November 04, 2022: Archean Chemical Industries Limited (“ACIL” or the “Company”), proposes to open its initial public offering of equity shares of face value of ₹ 2 each (“Equity Shares”) on Wednesday, November 09, 2022. The initial public offering comprises of fresh issue of Equity Shares aggregating up to ₹ 8,050.00 million (“Fresh Issue”) and an offer for sale of up to 16,150,000 Equity Shares (the “Offer for Sale”, and together with Fresh Issue, the “Offer”). The anchor investor bidding date shall be Monday, November 7, 2022. The Offer will close on Friday, November 11, 2022.
The Price Band of the Offer has been fixed at ₹ 386 to ₹ 407 per Equity Share. Bids can be made for a minimum of 36 Equity Shares and in multiples of 36 Equity Shares thereafter.
AICL proposes to utilize the net proceeds of the fresh Issue towards funding: (i) redemption or earlier redemption, in part or full, of non-convertible debentures (“NCDs“) issued by the Company amounting to ₹ 6,440.00 million; and (ii) the balance amount towards general corporate purposes (the “Objects of the Offer”).
The Offer for Sale comprises of up to 2,000,000 Equity Shares by Chemikas Speciality LLP (the “Promoter Selling Shareholder”) and up to 3,835,562 Equity Shares by India Resurgence Fund, Scheme I, up to 6,478,876 Equity Shares by India Resurgence Fund, Scheme II, up to 3,835,562 Equity Shares by Piramal Natural Resources Private Limited (collectively, the “Investor Selling Shareholders” and together with the Promoter Selling Shareholder, the “Selling Shareholders”).
The Equity Shares are being offered through the red herring prospectus of the Company dated October 31, 2022 filed with Registrar of Companies, Tamil Nadu at Chennai (the “RoC”) (the “RHP”) and are proposed to be listed on the BSE Limited (“BSE”) and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (“NSE”). For the purposes of the Offer, the Designated Stock Exchange shall be NSE.
The Offer is being made through the book building process, in terms of Rule 19(2)(b) of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957, as amended (“SCRR”) read with Regulation 31 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018 (the “SEBI ICDR Regulations”) and in compliance with Regulation 6(2) of the SEBI ICDR Regulations, wherein not less than 75% of the Offer shall be allocated on a proportionate basis to Qualified Institutional Buyers (“QIBs”, the “QIB Portion”), provided that the Company and the Selling Shareholders may, in consultation with the book running lead managers (the “BRLMs“), allocate up to 60% of the QIB Portion to anchor investors on a discretionary basis in accordance with the SEBI ICDR Regulations (“Anchor Investor Portion”), of which one-third shall be reserved for domestic mutual funds, subject to valid Bids being received from domestic mutual funds at or above the anchor investor allocation price.
Further, 5% of the QIB Portion (excluding Anchor Investor Portion) (“Net QIB Portion”) shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis only to mutual funds, and the remainder of the Net QIB Portion shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to all QIBs, including mutual funds, subject to valid Bids being received at or above the offer price. However, if the aggregate demand from mutual funds is less than 5% of the Net QIB Portion, the balance Equity Shares available for allocation in the mutual fund portion will be added to the remaining Net QIB Portion for proportionate allocation to QIBs. Further, not more than 15% of the Offer shall be available for allocation to Non-Institutional Bidders, of which (a) one-third portion shall be reserved for applicants with Bid size of more than ₹200,000 and up to ₹1,000,000; and (b) two-thirds portion shall be reserved for applicants with Bid size of more than ₹1,000,000, provided that the unsubscribed portion in either of such sub-categories may be allocated to Non-Institutional Bidders in the other sub-category of non-institutional portion (the “Non-Institutional Portion“), subject to valid bids being received at or above the offer price, and not more than 10% of the Offer shall be available for allocation to RIBs in accordance with the SEBI ICDR Regulations, subject to valid bids being received at or above the offer price.
All potential bidders (except anchor investors) are required to mandatorily utilize the Application Supported by Blocked Amount (“ASBA”) process providing details of their respective ASBA accounts, and UPI ID in case of UPI bidders using the UPI mechanism, if applicable, in which the corresponding bid amounts will be blocked by the SCSBs or by the Sponsor Banks under the UPI mechanism, as the case may be, to the extent of respective bid amounts. Anchor investors are not permitted to participate in the Offer through the ASBA process. For details, see “Offer Procedure” on page 367 of the RHP.
IIFL Securities Limited, ICICI Securities Limited, and JM Financial Limited are the Book Running Lead Managers to the Offer.
Note to Editor:
Archean Chemical Industries Limited is a leading specialty marine chemical manufacturer in India and focused on producing and exporting bromine, industrial salt, and sulphate of potash to customers around the world. According to Frost & Sullivan, the Company is the largest exporter of bromine and industrial salt by volume in India in Fiscal 2021 and have amongst the lowest cost of production globally in both bromine and industrial salt. (Source: Company Commissioned F&S Report).
The Company produces its products from its brine reserves in the Rann of Kutch, located on the coast of Gujarat, and it manufactures its products at its facility near Hajipir in Gujarat.
As of June 30, 2022, the Company marketed its products to 18 global customers in 13 countries and to 24 domestic customers. Its bromine is used as key initial level material, which have applications in the pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, water treatment, flame retardant, additives, oil & gas, and energy storage batteries. Industrial salt is an important raw material used in chemical industry for production of sodium carbonate (soda ash), caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, chlorine, bleaching powders, chlorates, sodium sulphate (salt cake), and sodium metal.
