How was the response to the anchor placement of Paytm ahead of its IPO?

As announced earlier, Paytm announced that it had allotted shares worth Rs.8,235 crore to anchor investors as part of its proposed Rs.18,300-crore IPO which opens for subscription next week. In the entire history, this is the largest even anchor placement ever made by any Indian company ahead of the IPO. This translates approximately into an anchor placement of $1.10 billion. Nearly 74 anchor investors bid 10-times for the anchor quota.

Among the big anchor allotments, BlackRock was allotted shares worth Rs.1,045 crore, Canada Pension Fund got shares worth Rs.938 crore, Aditya Birla Mutual Fund got allotment of Rs.555 crore while the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore was allotted Rs.533 crore. These were the big investors in the anchor program and with this placement, Paytm has already secured nearly 45% of its total IPO issue size.

The IPO comprises of Rs.8,300 crore fresh issue of shares and a secondary offer for sale worth Rs.10,000 crore while the price band has been fixed at Rs.2,080 to Rs.2,150 per share. Three of the world’s largest asset managers in terms of AUM viz. BlackRock, Vanguard, and Fidelity participated in anchor round. A slew of Indian mutual funds, apart from Birla, like HDFC MF and Mirae MF also participated in the anchor round.