Indian Railways Gears Up Largest-Ever IPO Of One Its Units
Shares in the IRCTC IPO will be issued in a price band of Rs 315-320 apiece.
WATCH | Chairman Mahendra Pratap Mall On the IRCTC IPO
Indian Railways’ catering and ticketing arm Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is all set to open its initial public offering on Sept. 30.
IRCTC will offer about 2.02 crore shares worth Rs 638 crore for public subscription—making it the largest IPO of a railway unit till date. Shares in the IRCTC IPO will be issued in a price band of Rs 315-320 apiece. Retail investors and employees will get a discount of Rs 10 per share.
The company’s core business is spread across four verticals—railway catering, tourism services, online ticketing and packaged drinking water under its flagship brand Rail Neer. “The internet ticketing segment contributes the maximum to both margin and operating profit,” said Mahendra Pratap Mall, chairman and managing director of IRCTC, told BloombergQuint in an interview.
IRCTC has also entered the private operation business of trains for two routes from Oct. 4. “These will be time-tabled trains where every service other than running the train will be done by IRCTC,” Mal said.
The IRCTC IPO is the fourth public offering of a company from the Indian Railways stable, after Ircon International Ltd., Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. and RITES Ltd. IDBI Capital, SBI Capital Markets and Yes Securities have been chosen as lead managers for the issue.