India's JSW Infrastructure jump 20% in pre-open trading debut

R R Kabel

03/10/2023 05:28

BENGALURU, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Shares of JSW
Infrastructure  JSWN.NS , India's No.2 commercial port operator,
jumped 20.17% in pre-open trade on Tuesday, valuing the company
at 300.30 billion rupees ($3.61 billion) and setting it on
course to join a host of other successful domestic debutantes.
    The stock was at 143 rupees in pre-open trade, compared with
its initial public offer (IPO) price of 119 rupees.
    JSW Infra is part of the billionaire Sajjan Jindal-led JSW
Group and is the first business of the steel-to-software
conglomerate to go public since JSW Energy  JSWE.NS  in 2010.
    The company raised 28 billion rupees by selling fresh
shares. JSW Group did not sell any shares.
    The company is set to follow a host of successful debutantes
in the past few months -- ranging from cable maker RR Kabel
 RRKA.NS  to Concord Biotech  CONB.NS  -- helped by robust
investor appetite that has also powered the blue-chip stock
market index to a record high.
    So far this year, 227 Indian companies have gone public,
raising $6.62 billion, compared with 172 companies that raised
$10.53 billion in the same period last year, according to LSEG
data.
    JSW Infra's profit more than doubled to 7.50 billion rupees
in fiscal 2023, while its revenue jumped about 41% to 31.95
billion rupees, according to its IPO prospectus.
    The company plans to use the IPO proceeds to fund expansion
projects and repay debt, which was 22.16 billion rupees as of
March 31.
    JSW Infra aims to nearly double its operational capacity to
300 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by 2030, but that would
still trail Adani Ports's  APSE.NS  current capacity of about
558 MMTPA.
    Adani Ports, a listed unit of billionaire Gautam Adani's
namesake conglomerate, has a market value of about 1.78 trillion
rupees.
    Axis Capital, Credit Suisse Securities (India) and Kotak
Mahindra Capital were among the lead managers for the IPO.
 
 ($1 = 83.1840 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio
D'Souza)
 ((ramavenkat.raman@thomsonreuters.com; https://twitter.com/ramavenkat0607;
 +91 8095218099;))