NHPC subscribed 23 times; to list on first week of September

The initial public offer of state- run hydro-power producer National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) closed on Wednesday, getting subscripttion of over 23 times the shares on offer.

NHPC is likely to get listed by the first week of September.

The IPO, the second largest in terms of funds to be raised (about Rs 6,000 crore) in the country till date, received maximum bids from institutional and high net-worth individuals, and this robust response is likely to encourage other public sector firms to tap the primary market route to raise funds.

The NHPC issue received bids for over 3,946.85 crore shares against 167.73 crore on offer, as per the data available on the National Stock Exchange.

"The company would get listed in another three weeks time and we are expecting a stellar listing," Enam Securities (NHPC issue manager) Head Investment Banking Srinivas Subramanium said.

The portion reserved for high networth individuals and institutional investors got subscribed by over 56 times and 29 times respectively.

While the retail investors portion was subscribed 3.11 times and the employees portion received bids for 0.53 times the shares on offer, market sources said.

According to investment banking sources, Enam Securities garnered 52 per cent of the QIB book, while Kotak Mahindra and SBI Capital garnered 27.48 and 20.53 per cent respectively.

After NHPC, Oil India Ltd plans to hit the capital market on 7^th September and has fixed a price band of Rs 1,000-1,100 a share.

NHPC plans to raise over Rs 6,000 crore at the upper end of the price band, making it the country's second biggest public offer after Reliance Power.

Analysts said being a public sector firm, NHPC has received attention from various categories of investors. This is the first stake sale by a state-run company in the last one and a half years after REC raised over Rs 1,600 crore in February 2008.

Enam Securities, Kotak Mahindra Capital and SBI Capital Markets are acting as the book running lead managers for the issue.