After the news of Indian Railways using ISRO (Indian Space
Research Organisation) aided system- GAGAN (GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation),
in the Realtime Train Information System devices for keeping track of train
movements and better management of railway traffic, Indian Railways is
delivering big in the stock market.
As reported, compared to its issue price of Rs 320 per
share, the shares of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
(IRCTC) stood listed with a 100 per cent gain on the stock market. With its
listing debut on the BSE and NSE, IRCTC recorded a highly successful debut
listing as a PSU firm, with BSE witnessing a rise of around 118 per cent to Rs
698. On NSE, at the day’s high they also rose to 698.
The initial public offer (IPO) of IRCTC, open for
subscription between September 30 and October 4, was subscribed about 112
times. The issue, reportedly, involved sale of 20.1 million equity shares of
face value of Rs 10 each in a price band of Rs 315 to Rs 320. Additionally, the
retail category saw subscription around 15 times, whereas the qualified
institutional buyers (QIBs) segment got subscribed 109 times and
non-institutional investors (NIIs) category 355 times. Retail investors received a discount of Rs 10
per share and hence, the issue price for them was Rs 310.
After the listing, as reported, the market capitalisation of
the IRCTC stood at Rs 107.36 billion on the BSE.
The fourth railway company to be listed on the stock market,
after RITES, Rail Vikas Nigam and Ircon, the sale of the IRCTC resulted in
earnings of nearly Rs 6.50 billion for the government. Presently, its stake is
down to 87.4 per cent. The IPO was part of the government’s plan to sell off
12.6 per cent stake of the firm under its divestment programme for FY19-20.
Additionally, Yes
Securities (India), SBI Capital Markets and IDBI Capital Markets were the
merchant bankers, while Alankit Assignments was the registrar for the issue. It
is also reported that all proceeds from the IPO shall go be handed over to the
stakeholders and not to the company.
The corporation enjoys monopoly in the field and has also
taken up services that include non-railway catering and e-catering amongst
other diversification options.
ISRO at Smart
Urbanation
Dr. PG Diwakar, Director (as Deputy Head to
AP-25), ISRO, recently addressed the delegates at Smart Urbanation,
enlightening them about the benefits of Earth Observation Satellite, NavIC and
various other space technologies.
