Ahead of IPO, India Pesticides raises Rs 240 crore from anchor investors

New Delhi: Agrochemical company India Pesticides on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 240 crore from anchor investors, ahead of its initial share sale that will open for public subscription on Wednesday.

The company has decided to allot 81,08,107 equity shares to 12 anchor investors at Rs 296 apiece. At this price, the company will fetch Rs 239.99 crore, according to a regulatory filing.

Among the foreign portfolio Investors who participated in the anchor book were Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Tara Emerging Asia Liquid Fund and BNP Paribas.

The domestic investors were SBI Mutual Fund, Nippon India Mutual Fund, Tata Mutual Fund, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company, Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company and Winro Commercial India Ltd.

The Rs 800-crore IPO comprises fresh issuance of equity shares amounting to Rs 100 crore and an offer of sale for equity shares aggregating up to Rs 281.4 crore by promoter Anand Swarup Agarwal and up to Rs 418.6 crore by other selling shareholders.

The company has fixed a price band of Rs 290-296 a share for the Initial Public Offer (IPO), which will open on June 23 and conclude on June 25.

Proceeds from the fresh issue would be used towards funding the working capital requirements and general corporate purposes.

India Pesticides is an R&D focused agrochemical technical company, which has growing formulations business in herbicides, insecticides and fungicide segments. It also manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients.

It is the only Indian manufacturer and amongst the top five companies globally for several technical products such as folpet and cynomoxanil, used to make fungicides that control fungal growth across a variety of crops.

India Pesticides currently operates two manufacturing facilities at Lucknow and Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh.

Axis Capital and JM Financial are the book running lead managers to the issuer.