The Hindu Business Line : Southern States spice up Mundra Port IPO

Ahmedabad, Dec. 20 The initial public offering (IPO) of Mundra Port and SEZ Ltd (MPSEZL), which hit the capital market in November, was not only subscribed by 116 times and became the largest-ever grosser in Indian corporate history with more than Rs 2 lakh crore, it also demonstrated another new feature: the number of retail investor-applicants from the southern States increased five times.

“Unlike IPOs of companies from outside the South, in which hardly 2-3 per cent investors applied from the four southern States, nearly 10 per cent of applicants in the Mundra IPO case were from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala,” sources in merchant banking told Business Line.

The interest evinced in this IPO from the Southern States demonstrated further maturing of the Indian capital market, the sources said.

Retail Applicants

More than 11,44,500 retail applicants from 58 cities across India had sought Mundra Port’s shares numbering 4.01 crore in the public issue from November 1 to 7. Of these, nearly 1,41,700 applicants were from 14 Southern cities. Chennai (17,000), Bangalore (16,700) and Hyderabad (13,800) accounted for the largest number of investors’ applications from the Southern States. The other cities were Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, Hubli, Kochi, Madurai, Mangalore, Mysore, Salem, Tiruchi, Vijaywada and Visakhapatnam.

Together, these investors from the South had deposited Rs 760 crore with the Adani company, the sources said.

Western market

Investors’ applications from Mumbai numbered around 3,27,600 while those from Ahmedabad, the second largest investors’ city, numbered 2,60,540. Together, the two cities accounted for collection of Rs 29,000 crore, out of the total collection of Rs 35,570 crore from retail investors. Mumbai alone accounted for collection of Rs 26,500 crore from retail investors.

In the case of retail investors, the issue was subscribed 13 times, while it was subscribed 159 times by qualified institutional buyers and 156 times by high net-worth individuals.

IPO plans

The IPO of the Adani Group-promoted MPSEZL, the first by an Indian port, had opened on November 1 and closed on November 7, with price band fixed at between Rs 400 and Rs 440 per equity share. The company had sought to raise a total of Rs 1,771 crore for, among other objectives, development of its infrastructural facilities at ports at Mundra and Dahej in Kutch and Bharuch districts of Gujarat, respectively.

On the day of listing on November 27, MPSEZL made its debut on the BSE and the NSE at a premium of 75 per cent against the issue price of Rs 440. On Thursday, it closed at Rs 1,063.95 on the BSE.