Hindustan Aeronautics launches Rs 4,230 cr public offer, issue opens on 16 March

Mumbai: Public sector chopper-maker Hindustan Aeronautics today launched an initial public offer to raise up to Rs 4,230 crore, through which government will divest up to 20.20 percent in the Navratna company. The firm, which gets over 91 percent of its sales from the defence sector including the Coast Guard, has fixed a price band at Rs 1,215-1,240 per equity share for the offer that will hit the market on 16 March and close on 20 March. The sale is part of the government’s Rs 75,000-crore divestment process, which for the first time in many years, has already crossed the target.

The company, which made a profit of Rs 3,580 crore in financial year 2016-17 on a revenue of over Rs 18,600 crore, is offering a discount of Rs 25 on offer price to retail individual bidders, and employees which have come in for at least 12 or the multiples of 12 shares.

The IPO will see the company selling 34,107,525 equity shares of face value of Rs 10 through an offer for sale by the President, acting through the department of defence production under the defence ministry. [caption id=“attachment_4389513” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Tejas, India’s first locally-built Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Airport in Bengaluru. Reuters[/caption] The offer comprises a net offer of 33,438,750 equity shares and an employee reservation of up to 668,775 shares. The offer and net offer shall constitute 10.20 percent and 10 percent, respectively, of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital of the Bengaluru-based HAL. The IPO, being managed by SBI Caps and Axis Capital, will see 50 percent of the net offer available for qualified institutional buyers, of which 5 percent is reserved for mutual funds. Hindustan Aeronautics, set up in 1940, produces over 27 types of light combat aircraft and helicopters and is the 39th largest aerospace company in the world. Acting chairman VM Chamola said HAL has an order book of over Rs 68,000 crore, which covers the next three years and had a revenue of over Rs 5,300 crore in the first half of the current fiscal, which he attributed to the seasonal factors.