Protean eGov Technologies, Balaji Speciality Chemicals get market regulator Sebi's nod to float IPO

IT-enabled service provider Protean eGov Technologies and Chemical manufacturer Balaji Speciality Chemicals have received capital markets regulator Sebi's approval to raise funds through initial public offering (IPO).

The two companies, which had filed their preliminary IPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) between December 2021 and August 2022, obtained observation during

November 15-17, an update with the regulator showed on Tuesday.

In Sebi's parlance, the regulator's observation means its go-ahead to launch an initial share sale.

According to the draft papers, Balaji Speciality Chemicals IPO will be a fresh issue of equity shares worth up to Rs 250 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 2,60,00,000 equity shares by promoters and promoter group entities.

Proceeds worth Rs 68 crore from the fresh issue will be used to repay debt, and Rs 119.5 crore will be spent on working capital requirements, besides general corporate purposes.

The company may consider a pre-IPO placement aggregating to Rs 50 crore. If such placement is undertaken, the size of the fresh issue will be reduced.

The Solapur-based company manufactures niche chemicals that are used in various end-use industries such as speciality chemicals, agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals.

The initial share sale of Protean eGov Technologies (formerly known as NSDL E-Governance Infrastructure) is purely an offer of sale (OFS) of 1.2 crore equity shares.

Those offering shares in the OFS are IIFL Special Opportunities Funds, NSE Investments, Administrator of the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Deutsche Bank A.G., Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India.

Originally setup as a depository in 1995, the company is one of the key IT-enabled service solution companies in India engaged in conceptualising, developing and executing nationally critical and population scale greenfield technology solutions.

The company collaborated with the government and have extensive experience in creating digital public infrastructure and developing innovative citizen-centric e-governance solutions. It created a systemically important national infrastructure for capital market development in India.

The equity shares of both the companies are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE.