The recently introduced Bharat 22 ETF follow-on fund offer (FFO) has garnered high levels of interest with anchor subscribers putting in bids worth an additional Rs. 5,163 crores. This is equivalent to 3.44 times of the original subscription value of Rs. 1,500 that had been set aside for anchor investors in the current tranche. This is the second tranche of the Bharat 22 ETF, an exchange traded fund managed by ICICI Pru MF which comprises 22 companies selected for disinvestment by the government. The high level of interest garnered by this scheme is attributed mainly to subscriptions received from retirement funds, foreign portfolio investors and mutual fund houses subsequent to availability of the second tranche of subscriptions.
The current FFO will be available to investors till 22nd June, 2018 and the government plans to raise a total of Rs. 6,000 crores from the current FFO of the Bharat 22 ETF. The first tranche of this scheme had also been oversubscribed as a result of high levels of interest shown by both retail investors as well as institutional ones. Prior to Bharat 22 ETF which is managed by ICICI Prudential AMC, the government had launched a similar ETF, the Reliance Mutual Fund AMC managed CPSE ETF, which has till date raised a total of Rs. 11,500 in three tranches. Based on current observations, the Bharat 22 ETF is expected to equal if not surpass its predecessor’s record.