Bharti Infratel's Rs 4,500 cr IPO over-subscribed

The Rs 4,500-crore (Rs 45 billion) initial public offer of Bharti Infratel was fully subscribed a day ahead of its closure.

The IPO, tipped as the second biggest public issue in the last two years, attracted bids for over 19.42 crore (194.2 million) shares - of the 18.89 crore (188.9 million) equity shares offered in the main book building process - translating to 1.21 time subscription, as per stock exchange data.

The Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) book, which closed on Thursday, got over-subscribed two times, while shares reserved for retail investors got 3 per cent subscription.

Shares reserved for institutional investors got subscribed 9 per cent, the data showed.

The issue is in the price band of Rs 210-240 a share and closes tomorrow for retail investors.

At the upper end of the price band, Bharti Infratel would raise about Rs 4,533.60 crore (Rs 45.33 billion), while at the lower end it could end up with Rs 3,966.90 crore (Rs 39.66 billion).

The equity shares are proposed to be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.

Bharti Airtel, which owns about 86 per cent of Bharti Infratel, is not participating in the share sale.

The Sunil Bharti Mittal led-company's IPO is the biggest from public issue, after state-run Coal India's issue in October 2010.

The

company has said the proceeds from the IPO will be used to fund its expansion and future acquisitions.

Bharti Infratel on Monday received Rs 651.7 crore (Rs 6.51 billion) from 18 anchor investors, including Morgan Stanley and Sundaram MF.

The company had priced shares for the anchor investors at Rs 230 a piece, and allocated 2.83 crore (28.3 million) shares (15 per cent of the issue size) to them, Bharti Infratel had said in a filing to the BSE.

The joint book running lead managers to the IPO are DSP Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan India, Standard Chartered Securities (India) and UBS Securities India.

The issue's lead managers are Barclays Securities (India), Deutsche Equities India, Enam Securities, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company.

The co-book running lead managers to the issue are BNP Paribas, DBS Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Securities.

Bharti Infratel is the first tower company to come out with an IPO. Other players in the tower business include Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infratel, and Viom Networks - a joint venture between Tata Teleservices and Kolkata-based Quippo Infrastructure.