Indian digital public infrastructure giant Protean launches IPO

Indian e-governance and digital public infrastructure company Protean eGov Technologies Limited launched its IPO for subscription on Monday.  The IPO was fully subscribed on the first day of its offering but remains open until Wednesday, November 8, LiveMint reports.

The company is hoping to raise 4.9 billion rupees (US$58.8 million) from the capital markets which is a complete offer for sale (OFS). The price band for the offer has been fixed at 752 to 792 rupees US$9.04 to US$9.52) per equity share, with a face value of 10 rupees each. Half of the net offer is reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 15 percent is aimed at non-institutional investors while retail investors get 35 percent.

Last week, Protean announced it has already brought in a little over 1.4 billion rupees (US$16.8 million) from anchor investors, which include Societe Generale, SBI General Insurance Company, SBI Life Insurance Company, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Company, LIC Mutual Fund and Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.

Protean has been working on large national IT projects with the Indian government and local corporations, including modernizing the country’s digital tax infrastructure and the Foundational Tax ID (PAN) and building one of the largest registrars for enrolments into the Aadhaar, the country’s identity scheme. The company is also one of a handful that was approved to conduct video KYC checks in India, under its former name, NSDL.

Formerly known as NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited, the company describes itself as a major contributor to the India Stack, a set of digital infrastructure components for e-government. It provides Aadhaar-based identity authentication and eSign services and is involved in the National Pension System and the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) pension scheme.

Last week, the company received a recommendation from several Indian brokerage companies, which highlighted the company’s sustained revenue during fiscal years 2021 to 2023, when it grew at a CAGR of 10.9 percent and 7.8 percent.

Protean has also been bidding for Sri Lanka’s multi-million dollar tender for its Unique Digital Identity program. The bid was derailed in October when the country’s government procurement agency disqualified the company’s competitor Madras Security Printers (MSP), after earlier disqualifying Protean Technologies. Government officials said they hope to reissue the digital ID tender “at the earliest.”

Article Topics

digital ID  |  digital public infrastructure  |  India  |  IPO  |  Protean  |  stocks