Swan Energy, which took management control of Reliance Naval and Engineering in January under a bankruptcy proceeding, plans to raise around ₹4,000 crore through a qualified institutional placement of shares that will be launched around February 20, sources said.
The funds raised through the QIP issue will be used to reduce debt, project expansion, and modernisation of the shipyard belonging to RNAVAL.
The pricing for the QIP will be known closer to the date of the issue, but sources said that the price could be within the range of ₹680-700 a share and likely at the upper end of that range. Swan Energy’s shares are currently trading in the range of ₹723-746 each, having risen steeply from the ₹260 levels in August last year.
SBI Life Insurance, SBI Mutual Fund, and Life Insurance Corporation are likely to be the anchor investors, while other investors could be Quant MF, Tata MF, Bandhan MF, HDFC MF and HDFC Life Insurance, Bay Capital, BoFA, Ovata Capital, BNP Paribas, Infini Capital ITI, Goldman Sachs, and others.
Swan Energy did not respond to an email seeking clarification on the issue.
- Also read: Swan Energy plans to prepay ₹300-cr debt
Debt reduction
Swan Energy has a debt of around ₹3,600 crore, which it is working to reduce. In the nine months of FY24, the company reported a net profit of ₹274.6 crore compared with a loss of ₹41.5 crore a year ago. Revenue also rose to ₹3,619 crore from ₹505 crore a year ago.
The shipyard that came with its acquisition of RNAVAL has the capacity to build fully fabricated and outfitted blocks, and the facility is spread over 2.1 million sq ft. Immediately after the acquisition, the company reconstituted RNAVAL’s board with Managing Director Nikhil Merchant, Executive Director Paresh Merchant, Bhavik Merchant and Vivek Merchant, among others, as members.
In a rejig this month, Swan Energy was included in the MSCI Smallcap index, which can attract potential foreign inflows of $7 million into the stock.