Gurgaon-based coal washery operator and power producer ACB (India) Ltd has received the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) approval for its proposed initial public offer (IPO). SEBI approved the issue last week.
The company had filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI for the third time in October last year. It had previously filed its DRHP in 2011 and then again in 2013 but did not go ahead with the issue. However, as against the previous proposed floats, it is not looking at any fresh issue this time around.
Private equity investor Warburg Pincus and the company's promoters are to sell some of their shares in the offer for sale of ACB, the country's largest coal washery company.
It had originally planned to raise Rs 575 crore and the PE investor was looking to offload a third of its holding. In 2013, when it refiled its DRHP, it had pruned the size of the primary issue and increased the quantum up for sale in the secondary issue.
In the latest DRHP, it has said Warburg Pincus will sell just under half of its 21.9 per cent stake.
Warburg Pincus has invested around Rs 440 crore through a mix of preferential allotment, rights issue and secondary purchases between 2008 and 2011.
Edelweiss Financial Services and Macquarie Capital are managing the issue.
This comes as another PE-backed firm in queue for a public float. The uptick in the stock market has prompted a slew of firms to file for IPOs. Other PE-backed companies which have received SEBI's nod for their public issues include Ortel Communications and Adlabs Entertainment. Several others have filed their DRHPs and are awaiting a green signal for their IPOs.
ACB, the flagship company of the Aryan Group, was incorporated in March 1997 as Aryan Coal Benefications Pvt Ltd. It started its operations in 1999 at the Korba Coalfields of South Eastern Coalfields Ltd in Chhattisgarh. The firm has a coal washing capacity of 62.57 million tonnes per annum and is spread across 17 locations in the country, making it the top coal washery in India. Its washeries are located across the states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
