AZB & Partners had advised Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFR) on its $215 million equity offering by a qualified institutional placement of shares. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee represented the bookrunning lead managers.
“The company’s first-ever QIP transaction, which opened on January 16 and closed on January 21, received an overwhelming response from prominent domestic and foreign institutional investors, with a subscription of around two times,” ABFR said in a statement.
The QIP is part of the billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla-backed company’s plan to raise $500 million via the $215 million QIP and a preferential issue worth $285 million, which will see participation from the promoter group, investing $150 million, and Fidelity Investments, investing $135 million.
The capital raise marks an important milestone for ABFR ahead of its proposed vertical demerger into two separately listed entities which is expected to be completed by the end of this financial year.
This was the first QIP in 2025, following a record-breaking year for QIPs in 2024 which saw Indian companies raised $16 billion through 95 QIPs, a sharp increase from $6 billion raised across 45 issues in the previous year, according to Prime Database. This includes three billion-dollar-plus raises by Zomato, Adani Energy and Vedanta. CAM advised the issuer on all three deals, advising on a total of 18 QIPs in 2024. Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee acted on 29 Indian QIPs in 2024, the highest for an international counsel in the year.
The CAM transaction team advising the BRLMs Avendus Capital, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, and Jefferies India comprised senior partner Yash J. Ashar, partner Ravi Dubey, principal associate Mansi Jhaveri, and associates Anuj Kumar Gupta, Harshita Pareek, Tanishq Mohta, Akshita Dhawan, and Dhruv Gupta.
The Hogan Lovells team was led by India practice head and Singapore office managing partner Biswajit Chatterjee, with support from Kaustubh George, Varun Jetly, Aditya Rajput, Jayant Bharadwaj, Sanjana Ravjiani, Komal Israni, Purva Mishra, and Rosen Chen.
