Allied Blenders and Distillers Ltd, the owner of Indian whisky brand Officer’s Choice or OC, has placed draft papers with market watchdog the Securities Exchange Board of India to raise Rs 2,000 crore via an initial public offering (IPO).
The IPO consists of a fresh issue worth Rs 1,000 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to shares aggregating to Rs 1,000 crore by promoters and shareholders.
Offer-For-Sale:
As per the draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP), Bina Kishore Chhabria will offload shares worth up to Rs 500 crore, and other stakeholders- Resham Chhabria Jitendra Hemdev and Neesha Kishor Chhabria will sell shares up to Rs 250 crore.
Equity Holding Pattern:
Bina owns 52.20 percent of the company, Resham has a 24.05 percent stake, while Neesha owns 19.96 percent of the firm.
Utilization of Proceeds:
The company will utilize the proceeds from the issue to repay debt. As of December 2021, the firm owes Rs 926.89 crore debt.
“We believe that the prepayment or scheduled repayment of a portion of certain outstanding borrowings availed by us will help reduce our outstanding indebtedness and debt servicing costs, assist us in maintaining a favorable debt to equity ratio and enable utilization of our internal accruals for further investment in business growth and expansion,” the firm said in DRHP.
Lead Managers To The Issue:
ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, JM Financial, Kotak Mahindra Capital, and Equirus Capital are the lead managers of the issue.
About Allied Blenders:
Allied Blenders and Distillers is the third-largest Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) company, globally known for its Officer’s Choice whisky.
As of March 2022, its product portfolio had 10 big brands of IMFL covering whisky, brandy, rum, and vodka categories.
The company also sells packaged drinking water under the labels Officer’s Choice, Officer’s Choice Blue, and Sterling Reserve.
At the end of December 2021, the firm had set its foot in 30 states and union territories and had an exporting partnership with 22 markets in West Asia nations, North and South Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
In fiscal 21, the whisky-making company generated Rs 6,378.78 crore, down from Rs 8,119.07 crore in fiscal 2020. Net profit stood at Rs 2.51 crore against Rs 12.97 crore in FY20. EBITDA margin in FY21 inched up to 9.07 percent from 8.35 percent a year earlier.