KARACHI: Pakistan Aluminium Beverage Cans Ltd. (PABC), the sole can maker in the country, has raised Rs4.6 billion ($29 million) through a book building process, the second largest private share offering in Pakistan’s history, company and analysts said on Wednesday.
The Initial Public Offer (IPO) received an overwhelming response from institutional investors, high-net worth individuals, and foreign investors. The IPO oversubscribed by 3.3 times, with bids received for 233.23 million shares against the offering of 93.88 million shares, data posted on the Pakistan Stock Exchange said.
“This is the highest ever participation in the IPO history of Pakistan”, Shahid Habib, CEO of Arif Habib Limited, the Adviser and Book Runner of the Issue, told Arab News. “The company has received bids worth Rs10.8 billion against the IPO’s book-building size of Rs3.3 billion. Foreign investors also participated in the round.”
In 2019, Interloop Limited, a Faisalabad-based company that supplies products to Nike, Adidas, Puma, Levi’s and others, had raised Rs5.02 billion, the highest ever amount raised by a private company in the history of Pakistan.
PABC’s strike price clocked in at Rs49 per share, 40 percent higher than the floor price of Rs35 per share.
The funds raised through book building and the IPO will go to Ashmore, a lead investor who is exiting the company, which is divesting 26 percent stakes.
“The proceeds from offer to sale is the disinvestment of Ashmore UK, as the private equity firm is exiting from their first venture”, Azam Sakrani, the CEO of PABC, told Arab News. “PABC will now gain more growth as its corporate structure has changed, thus it will have better governance and with the expansion coming online by mid of next year, the future growth due to expansion will further strengthen the company.”
Analysts say the demand for high-worth equities remains high in Pakistan’s capital market mainly because of the availability of abundant liquidity.
“After many years, two private sector IPOs of close to Rs7 billion in a month at PSX have been conducted — that clearly indicates ample liquidity is available with local investors,” Muhammad Sohail, CEO of Topline Securities, said.
Earlier this month, Citi Pharma Limited (CPL) — the manufacturer of Paracetamol – raised Rs2.33 billion through offering 72.69 million shares.
The Faisalabad-based PABC supplies beverage cans to bottlers of all major carbonated drinks, including Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola, in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The company estimates holding close to 50 percent market share in the Afghanistan market where its exports constituted 35 percent of the company’s sales in 2020.
PABC has recently started supplying aluminum beverage cans to Wild Leaf Holdings in the United States and Alika LLC in Tajikistan.
With a current rated capacity of 700 million cans per annum, PABC produced and sold 444 million cans in 2020, more than the domestic demand of 275 million cans. The company aims to increase its rated capacity by almost 36 percent to 950 million cans per annum by July next year.
Saudi Arabia’s Nafcel, China’s Bao Feng and South Korea’s Novelis are among the major suppliers and vendors of raw material to PABC.