Bharti Hexacom IPO opens tomorrow; Read all about the share sale and GMP too

One of India’s top telecom companies, Bharti Airtel, is in the news again in the markets. Its subsidiary, Bharti Hexacom IPO is set to open tomorrow, April 3, 2024. Notably, there are three top telcos in India with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel fighting it out for the top spots and Vodafone staying a distant third. All three rivals are listed companies and now, Bharti Hexacom initial share sale is grabbing some attention from eager investors looking for some top-class companies to put their money on. A lot of interest also stems from the fact that this will be the first IPO of FY2024-25.
According to the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP), Bharti Hexacom IPO will be a 3-day affair and the last date is April 5. Bharti Hexacom shares will be listed on the BSE and NSE. The book-running lead managers to the issue are SBI Capital Markets Ltd, Axis Capital, BOB Capital Markets, ICICI Securities and IIFL Securities. The registrar to the issue is Kfin.
Those interested in investing their money in this IPO should note that the allotment of shares is likely to be finalised by April 8. Listing on stock exchanges is expected on April 12.
If it is a share sale, then investors eyes are constantly looking at one thing – GMP. InvestorGain reports the grey market premium (GMP) is at ₹52 as of today, April 2. However, do note that there is nothing official about the GMP and it is just estimation and nothing more substantial than that.
Th company offers consumer mobile services, fixed-line telephone and broadband services in the Rajasthan and the North East telecommunication circles.
Bharti Hexacom has quite a major presence in the market as it is among the top global mobile operators in terms of number of customers. Not just that, it is also India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider in terms of consolidated operating revenue as of fiscal 2023.
Bharti Hexacom IPO is an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 7.5 crore shares and that makes up just a 15 per cent stake sale by the existing shareholder namely, Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd.
Significantly, the OFS size has been slashed to 7.5 crore from 10 crore equity shares planned earlier. The shares have been put on sale at between ₹542-570 each. The face value is ₹5 each.
The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) portion makes up at least 75% of the allocation, 15% has been designated for non-institutional investors (NIIs), and retail investors portion is 10%.
Another major point that should be noted is that Bharti Hexacom IPO being purely an OFS, indicates that the entire proceeds will go to the shareholders who are selling. In effect that means the company will not receive any of these funds.
While 30 per cent shareholding is held by state-run Telecommunications Consultants, as much as 70 per cent stake is held by promoter Bharti Airtel.
The company has a strong topline and operating figures, but it reported a 67.2 per cent year-on-year fall in net profit of ₹549.2 crore for FY23. This was due to a larger base as a result of exceptional gains of ₹1,951.1 crore in the previous year, PTI reports.