Oct. 1, 2009 (The Hindu Business Line) --
Jayanta Mallick
According to market sources having access to the relevant data, none of the six investors have exited. Though a couple of them have made minor additions through market operations, the overall investment level has remained more or less the same since the listing on August 20.
The IPO opened on July 28. The six anchor investors invested Rs 502 crore at Rs 95 a share before the IPO opened. Later on, they paid in Rs 5 a share additionally as the IPO price was fixed at Rs 100.
T Rowe Price picked up the largest stake among the six investors. The others were AIC, Ecofin, TPG (through CLSA), Legg Mason (NYSE:LM) and Sundaram MF.
Pipavav Shipyard’s IPO was the second public issue with anchor investors. Pipavav, which is yet to be listed, also has six anchor investors. Commonwealth Equity Fund and Batterymarch Financial Management Inc A/C Legg Mason Emerging Markets Trust are among the anchor investors in Pipavav. The other anchor investors include California Public Employees’ Retirement System, GI India II, Marshal India Select Fund Ltd and India Diversified (Mauritius) Ltd. The anchor investors subscribed to 1.5 crore shares at Rs 60 a share. The Pipavav IPO price was fixed Rs 58.
SEBI introduced the concept of anchor investors in June. An anchor investor (who cannot be a promoter of the company) can subscribe up to 30 per cent of the 60 per cent portion reserved for QIBs in an IPO. Such an investment is subject to a lock-in period of one month. Anchor investors get firm allotment of shares as opposed to proportionate allotment for the other QIB constituents.
According to Mr Jagannadham Thunuguntla of SMC Capital, the anchor investment concept removes the discount to IPO prices, ensures a particular issue size and the investment is not linked to board berths. According to experts, the anchor investors have the option of behaving like short-term investors even though they are long-term in their strategy. Since listing, Adani Power has moved within a band of Rs 97.25 and Rs 110. On Thursday, it closed at Rs 102 with over 6.79 lakh shares on the BSE and around 12.1 lakh shares on the NSE.
