IRM Energy IPO to open on Oct 18, sets price band at Rs 480-505 per share

IRM Energy on Wednesday announced a price band of Rs 480-505 per share for its initial public offering that will open for subscription on October 18.

The Initial Public Offering (IPO), through which the company aims to raise up to Rs 545 crore, will close on October 20.

It has a fresh issue of up to 1.08 crore equity shares.

Karan Kaushal, the chief executive of the company, said, it plans to use about Rs 307.26 crore from the issue proceeds for funding capital expenditure requirements for developing the city gas distribution network in Namakkal and Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu in the coming years.

He also said that Rs 135 crore would be used for prepayment or repayment of some of the outstanding borrowings of the company and for general corporate purposes.

The company will mobilise Rs 518.4 crore and Rs 545.4 crore at the lower and upper end of the price band, respectively.

The offer also includes reservation for subscription by eligible employees, and a discount of Rs 48 per equity share is being offered to such employees.

At present, the promoters own 67.94 per cent stake in the company, with the majority being held by Cadila Pharmaceuticals (49.50 per cent), and the remaining shares being held by IRM Trust through its managing trustee Rajiv Indravadan Modi.

The company operates at Banaskantha in Gujarat, Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab, Diu and Gir Somnath in the Union Territory of Daman and Diu, and Namakkal and Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu.

It served 184 industrial customers, 269 commercial customers, and 52,454 domestic customers as of June.

As of October, it had a network of 69 CNG filling stations, comprising two CNG stations owned and operated by the company, 36 stations owned and operated by dealers, and 31 CNG stations owned and operated by oil marketing companies.

IRM Energy has a strategic and technical partnership with Shizuoka Gas Co of Japan, which is the fourth largest gas company in Japan by natural gas sales volume.

In the June quarter, IRM Energy reported a revenue of Rs 245.25 crore, a growth of 6.51 per cent compared to the year-ago period.

The rise was primarily due to higher sales of compressed natural gas and piped natural gas as well as an increase in connection income and other operating revenue.

Its profit after tax rose 31.01 per cent to Rs 26.91 crore in the same period.

For fiscal 2023, revenue rose 90.27 per cent to Rs 1,039.13 crore from Rs 546.14 crore in the same period a year ago. However, the profit after tax fell 50.68 per cent to Rs 63.15 crore from Rs 128.03 crore during the same period due to a significant increase in input gas costs as well as lower profits earned by joint control entities.