Enviro Infra IPO sees return of HNIs in big way

The ₹650.43-crore IPO of Enviro Infra Engineers closed on a strong note as all categories of investors made aggressive bidding, taking the overall subscription to 89.90 times.

The IPO, that came out with a price band of ₹140-148, received bids for 276.83 crore shares against 3.08 crore shares on offer. The offer also saw a revival of high-net-worth individuals’ interest, as some of the previous IPOs saw only a muted response from them.

Leading the subscription table, institutional investors or QIBs subscribed 157.05 times over their allotted quota; while HNIs bid 153.80 times, retail investors 24.48 times and employees 37.77 times.

The IPO was a combination of fresh issue (₹572.46 crore) and an offer-for-sale (₹77.97 crore). Promoters offloaded 52.68 lakh shares in the OFS.

As part of the IPO, Enviro Infra on Thursday raised around ₹195 crore from anchor investors. The company has allotted over 1.31 crore shares to 22 funds at ₹148 apiece.

Fund utilisation

Proceeds from the fresh issue, totalling ₹181 crore, will be used to meet working capital requirements; ₹100 crore will be used to pay debt; and ₹30 crore will be infused into the company’s subsidiary, EIEL Mathura Infra Engineers, to build a 60 million litres-per-day Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. A portion will also be used for general corporate purposes.

Enviro Infra Engineers designs, constructs, operates, and maintains water and wastewater treatment plants and water supply scheme projects for government authorities/bodies. The treatment process installed by the company at most STPs is zero liquid discharge-compliant, and the treated water can be used for horticulture, washing, refrigeration, and other industrial processes.

Hem Securities is the sole book-running lead manager of the public issue. The company’s equity shares are expected to be listed on the BSE and NSE.