SBI Cards & Payment Services Ltd, India’s second-largest credit-card issuer, received an astounding response to its four-day initial public offering that closed on Thursday with huge demand for its shares across investor categories.
On the other hand, Antony Waste Handling Cell Ltd, which is India’s first waste management services company to float an IPO, struggled to attract investors on the second day of its offering. Antony’s IPO will close on Friday.
SBI Card’s offering of 100.27 million shares, excluding the anchor allotment, was covered more than 26.5 times after receiving bids for 2.66 billion shares, stock-exchange data showed.
The qualified institutional buyers’ category was covered 57.2 times. The portion of shares reserved for retail investors was covered 2.5 times while that for employees and existing shareholders was subscribed 4.75 times and 25.34 times, respectively.
The non-institutional investors’ category, comprising corporate bodies and wealthy investors, was covered a little more than 45 times; these investors were quiet for the first three days.
Wealthy individual investors typically bid on the final day of a public offering to keep their IPO financing costs at a minimum. They borrow short-term capital from various avenues, barring banks, to fund their IPO applications and deploy only a small fraction of their own capital—called margin money—upfront.
The IPO was subscribed nearly 40% at the end of the first day and picked up pace on Tuesday to cross 88% subscription on the second day. It saw a surge in demand from investors on Wednesday, leading to a subscription of 15.5 times.
The IPO comes at a time when Indian and global stock markets have been rattled by concerns over a slowdown in economic growth on the back of the coronavirus outbreak.
Ahead of the IPO, SBI Cards — backed by US private equity major Carlyle Group — raised Rs 2,768.55 crore ($385 million) last Friday from a bunch of anchor investors that included PE firms and sovereign wealth funds such as Singapore’s GIC Pte Ltd, Kuwait Investment Authority and Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global.
At the upper end of the Rs 750-755 price band, SBI Cards is seeking a valuation of Rs 70,891.24 crore ($9.9 billion) via the IPO. It comprises a fresh sale of shares worth Rs 500 crore and a sale of 130.52 million shares by Carlyle and State Bank of India. The PE giant has offered to sell 93.23 million shares, or a little over a third of its 26% stake.
Carlyle had invested in SBI Cards through its fourth Asia buyout fund, which focuses on control deals and makes significant minority investments in established companies across the continent excluding Japan, in 2017.
After the IPO, Carlyle’s 26% stake in SBI Cards will dilute to about 15.9-16%. SBI’s 74% stake will fall to roughly 69.5%, VCCircle estimates show.
SBI Cards, which was incorporated and started operations in 1998, is the second-largest credit-card issuer in terms of number of cards outstanding as well as the amount spent. It had 9.46 million cards outstanding as on September 30 last year. It only trails behind HDFC Bank in terms of the number of cards issued.
Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Axis Capital, DSP Merrill Lynch (a Bank of America subsidiary that operates in India), HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India), Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India), and SBI Capital Markets are part of the merchant banking syndicate arranging and managing SBI Cards’ IPO
Antony Waste
The public offering of 4.82 million shares, excluding the anchor allotment, was covered nearly 15.66% after receiving bids for 755,000 shares at the end of the second day, stock-exchange data showed.
Qualified institutional buyers didn’t bid for a single share. The portion of shares reserved for retail investors was covered 25.7% while non-institutional investors bid for 13.11% of the shares set aside for them.
The IPO was subscribed 9% on the first day on Wednesday.
Antony Waste, which counts US billionaire Paul Singer’s hedge fund Elliott Management Corp as its backer, raised Rs 60.94 crore ($8.32 million) from anchor investors on Tuesday by allotting shares at the lower end of the Rs 295-300 price band.
The company, incorporated in January 2001, is seeking a valuation of Rs 802.66 crore ($111 million) via the IPO that closes on Friday.
Antony Waste has trimmed its offering size compared with its earlier proposal when it filed its draft prospectus. The IPO now comprises a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 35 crore against an earlier plan to raise Rs 43.5 crore. In addition, its existing Mauritius-based shareholders will now sell 5.7 million shares against 9.44 million shares proposed earlier.
At the upper end of the price band, the IPO size is pegged at Rs 206 crore against the earlier estimates of Rs 300 crore.
Leeds (Mauritius) Ltd, Tonbridge (Mauritius) Ltd, Cambridge (Mauritius) Ltd and Guildford (Mauritius) Ltd are selling shares in the IPO. These firms are backed by New York-based Elliott Management, which manages about $40 billion in assets.
Elliott is the world’s largest activist fund in terms of assets under management. Activist hedge funds are typically geared towards unlocking shareholder value.
According to Elliott’s website, the firm employs a multi-strategy trading approach and focuses on investing in distressed securities, equity-oriented deals, hedge/arbitrage, and commodities trading. It also looks at debt, private equity, private credit and real estate-related securities.
Equirus Capital is the sole merchant banker mandated to manage and arrange the share sale.
