million) on Friday, aiming to cash in on the country's booming stock market and strong demand for the building material.
The company, part of billionaire Sajjan Jindal's JSW Group, will issue new shares worth up to 20 billion rupees. Existing shareholders are set to sell shares worth up to 20 billion rupees, the draft papers showed.
Indian cement makers have benefitted from a surge in demand on the back of greater infrastructure spending by the government and buoyant real estate activity in the country.
The Aditya Birla group-owned UltraTech Cement and the Adani group, with its units Ambuja Cements and ACC, are jostling for the top spot in India's cement market, which is expected to roughly double to $49.24 billion by 2029 from 2022 levels.
Proceeds from JSW's IPO would be used to partly finance the proposed cement unit in Nagaur, Rajasthan - a state rich in key raw mineral limestone, the company said on Friday.
JM Financial, Axis Capital, Citi group, Kotak Investment Banking are among the bookrunning lead managers of the IPO.
The offering follows successful listings by FirstCry, Ola Electric, Allied Blenders and Emcure Pharmaceuticals.
Ecom Express
Logistics firm Ecom Express on Thursday filed for an initial public offering (IPO) worth up to 26 billion rupees ($310 million), its draft papers showed.
The IPO will consist of a fresh issue of shares worth up to 12.85 billion rupees while existing investors will offload shares aggregating to 13.16 billion rupees.
The e-commerce logistics firm, which counts Amazon and beauty products retailer Nykaa among its clients, looks to go public at a time when India's IPO space has seen more than 150 companies raise around $5 billion this year as of July-end.
The company, which competes with the likes of Delhivery and Blue Dart, said it intends to use funds from the fresh issue towards setting up of new processing and fulfilment centres, investment in IT equipment and payment of debt.
Among those selling their existing stakes, Partners Group's PG Esmeralda and Warburg Pincus's Eaglebay Investment would sell holdings worth 9.31 billion rupees and 2.11 billion rupees, respectively.
Ecom Express reported a net loss of 2.54 billion rupees for the year ended March 31, 2024, compared with a loss of 4.22 billion rupees, a year earlier.
