Shapoorji Pallonji’s Afcons Infra files DRHP for ₹7,000 crore IPO

• The IPO is a mix of fresh issue of ₹1,250 crore and an offer for sale of up to ₹5,750 crore.
• Afcons Infrastructure is a 60-year-old EPC company from the Shapoorji Pallonji group.
• Its listed peers include L&T, KEC International, Kalpataru Project, and Dilip Buildcon.
  

Shapoorji Pallonji group’s construction company, Afcons Infrastructure, filed a DRHP with the market regulator, SEBI, to raise funds through a public issue. It intends to raise as much as ₹7,000 crore through this initial public offering (IPO).

The IPO, with a face value of ₹10 per equity share, is a mix of fresh issue of shares of ₹1,250 crore and an offer for sale of up to ₹5,750 crore by Goswami Infratech.

The company may consider undertaking a further issue of shares through a preferential issue or any other method for a cash consideration aggregating up to ₹250 crore as a ‘pre-IPO placement’. If such placement is completed, the fresh issue size will be reduced.

The offer is being made through the book-building process. Not more than 50% of the net offer shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to qualified institutional buyers. Also, not less than 15% of the net offer shall be available for allocation to non-institutional bidders, and not less than 35% of the net offer shall be available for retailers.

Last year, JSW Infrastructure raised as much as ₹2,800 crore via an IPO.

Six-decade-old EPC company

Afcons Infrastructure is a sixty-year-old engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) company. The company has a track record of delivering a wide range of EPC projects both domestically and internationally.

It operates across five major verticals with projects across ports, highways, and urban infrastructure like metro works, bridges, flyovers etc. It also does EPC work on dams, tunnels, offshore and onshore projects.

Some notable projects of the company completed include the Jammu Udhampur Highway Project, Nagpur Metro Reach 3, and Agra Lucknow Expressway. As of September 30, 2023, Afcons was actively involved in executing 67 active projects across 13 countries.

The company also worked on the Chenab Bridge in Jammu & Kashmir and the Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh. The ongoing projects include the Kolkata Metro, Thilafushi Link Project in the Maldives, and more.

Its equipment base includes marine barges, cranes, tunnel boring machines, jack-ups, and piling rigs. It also has two dedicated workshops in Delhi and Nagpur for equipment maintenance.

Financials & other details

Afcons’ order book has increased at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6% from ₹26,248.46 crore in FY21 to ₹30,405.77 crore in FY23. As of September 30, 2023, its order book stands at ₹34,888.39 crore.

Some of its listed peers include L&T, KEC International, Kalpataru Project, and Dilip Buildcon. Its restated consolidated revenue from operations in FY23 increased 14.7% to ₹12,637.38 crore from ₹11,018.97 crore in the previous year. This is primarily due to an increase in construction contract revenue, driven by an increase in business in its urban infrastructure and hydro and underground business verticals, both in India and overseas.

Profit after tax grew 14.89% from ₹357.60 crore for FY22 to ₹410.86 crore for FY23. For the six months ended September 30, 2023, revenue from operations stood at ₹6,505.39 crore, and profit after tax stood at ₹195.13 crore.

ICICI Securities, DAM Capital Advisors, Jefferies India, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities, Nuvama Wealth Management, and SBI Capital Markets are the book-running lead managers, and Link Intime India is the registrar of the issue.