Power Grid Corp’s IPO subscribed 64 times

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the state-owned power transmission company, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL) got subscribed 64.23 times on the last day of the issue backed by good response from the institutional investors. As of 5 pm on Thursday, PGCIL received bids for 36.8 billion shares against its equity issue size of 573.9 million shares. The price band of the 100 per cent book built issue was fixed in the range of Rs 44-52 per share by the company.
PGCIL offered to sell its 382.6 million new shares while the government of India offered to offload 191.3 million shares. The company has planned to reserve 13.98 million shares for eligible employees and the net offer to the public will be 559.9 million shares. The shares on offer will thus account for 13.6 per cent of PGCIL’s fully diluted post-issue paid up capital and the stake of the government of India is expected to decrease to 86.3 per cent from 100 per cent currently.
PGCIL’s fund raising is to part finance its capital expenditure. India’s transmission sector needs investment worth Rs 70,000 crores during the 11th five-year plan ending in 2012 as laid out by the planning commission. Most of India’s inter-state and inter-regional power transmission systems are currently owned and operated by PGCIL. The company owned and operated 61,875 km long electrical lines and 106 electrical substations in India. During the fiscal year 2006-07, PGCIL transmitted around 298 billion units power in India.