MUMBAI, 23 AUGUST, 2019 (GPN) :Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the railways’ tourism and catering arm, on Thursday filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Market sources state that the IPO would be worth around Rs 500-600 crore.

According to the DRHP filed by it, IRCTC is theonly entity authorized by Indian Railways to provide catering services to railways, online railway tickets and packaged drinking water at railway stations and trains in India. The Central Public Sector Enterprise has also diversified into other business segments like e-catering, executive lounges and budget hotels.

The issue comprises of 2 crore equity shares, of face value of Rs 10 each, through an offer for sale by the President of India, acting through the Ministry of Railways (The selling shareholder).

Out of the net offer, equity shares may be reserved for eligible employees and that it shall not exceed 5 per cent of the post offer paid up equity share capital of the company.

The book running lead managers to the offer are IDBI Capital Markets & Securities Limited, SBI Capital Markets Limited, YES Securities (India) Limited.

Up to 50 per cent of the offer will be available for allocation to qualified institutional buyers (QIBs). Further, up to 15 per cent of the offer shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to non-institutional bidders and 35 per cent of the offer will be available for the allocation to retail individual bidders

IRCTC operates one of the most transacted websites, ‘www.irctc.co.in’, in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region with transaction volume averaging at 25 million per month and 7.2 million logins a day. Over 1.4 million passengers travel on a daily basis of which 71.42 per cent book their tickets online. Between FY14-19, online bookings have grown at a CAGR of 12.5 per cent.

At a premium of only 49 paise, IRCTC offers an optional travel insurance between Rs 0.75 million – Rs 1 million to its passengers. As of June 30, 2019, over 900 million passengers have opted for this travel insurance.

IRCTC was conferred the status of “Mini-ratna” (Category-I Public Sector Enterprise) by the government on May 1, 2008.