Blackstone-backed International Gemmological garners Rs 1,900 crore from anchor investors

Blackstone-backed diamond grading firm International Gemmological Institute (India) Ltd on Thursday mobilized Rs 1,900 crore from anchor investors, a day before the opening of its initial share-sale for public subscription.

Some of the marquee investors include Government of Singapore, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Axis Mutual Fund, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Nomura, SBI Life Insurance and SBI General Insurance etc, according to a circular uploaded on BSE's website.

According to the circular, International Gemmological allotted nearly 4.56 crore equity shares to 68 funds at Rs 417 apiece, which is also the upper-end of the price band. This aggregates the transaction size to Rs 1,900.34 crore.

The issue, with a price band of Rs 397 to Rs 417 per share, will open for subscription on December 13 and conclude on December 17.

The Rs 4,225-crore IPO is a combination of a fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 1,475 crore and an Offer-for-Sale (OFS) valued at Rs 2,750 crore by promoter BCP Asia II TopCo Pte Ltd, an affiliate of Blackstone.

The company proposes to utilise the proceeds from the fresh issue for the acquisition of IGI Belgium Group and IGI Netherlands Group from promoter; and general corporate purposes.

At the upper-end of the price band, the company's market capitalisation has been pegged at over Rs 18,000 crore.

International Gemmological Institute (India) Ltd provides services related to the certification and accreditation of natural diamonds, laboratory grown diamonds, studded jewellery and coloured stones.

IGI is the world's second largest independent certification and accreditation services provider based on revenue for CY2023 among global peers for diamonds, studded jewellery and coloured stones certifications, with a global market share of approximately 33 per cent, according to the Redseer Report.

The company said that 75 per cent of the issue size has been reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), 15 per cent for non-institutional investors and the remaining 10 per cent for retail investors.

Investors can place bids starting with a minimum of 35 shares and in multiples of 35 thereafter.

Axis Capital, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Morgan Stanley India Company and SBI Capital Markets are the book running lead managers to the issue.

The shares of the company are expected to be listed on the BSE and NSE on December 20.