The Ministry of Finance has invited bids to select an advertising agency for listing and partial disinvestment of the Union government’s shareholding in the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) through an initial public offer (IPO) and raise funds through the issue of fresh equity shares in the domestic market.

The last date to submit the bids is June 9, 2023. Bids will be opened on June 12.

The percentage of paid-up equity to be divested as part of the IPO will be determined based on the post-issue capital of IREDA.

Bidders should have requisite qualifications as prescribed for multi-media creative agencies empaneled under Category A of the Central Bureau of Communication.

They should have professional experience of at least five years in the social and economic sector advertising.

They should have a regional presence in at least four states. The agency should have experience handling issues and statutory advertising for IPO in the last five years.

Further, the agency should have organized and facilitated at least five interviews and panel discussions on business news channels in the context of transactions involving capital markets in the last three years.

The agency should have organized at least five press and broker conferences in the past three years.

Bidders should have in-house competency in handling legal issues arising from advertisement or publicity relating to IPO or have a tie-up with any well-established legal firm of repute.

The average annual turnover of bidders should be at least ₹1 billion (~$12.16 million) during the last three financial years.

The advertising agency will prepare, develop and place various offer advertisements and other publicity material, including all statutory advertisements in connection with the offer and public notices, and submit them to the IREDA for their approval.

The advertising agency will assist IREDA in writing and developing all editorial material, including press releases and IPO analysis, per the provisions of SEBI.

In a second tender, the ministry has invited bids to select a registrar and share transfer agent for the IREDA disinvestment.

The last date to submit the bids remains the same as the earlier tender.

The appointment of the registrar and share transfer agent will subsist for one year after the completion of the IPO process and can be renewed for a further period of one year on mutual agreement.

Bidders should be a Category I SEBI-registered registrar with valid SEBI registration certificate.

Bidders should not have been debarred in the past three years. The registration should be valid and not debarred from functioning as a registrar by any regulatory authority as of the bid submission day.

They should have maintained at least 200,000 folios as of March 31, 2023, and handled a minimum of 200,000 applications from April 1, 2018, to March 1, 2023, in any one transaction of IPOs.

Bidders should have a positive net worth in the past three years. They should have a functional office in New Delhi, where the registered office of IREDA is situated.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Investment and Public Asset Management invited bids from book-running lead managers to help list the government’s equity in IREDA.

IREDA posted a profit of ₹2.54 billion (~$31 million) for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2022-23, a jump of 12% year-over-year.

Earlier in March, IREDA was granted an ‘Infrastructure Finance Company status by the Reserve Bank of India, enabling better exposure to renewable energy sector financing.