In the largest private-sector IPO ever, Air Link raises Rs. 6.43 billion.
ByFaisal Chughtai | Published date:
Air Link Communication, a smartphone manufacturer, raised 6.43 billion in Pakistan's single biggest investment by offering 90 million shares to institutional and wealthy individual investors on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. The funds collected will be used to fulfil the company's working capital needs.
This was the single-largest, historical and record-setting IPO in the private sector of Pakistan in terms of the raised equity at Rs. 6.43 billion, JS Global CEO Kamran Nasir, an IPO consultant, and book-runner said.
The Air Link IPO was 1.64 times oversubscribed, with over 500 institutional and high net worth individual investors bidding for 147.65 million shares against issue size of 90 million shares, resulting in a total offer amount of approximately Rs. 11 billion, according to Nasir.
The whole offering was made available via book-building at a floor price of Rs. 65 per share (including a premium of Rs. 55 per share). On September 6th and 7th, 2021, the general public will be offered shares at a strike price of Rs. 71.50 per share.
This was the eighth IPO of the fiscal year 2021 and the first of the fiscal year 2022. Eight businesses raised a total of Rs. 20 billion via book building and an initial public offering in the preceding fiscal year 2020-21. The number of IPOs held at PSX was the most in 14 years.
“The company sales grew from Rs. 40 million in 2012 to over Rs. 47 billion in 2021 showing an unprecedented growth as e-commerce and digitization is expanding at a super pace in Pakistan where smartphones will become a necessity for everyone,” the brokerage house said in a recent commentary.
The business is one of the biggest smartphone distributors in the nation. After introducing the new mobile policy, it established a production facility where it manufactures smartphones from the Transsion Group China. It also said that it is one of Pakistan's biggest distributors for Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, Intel, Techno, TCL, and Alcatel.
All major smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung, Intel, Tencho, Infinix, TCL, and Alcatel, will now build their products in Pakistan. Furthermore, Xiaomi, the world's biggest smartphone maker, will shortly begin manufacturing in Pakistan.
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