Bharat Highways InvIT raises ₹826 cr from anchor investors; IPO opens today

Bharat Highways InvIT, an infrastructure investment trust established to acquire, manage and invest in a portfolio of infrastructure assets across sectors, has garnered ₹825.97 crore from anchor investors ahead of its initial public offering (IPO) that opens for subscription on February 28, 2024. The three-day public issue of Bharat Highways InvIT will close on March 1, while shares of the company are likely to be listed on the BSE and NSE on March 6.

The InvIT has informed stock exchanges that it allocated 8,25,97,350 units at ₹100 per unit to anchor investors on February 27, 2024. Out of the total allocation to the anchor investors, 6,10,00,350 units were allocated to 11 domestic mutual funds through a total of 27 schemes amounting to ₹610 crore, which is around 74% of the total anchor book size.

Institutions who participated in the anchor were ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund, Kotak Mutual Fund, Quant Mutual Fund, HDFC Life Insurance, Nippon India Mutual Fund, Axis Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual Fund, Max Life Insurance, Baroda BNP Mutual Fund, Reliance General Insurance and DSP Mutual Fund amongst others.

The price band for the Bharat Highways InvIT IPO is ₹98-100 per share. The lot size for an application is 150 shares, which means the minimum investment amount required by retail investors will be ₹15,000.

As per the document filed with SEBI, the company has reserved 75% of the issue for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) and remaining 25% for non-institutional investors, including retail investors.

The InvIT intends to use net proceeds from the IPO for providing loans to the project special purpose vehicles (SPVs) for repayment, in part or in full, of their respective outstanding loans (including any accrued interest and prepayment penalty); and for general purposes.

Bharat Highways InvIT is a SEBI registered infrastructure investment trust, having a portfolio of seven road assets, all operating on a hybrid annuity model (HAM) basis, in the states of Punjab, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. These roads are operated and maintained under concession rights granted by the NHAI and are owned and operated by the project SPVs, which are currently wholly owned by G R Infraprojects Limited (GRIL) (an Associate of the Investment Manager). Additionally, InvIT has entered into a right of first offer (ROFO) agreement with G R Infraprojects under which it has been granted a right of first offer to acquire certain GRIL road assets.

The InvIT received ratings of ‘Provisional CRISIL AAA/Stable (Reaffirmed)’ from Crisil Ratings Limited on November 27, 2023, and ‘Provisional CARE AAA; Stable’ from CARE Ratings Limited on November 30, 2023 for its long-term bank facilities worth ₹3,000 crore and ‘Provisional IND AAA/Stable’ from India Ratings and Research on December 8, 2023 for its proposed rupee term loan aggregating to ₹3,000 crore.

Lead managers for the issue are ICICI Securities Limited, Axis Capital Limited, HDFC Bank Limited and IIFL Securities Limited. Registrar to the Issue is KFin Technologies Limited. IDBI Trusteeship Services Limited has been appointed as the Trustee of the InvIT. GR Highways Investment Manager Private Limited has been appointed as the Investment Manager, and Aadharshila Infratech Private Limited has been appointed as the Sponsor.