Just Dial raises $38M from anchor investors including Temasek, half of the IPO subscribed on day 1

Just Dial Ltd, which runs the India-specific local business listings site Justdial.com, has raised Rs 208.66 crore or approximately $38 million from anchor investors, including Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek and asset management major Fidelity.

The Mumbai-based firm, which opened its IPO on Monday, said in a filing to exchanges that it sold 3.94 million shares to 15 anchor investors at Rs 530 per share. Just Dial said it expects to raise Rs 936.8 crore through its issue, which closes on May 22.

Just Dial is looking to sell nearly 17.5 million shares at a price band of Rs 470-Rs 543 to raise between Rs 822 crore and Rs 950 crore. The issue solely comprises secondary sale of shares and will be the largest public offering by an Indian Internet company. Just Dial has offered 13.5 million shares in the IPO after the portion allocated for the anchor investors.

Temasek, through its arm Baytree Investments (Mauritius) Pte Ltd, has subscribed to 10.2 per cent of the anchor allocation. Other major anchor investors include Fidelity, Eastspring Investments, Goldman Sachs India Fund, HSBC Bank (Mauritius), Ivy Pacific Opportunities Fund, Deutsche Securities and Swiss Finance Corporation. Birla Sun Life and DSP Blackrock also participated in the anchor issue.

IPO day 1

The keenly watched issue, which started on a slow note in the morning, saw interest from institutional investors who started piling up applications in the afternoon. At the end of the first day, it registered around 50 per cent subscription of the issue size. With two more days to go, it may sail through easily as typically most public issues in India peak only on the final day. This is despite the fact that the firm has priced its issue aggressively.

Exchange data shows the IPO has not seen much interest from HNIs and corporates as yet and retail investors filed applications for around a 10th of the issue reserved for them. Institutional investors had lapped up around three-fourths of the issue size reserved for them.

The success of the IPO will set the tone of the market and interest levels of investors for Indian Internet businesses, many of which are now ready to go public. However, most of them are rumoured to be eyeing an overseas listing for various reasons, including valuations that such firms can garner in the US compared with India.

Citigroup Global Markets India and Morgan Stanley India are the book running lead managers to the issue.