Bharti Infra Prices IPO at 230 Rupees for 18 Key Investors
Bharti Infratel Ltd. (BHIN), attempting India’s largest initial public offering in more than two years, is selling 28.3 million shares to 18 key investors at 230 rupees apiece, according to a company statement.
Bharti Infratel, the mobile tower unit of India’s largest wireless operator, is seeking to raise as much as 45.3 billion rupees ($834 million) in the IPO. At 230 rupees a share, the company will raise 6.5 billion rupees ($119.5 million) from the anchor investors, which are institutional investors required to hold the shares for at least 30 days, the company said today.
The shares being sold to such investors represent 15 percent of the total offering, Bharti Infratel said. Demand from anchor investors amounted to about $800 million of the shares, two people with knowledge of the matter said before the announcement. The IPO will be open to other investors from Dec. 11 to Dec. 14, according to the company.
Anchor investors that have been alloted shares include Alliance Bernstein, Wellington Management Co., Columbia Acorn International and Route One Investment Co., Bharti Infratel said.
The share sale, the largest since state-owned Coal India Ltd. (COAL)’s $3.5 billion sale in October 2010, marks the revival of the IPO market after India’s benchmark Sensex index rose almost 26 percent, reaching a 19-month high on Nov. 30. The IPO of the unit of Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTI) will provide an exit for companies such as Temasek Holdings Pte, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Citigroup Inc. (C), which bought a $1 billion stake in 2007.
Other Bharti Infratel investors include KKR & Co. (KKR), the leveraged-buyout firm led by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, which agreed in February 2008 to invest $250 million in a deal that valued the company at $12.5 billion.
Bharti has hired Standard Chartered Plc (STAN), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Barclays Plc (BARC), Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Enam Securities Pvt., HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), Kotak Mahindra Capital Co., Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG (UBSN) for the tower unit sale.
To contact the reporters on this story: George Smith Alexander in Mumbai at galexander11@bloomberg.net; Ruth David in London at rdavid9@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Philip Lagerkranser at lagerkranser@bloomberg.net; Jacqueline Simmons at jackiem@bloomberg.net
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