L&T Finance Holdings falls below IPO price on debut

Settles at Rs 49.95 on BSE

Shares of L&T Finance Holdings settled at Rs 49.95 on BSE, a discount of 3.94% to the initial public offer price of Rs 52. The stock debuted at Rs 51, a discount of 1.92% to the initial public offer (IPO) price. The stock high of Rs 52.50 and low of Rs 49.50. Volumes were huge as 4.43 crore shares changed hands on BSE.


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L&T Finance Holdings, a subsidiary of engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro, had priced its IPO at Rs 52 a share, near the lower end of the Rs 51 to Rs 59 per share price band.

The IPO was subscribed 5.34 times. Retail individual investors category was subscribed 9.61 times, followed by non-institutional investors category (6.18 times), and qualified institutional buyers (QIB) category (1.93 times).

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) put in bids for 4.96 crore shares, compared with 7.53 crore shares reserved for the QIB category as a whole. Domestic financial institutions, excluding mutual funds, put in bids for 8.52 crore shares. Mutual funds put in bids for 82.09 lakh shares.

The proceeds of the IPO will be used for expansion plans of two of its subsidiaries--L&T Finance and L&T Infrastructure Finance.

On 26 July 2011, L&T Finance Holdings raised Rs 153.04 crore by selling 2.73 crore shares at Rs 56 each to anchor investors. On 7 July 2011, the firm had garnered Rs 330 crore through a private placement of 6 crore equity shares at Rs 55 per share to the private equity fund of Capital International of the US.

L&T Finance Holdings is the financial holding company offering a diverse range of financial products and services through its four operating subsidiaries. These are L&T Finance that focuses on asset financing in the corporate, retail and rural segments; L&T Infrastructure Finance Company that focuses on infrastructure financing; India Infrastructure Developers that proposes to focus on working capital financing for corporate borrowers and L&T Investment Management that operates a Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) registered Mutual Fund business.

Mumbai-based L&T Finance Holdings has a presence in 23 states in India. As at 31 May 2011, it had 837 points-of-presence across India through its subsidiaries.

On a consolidated basis, L&T Finance Holdings' net profit rose 49% to Rs 392.57 crore on 48% increase in total income to Rs 2086.38 crore in the year ended March 2011 over the year ended March 2010.

L&T Finance Holdings is a subsidiary of L&T, India's biggest engineering & construction firm in terms of order book.