India's JSW Infrastructure ends 32% higher in debut at near $4-billion valuation

FILE PHOTO: The logo of JSW is seen on the company's headquarters in Mumbai·Reuters
Rama Venkat
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By Rama Venkat

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Shares of JSW Infrastructure, India's No.2 commercial port operator, closed 32.2% higher on its first day of trading on Tuesday, placing the company among several successful domestic market debuts this year.

The stock, which had an IPO price of 119 Indian rupees, opened higher at 143 rupees and ended at its session-high of 157.30 rupees, valuing the company at 330.33 billion rupees ($3.97 billion).

The broader market settled 0.56% down.

JSW Infra, which operates ports and port terminals across the country and provides services including cargo handling, storage and logistics, is the first business of billionaire Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group to go public since JSW Energy in 2010.

Shivani Nyati, head of wealth at Swastika Investmart, attributed the listing's success to "strong fundamentals, consistent revenue and profit growth in recent years and good subscription levels".

Moody's expects JSW Infra to continue its "solid operating performance" after it upgraded the company's corporate family rating and senior secured bond rating to "Ba1" from "Ba2" and changed the outlook to "stable" from "positive".

The company's profit more than doubled in fiscal 2023, while its revenue from operations jumped about 41%, according to the prospectus. It plans to nearly double its operational capacity to 300 million tonnes per annum by 2030.

JSW Infra's listing adds to a series of successful market debuts in the past few months, ranging from RR Kabel to Concord Biotech, helped by robust investor appetite that has also powered the blue-chip index to a record high.

JSW Infra raised 28 billion rupees through the sale of fresh shares. Jindal, his family trust and members of the promoter group - an Indian market term for large shareholders who can influence company policy - will have an 85.61% stake in the company.

($1 = 83.2070 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rama Venkat and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Janane Venkatraman and Shounak Dasgupta)