RailTel makes strong debut on bourses, gains over 29% on issue price despite bloodbath in market

The second state-run company under Indian Railways to go public this year, RailTel Corporation of India (RailTel) got listed at Rs 109.00 per share, a premium of 15.96 percent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), on Friday (26 February), to the issue price of Rs 94 per share. On BSE, the scrip opened on a strong note of Rs 104.6 apiece. With analysts predicting the stock to debut at a 10-20 percent premium, the listing was along expected lines. During the intra-day trade, the stock had touched a high of Rs 125.5 before settling at Rs 121.4, higher 29.15 percent when compared with the issue price and a gain of 16.06 percent, in comparison to the opening price. At the NSE, the stock debuted at Rs 109, up 15.95 percent over the issue price and closed the counter at Rs 120.6, rising 10.64 percent over the opening price and 28.29 percent over the issue price. Intra-day, it touched a high of Rs 127.85. For the unversed, RailTel Corporation of India (RailTel) is the seventh listing in 2021 after Indigo Paints, Indian Railways Finance Corporation, Nureca, Brookfield India REIT, Stove Kraft and Home First Finance Company. Through its public issues, RailTel has garnered around Rs 819 which was a part of the divestment programme for FY21 and a complete offer for sale. In India, the company is one of the largest telecom infrastructure providers. RailTel Corporation of India had an exclusive right of way along 67,415 kilometers as of January 2021, connecting 7,321 railway stations for laying OFC (optical fibre cable). The company also offers a high-capacity bandwidth of up to 800G and has a city-wide access network at 87 locations in India. RailTel also offers VPN facilities and leased lines along with IP-1 services. When RailTel Corporation of India opened for subscription on 16 February, it had received a 35 percent subscription within 40 minutes of the bidding. The initial public offer of RailTel Corporation of India Limited was subscribed 42.39 times on the final day of subscription in February last week. The Rs 819.24-crore offer received bids for 2,59,42,43,370 shares against 6,11,95,923 shares on offer, as per data available with the NSE. The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was subscribed 65.14 times, non-institutional investors 73.25 times, and retail individual investors (RIIs) 16.78 times. The public issue was of 8,71,53,369 equity shares and had a price range of Rs 93-94 per share.