@ Vikas Sharma | Sr Journalist
The Rs 459-crore initial public offer (IPO) by Affle India, the Indian unit of global mobile marketing company Affle, opened for subscription on July 29 and will close on July 31, 2019. The price band for the offer is fixed in the range of Rs 740-745 per share.
Provider of mobile advertising solutions, Affle India’s IPO becomes the first offer under the new Unified Payment Interface (UPI) mechanism, which was made mandatory for the retail investor category with effect from July 1, 2019.
The IPO offer (a combination of fresh and OFS) summarises a fresh issue of 5,500,000 equity shares aggregating up to Rs 90 crore (Rs 900 million) (20% of the issue size) and an offer for sale of Rs 367-369 crore (80%) – by the promoter. Affle will not receive any proceeds from the offer for sale.
Listing on both the major exchanges NSE and BSE, the IPO, which is a 100 % book built issue IPO type at the face value of Rs 10, comes at the price band fixed at Rs 740 – 745 apiece, with a minimum order quantity of 20 equity shares (Lot size).
Overall 75% of the net issue shall be allocated on a proportionate basis to qualified institutional buyers, while remaining 15% and 10% is reserved for non-institutional bidders and retail investors, respectively.
Parent-company Affle Holdings will be reducing its stake in Affle (India) to 75.6% from 83.5% by offloading shares worth up to Rs 369 crore.
As per company’s Red Herring Prospectus, the objectives outlined for raising funds through IPO and using the net proceeds include funding the working capital requirements (Rs 69 crore) and general corporate purposes.
ICICI Securities Limited and Nomura Financial Advisory And Securities (India) Pvt Ltd are the company’s IPO lead managers. As per offer documents, the company has no listed peers to compare with.
Company attracted a number of marquee institutional investors such as Scottish investment firm Aberdeen Standard Investments, Franklin Templeton Investment Fund, existing investor Malabar Investments, and Hornbill Orchid Fund, an India-focused firm anchored by China-based private equity manager Orchid Asia, among others as part of its anchor book.
In total, Affle raised Rs 206.55 crore (nearly $30 million at current foreign exchange rates) by allotting a little over 2.77 million shares to 15 anchor investors. Shares were allotted at the upper end of the Rs 740-745 apiece price band.
