Breaking several records, the anchor portion of the mega HDFC Standard Life public share offering saw 126 fund level names come on board as ‘anchor investors’, buying up 8.0686 crore shares for ₹2,322 crore.
Billed as the largest anchor book since the launch of anchor concept in 2009, the HDFC Standard Life anchor portion saw record demand of close to ₹50,000 crore and many firsts to its credit, sources close to the developments said.
For the first time, five Sovereign Wealth Finds — Temasek, Government of Singapore, Norges (Norwegian Fund), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) are figuring in a deal. Also, as many as 22 out of the 126 fund names are first-time anchor book participants in an Indian IPO/insurance IPO, sources said.
HDFC Standard Life, whose initial public offering is an offer-for-sale that opened on Tuesday, is the third Indian life insurer that has gone in for listing of its shares on the bourses.
It plans to raise ₹8,695 crore through the IPO, the most by a private company in almost a decade. HDFC Standard Life Insurance is the country’s largest private life insurer.
Marquee investors who have got allocation in the anchor book include JP Morgan, T Rowe Price, BlackRock, Fidelity and US-based Capital Group.
First-time IPO anchor participants include funds of US National Railroad Investment Trust; Carnegie Fund; University of California (via Ratan Tata backed UC-RNT Fund); TVF Fund; Prince Street (India) Fund; Sanford C Bernstein Fund Inc; Carmignac Investissement and Carmignac Patrimoine; Capital World Growth and Income Fund and Explorer Mauritius.
All the anchor investors bid at ₹290 a share, the upper end of the price band of ₹275-290 set for the offer.
Some of the top notch domestic funds that have got allocation in HDFC Life’s anchor portion include ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Reliance MF, Sundaram MF, Axis MF and Kotak funds.
SBI Life Insurance and Birla Sun Life Insurance too have got allocations under the anchor book.
Meanwhile, the IPO was subscribed 46 per cent on Tuesday, the first day of the issue. The public issue ends on November 9.