Shares of telecom service provider Bharti Hexacom Ltd. surged 50% in their Mumbai debut after completing India's largest initial public offering in about a year.
The stock jumped to as high as 853.95 rupees in early trading on Friday. Shareholder Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd. sold 75 million shares in the company at 570 rupees apiece last week, the top of a marketed range, raising 42.75 billion rupees ($514 million).
Bharti Hexacon's IPO is the country's largest since Mankind Pharma Ltd. raised 43.3 billion rupees a year ago. A strong start could help open a window for more large deals in India, dubbed by bankers as one of the hottest spots for first-time share sales in Asia this year.
JM Financial Institutional Securities Ltd. initiated coverage of the stock with a buy recommendation, setting a target at 790 rupees.
Shares of Bharti Hexacom can potentially double in three-to-four years on the back of expectation that the company may deliver 15-17% compounded growth in its operating profit, Dayanand Mittal, an analyst with JM Financial, wrote in a report on Friday.
The offering may further boost activity in the equities market that has mainly been hosting IPOs smaller than $100 million in size over the past year. Those share sales drew a strong response from retail investors and surged after listing, drawing scrutiny by regulators concerned about market froth.
In the past 12 months through April 11, only two offerings in India raised more than $500 million.
Companies that went public in India over the past five years after IPOs larger than $500 million rose 7.5% on average on their first trading day, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. That compares with a 32% increase for similar listings in Asia Pacific over the same period.
Bharti Hexacom, a unit of Bharti Airtel Ltd., provides fixed-line telephone and broadband services in two circles in India that make up about 7% of industry customers, according to the prospectus.
SBI Capital Markets, Axis Capital, BOB Capital Markets, ICICI Securities and IIFL Securities are the lead managers to the sale.
