Sunil Kanoria (right) in Calcutta on Thursday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, April 21: Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited has raised Rs 153 crore through 8.65 million global depository receipts (GDRs).

?With this issue, we become the first Indian infrastructure financing company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange,? director Sunil Kanoria said.

Priced at $4.05, each GDR represents four underlying shares of the company each with a face value of Rs 10. The book-built issue attracted investors from Asia, the UK, the US and Europe.

?About 25-30 investors applied for the issue, of whom 50 per cent were from the US. The single largest investor was Amaranth from US, which picked up around 20 per cent of the total offer at $7 million,? said Kanoria. After the issue, the paid-up capital of the company is Rs 88 crore against Rs 53 crore.

According to Kanoria, the domestic infrastructure sector is poised for an exponential growth, which in turn means immense business opportunities. India would need investments of $150 billion over the next 10 years. In such a scenario, garnering additional resources was a strategic move by Srei to broad base its investor profile and create another window for overseas investors to participate in the domestic infrastructure growth.

?The overwhelming response to the offering clearly demonstrates the confidence and faith that the investor community reposes on the business model of Srei. The capital raised will be used to support the growth of the company in the medium and long term. This additional capital will equip us to tap the enormous growth opportunities in infrastructure financing, besides undertaking new initiatives, which are expected to contribute significantly to the future growth of the company,? Kanoria added.

Srei finances construction equipment and infrastructure projects and also functions in sectors like roads, power and ports.

The company has a local network of 32 offices. It also has offices in Germany, Russia and the UK.

During the last four years, Srei has grown at a rate of 30 per cent. DEG Germany, FMO-Netherlands and BIO-Belgium are stakeholders in the company.