Credit rating agency ICRA debuts on BSE, NSE

Mumbai, Apr 13: Leading credit rating agency ICRA debuted on the premier Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) today, with a public issue of 2,581,100 equity shares of Rs 10 each.

The issue was oversubscribed 75.04 times. ICRA got tremendous response from a cross-section of market participants, institutional investors, retail investors and high networth individuals. It was up by 63.64 per cent premium over its offer price.

At the BSE, the scrip started at Rs 525 on a volume of 26,10,434 shares and on the NSE, it was quoted at 623 with a volume of 48,62,744 shares, brokers said.

The listing of the agency, whose initial public offer (IPO) price was Rs 330, was as per the experts' expectations of around Rs 500-600.

ICRA did not receive any proceeds from the offer. IFCI and the administrator of the specified undertaking of Unit Trust of India (UTI), which held 21.13 per cent and 7.95 per cent stake, respectively, in the company, offloaded their entire stake through the IPO. The shareholding of State Bank of India (SBI) came down to 9.99 per cent from 11.5 per cent after the IPO.

Global rating agency Moody's is the single largest shareholder in ICRA post the IPO. However, now its holding in the company has declined to 28.51 per cent from 29.1 per cent, market analysts revealed.

ICRA is the second biggest credit rating agency in the country with 399 outstanding public issues under its belt. In addition to providing rating and grading services, ICRA provides research-based information services and also outsourcing services.

It is also set to get an additional revenue stream from market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) decision last month, making grading of IPOs mandatory for companies. Those coming out with IPOs will now have to get their offers graded either by CRISIL, CARE or ICRA.

The agency will also get business from the SBI, which was not possible earlier due to regulations, analysts pointed out.

The equity capital of the company is Rs 10 crore, analysts added.

UNI