Bharti Hexacom raises Rs 1,924 crore from anchor investors before IPO opens on April 3

Bharti Hexacom, a wholly owned subsidiary of telecom major Bharti Airtel, has raised Rs 1,923.75 crore from anchor investors on April 2, a day before its public offer will open for bids. This will be the first IPO in the new financial year FY25 and the first from the Bharti Group since the Bharti Infratel issue launched in December 2012.

The 97 institutional investors who had zoomed in on the anchor book, included marquee names like Blackrock Global Funds, Pictet, Smallcap World Fund, Capital Group, American Funds, Fidelity Funds and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Stichting Depository APG, Aberdeen, Schroder International, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Equity Investment Fund, BNP Paribas Trust Services Singapore, Eastspring Investments, Morgan Stanley, and HSBC also turned out to be anchor investors.

The mobile, fixed-line telephone and broadband services provider in its filing to the exchanges said it has finalised allocation of 3,37,50,000 equity shares to anchor investors at a price of Rs 570 per share.

Moneycontrol was the first to report the anchor book details of Bharti Hexacom IPO. Domestic fund houses, including SBI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life Trustee, Axis Mutual Fund, Kotak Mutual Fund, Nippon Life India, Mirae Asset, UTI Mutual Fund, Franklin, Tata Mutual Fund, DSP Mutual Fund, Whiteoak Capital, Sundaram Mutual Fund, Bandhan Mutual Fund, and PGIM India also invested in the company.

"Out of the total allocation of 3,37,50,000 equity shares to anchor investors, 1,38,77,630 equity shares were allocated to 22 domestic mutual funds through a total of 55 schemes," Bharti Hexacom said.

Leading insurance companies such as ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, SBI Life Insurance, HDFC Life Insurance, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, Canara HSBC Life Insurance, and Tata AIA Life Insurance were also on the anchor investors list.

The Bharti Hexacom IPO opens for subscription on April 3, with a price band at Rs 542-570 per share, and closes on April 5.

The company that focusses on Rajasthan and North East telecom circles in India intends to mobilise Rs 4,275 crore from the public issue which consists solely of an offer-for-sale (OFS) by the Telecommunications Consultants India.

Telecommunications Consultants India, the only public shareholder in Bharti Hexacom, is diluting its 15 percent stake, which is equivalent to 7.5 crore equity shares, out of its total 30 percent shareholding, through the OFS route.

Promoter Bharti Airtel owns 70 percent stake in the company. Up to 75 percent of shares in the Bharti Hexacom IPO has been reserved for qualified institutional investors, 10 percent for retail investors, and the remaining 15 percent for non-institutional investors (high net-worth individuals).