Indian Railways' enterprises IRFC, IRCON may hit capital market by September; to raise Rs 1,500 crore

NEW DELHI: Two rail CPSEs - IRFC and IRCON- are likely to come out with their initial public offerings (IPO) in the next two months, which could together fetch about Rs 1,500 crore to the exchequer, according to official sources.

While IRCON has already approached Sebi with its IPO papers, IRFC would soon file the draft prospectus with the market regulator to seek its nod for initial share sale and subsequent listing.

The government plans to launch the IPO of these two central public sector enterprises (CPSE) after the resounding success of RITES IPO, which was subscribed 67 times last month.

The script listed on the bourses at a 3 per cent premium.

"We are planning to float IPOs of IRCON and IRFC (Indian Railway Finance Corporation) during August-September after the companies finalise their audit reports by the middle of this month," an official told PTI.

The government is divesting 10 per cent stake or over 99 lakh shares through the IRCON IPO.

"We are hoping to garner Rs 1,000 crore from IRFC IPO and about Rs 500 crore from IRCON," the official said.

Another rail PSU, RVNL-- a Special Purpose Vehicle which mainly builds infrastructure for high speed rail-- had received capital Sebi go-ahead last month to float an IPO by selling 2.08 crore equity shares or 10 per cent stake of the government.

Besides rail CPSEs, the other PSUs which have filed draft papers with Sebi are Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers.

In the first three months of current fiscal, the government has raised about Rs 9,000 crore via Bharat-22 ETF and RITES stake sale.

The government has targeted to raise Rs 80,000 crore from PSU disinvestment in current fiscal, lower than over Rs 1.03 lakh crore last fiscal.