Two top capital market practices advised on India’s first initial public offering (IPO) by an insurer in late September.
Gaurav Gupte, a capital markets partner, and Shashikant Bhojani, a banking partner, led the Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas team instructed by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (ICICI Prudential) and its parent ICICI Bank in a Rs60.5 billion ($911 million) IPO, India’s largest such transaction since Coal India’s Rs152 billion debut in 2010. ICICI Bank offered 181,341,058 shares to investors at Rs334 each. ICICI Bank’s eligible shareholders were also offered a reserve of 18,134,105 shares at the same price.
Sandip Bhagat and Jabarati Chandra of S&R Associates acted as Indian legal counsel for the book running lead managers (BRLMs), including DSP Merrill Lynch, ICICI Securities, CLSA, Deutsche Bank, Edelweiss, HSBC, IIFL Holdings, JM Financial, SBI Capital Markets and UBS. Davis Polk & Wardwell, a US law firm, was the international counsel to the BRLMs.
Though the IPO in a new industry had challenges, such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s review of the red herring prospectus, counsel secured prior approval by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India and helped execute the IPO within five months of its launch, which is quick for India. A red herring prospectus is a draft document that indicates either the price per share or the number of shares on offer.
Listed on the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange, ICICI Prudential’s stock performance, however, has been lacklustre, closing below Rs309 on October 3, a drop of more than 6% from its launch on September 29.
In Asialaw Profiles 2017, which has just been published in print, rates Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas’s banking & finance and capital markets practices as outstanding. S&R Associates’s capital markets practice is in the same category, while its banking practice is recommended.