Gujarat Pipavav up 22% on BSE, NSE debut

The country's first private sector port, Gujarat Pipavav Port, which made a stellar listing on the bourses on Thursday, said it expects to clock around a 65 per cent growth in container trade in the current fiscal.

Earlier in the day, the Denmark-based AP Moller-Maersk Gujarat Pipavav Port made a resounding listing on both the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange, with the stock listing at a premium of nearly 22 per cent over the issue price of Rs 46 on the BSE at Rs 56.

It listed on the National Stock Exchange at Rs 56.10, a premium of a tad more than 22 per cent. In early trade, the stock jumped to a high of Rs 58 a piece against the issue price of Rs 46 per share.

As many as 3.3-lakh shares exchanged hands on the bourses in early trade. The company had mopped up Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) through an IPO in August.

GPPL would be using the proceeds to repay debt, in various expansion activities and for additional support systems, Managing Director Prakash Tulshiani said.

"We are quite happy with the response mainly from retail investors. We would be using around Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) to repay our loans, Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) as capital expenditure and around Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) for general purpose," GPPL told reporters after the successful listing.

Currently, the company has a debt of around Rs 1,075 crore (Rs 10.75 billion). Of this about Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) will be repaid from the IPO proceeds.

The company's container and bulk cargo trade has grown at 64 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, and would continue growing at the same pace, Tulshiani said.

"We expect to maintain our growth rate while the industry is growing at 22 per cent in container. Post-IPO our margins could be around 60-65 per cent at the EBITDA level," he added.

At the company level, growth has been around 39 per cent in the last six-months, he said.

The company had received an overwhelming response from retail and HNI investors and the IPO was oversubscribed 13.3 times.

GPPL, which is primarily engaged in providing port handling and marine services for container, bulk and LPG cargo, would increase the yard capacity from 6,50,000 TEUs to 8,00,000 TEUs in the next fiscal.

Kotak Mahindra Capital and IDFC Capital were the book running lead managers to the issue and IDBI Capital was the co-book running lead manager.

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