RailTel
Mainboard₹819 Cr issue
+11.28%
Listing gain over issue price
Issue size
₹819 Cr
1 lot at cut-off
₹14,570
Lot size
155shares
Open
16 Feb 2021
Close
18 Feb 2021
Allotment
23 Feb 2021
Listing
26 Feb 2021
Listing performance
Issue price
₹94
Listed at
₹104.60
Listing-day close
₹121.40
Latest price
₹229
Close on 23 Oct 2026
Listing gain
+11.28%
Return since issue
+143.62%
Scheduled dates
Tentative timetable — a past date is not confirmation the step completed
Issue details
- IPO date
- 16 Feb 2021 – 18 Feb 2021
- Listing date
- 26 Feb 2021
- Face value
- ₹10 per share
- Issue price
- ₹94 per share
- Lot size
- 155 shares
- Total issue size
- ₹819 Cr
- Market cap at offer price
- ₹3,017 Cr
- Promoter holding
- 100.00% → 72.84% pre-issue → post-issue
- ISIN
- INE0DD101019
- Registrar
- Kfin Technologies Ltd.
- Lead managers
- ICICI Securities Ltd.
- Registered office
- Plate-A, 6th Floor, Office Block, Tower-2, East Kidwai Nagar, New Delhi
Reservation and application size
How the issue is split between investor categories, and what each may bid
| Investor category | Shares | % of net | % of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anchor investor · within QIB | 2,59,57,446 | — | — |
| Market maker | 0 | — | — |
Application size
Minimum 155 shares per lot, in multiples, at ₹94
| Application | Lots | Shares | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail (min) | 1 | 155 | ₹14,570 |
| Retail (max) | 13 | 2,015 | ₹1,89,410 |
| S-HNI (min) | 14 | 2,170 | ₹2,03,980 |
| S-HNI (max) | 68 | 10,540 | ₹9,90,760 |
| B-HNI (min) | 69 | 10,695 | ₹10,05,330 |
Category limits
| Category | Bid size | Cut-off |
|---|---|---|
| Retail (RII) | Up to ₹2 lakh | Yes |
| Small HNI (sNII) | ₹2 lakh – ₹10 lakh | No |
| Big HNI (bNII) | Above ₹10 lakh | No |
| Employee | Up to ₹5 lakh | Yes |
Bidding at cut-off means accepting the final issue price without naming one. Only retail and employee applicants may do so.
Anchor investors
Institutional allocation placed a day before the issue opens, carved out of the QIB portion and locked in after listing.
Shares allocated
2,59,57,446
Anchor portion
₹244 Cr
at ₹94 per share
Valuation and performance
Valuation at offer price
₹94 per share
| Metric | Pre-issue | Post-issue |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | — | ₹3,017 Cr |
About RailTel
RailTel Corporation of India Limited, incorporated on September 26, 2000, is a Mini Ratna (Category-I) Central Public Sector Enterprise wholly-owned by the Government of India under the Ministry of Railways. The company was established to modernize telecom systems for train control, operation and safety, and to generate revenues by creating nationwide broadband and multimedia networks through optical fiber cable laid using railway right-of-way. RailTel provides information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure services including leased lines, internet service provider (ISP) services, national and international long distance services, and enterprise managed services. The company operates an extensive optical fiber network spanning over 67,000 route kilometers along railway tracks and additional route kilometers over third-party land and buildings, positioning it as a significant neutral telecom infrastructure provider in India.
Company Analysis
from RHPRailTel is an ICT infrastructure provider and one of India's largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers, offering broadband internet, enterprise services, and telecommunications infrastructure leveraging railway right-of-way.
RailTel Corporation of India Limited, incorporated on September 26, 2000, is a Mini Ratna (Category-I) Central Public Sector Enterprise wholly-owned by the Government of India under the Ministry of Railways. The company was established to modernize telecom systems for train control, operation and safety, and to generate revenues by creating nationwide broadband and multimedia networks through optical fiber cable laid using railway right-of-way. RailTel provides information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure services including leased lines, internet service provider (ISP) services, national and international long distance services, and enterprise managed services. The company operates an extensive optical fiber network spanning over 67,000 route kilometers along railway tracks and additional route kilometers over third-party land and buildings, positioning it as a significant neutral telecom infrastructure provider in India.
TelecommunicationsInternet Service ProviderICT InfrastructureData Center ServicesManaged Services
Objects of the Issue
- This is an Offer for Sale; all proceeds go to the Selling Shareholder p.22
- Disinvestment of 87,153,369 Equity Shares by the Selling Shareholder constituting 27.16% of Company's paid up Equity Share capital p.88
- Achieve the benefits of listing the Equity Shares on the Stock Exchanges p.88
Issue Structure
- Total Issue
- 87,153,369 Equity Shares
- Fresh Issue
- 0 (Offer for Sale only)
- Offer for Sale
- 87,153,369 Equity Shares
- Price Band
- ₹93 to ₹94 per Equity Share
- Lot Size
- 155 Equity Shares (Bid Lot)
- Face Value
- ₹10 per Equity Share
Business Model
RailTel generates revenue from multiple streams: (1) providing leased circuits and connectivity services to enterprises and government entities; (2) ISP services through its 'RailWire' broadband platform offering wired internet subscriptions; (3) national and international long distance telecommunications services; (4) tower infrastructure services; and (5) managed services and data center operations. The company derives a substantial portion of revenue from government customers including the National Informatics Centre Services Inc., Indian Railways, and other PSUs and state governments. Revenue from ISP services represented 14.48%-19.31% of total income across fiscal years 2018-2020 and the six months ended September 30, 2020.
Business Segments
Provides network connectivity and leased circuit services to enterprises and government entities
Provides wired broadband internet access services through subscriptions ranging from one month to one year
Provides National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) services
Operates data centers and provides managed services and related technology services
Carriage of switched-bearer telecommunication services over a long-distance network connecting different short distance charging areas
Network carriage service providing NLD operators with international connectivity by connecting to network facilities operated by foreign carriers
Provides dedicated fiber leased lines for corporate offices to connect to the internet and to form wide-area-networks between dispersed locations
Leases out base transceiver stations and RF/IP antennas to wireless communication providers for data and voice transmission
Uses public telecommunication infrastructure to securely connect remote sites/users to an organization's network
Creates VPNs by setting up a specific path for data packets with labels, providing traffic isolation and differentiation
Provides small fixed earth stations with satellite-based communication links for receiving/transmitting data, voice and multimedia
Houses and maintains IT systems, data stores, and provides IT infrastructure including servers, firewalls, and storage systems to companies
Provides National Long Distance (NLD) services including leased line services and MPLS-based VPN facilities, and Internet Service Provider (ISP) services including retail broadband ('RailWire') and internet leased line services. NLD services provide digital capacity for long distance telecommunication services including voice, data, fax, text, video and multimedia.
Provides passive infrastructure (IP-1) services including tower collocation, rack and space utilization, dark fiber, and operation and maintenance of railway fiber. The company manages and maintains 1,085 towers for the Indian Railways used to provide tower collocation facilities to telecom operators for mobile BTS and small cell sites.
Provides data center solutions including hosting and co-location services, cloud computing services under the brand 'Railcloud', disaster recovery services, telepresence services (TPaaS) for video conferencing, and security operations center services (SOCaaS) for cyber security incident prevention and monitoring.
Collaborates with empaneled partners and OEMs to undertake ICT hardware implementation, software delivery and digital transformation projects including creation of state wide area networks, Wi-Fi projects, city surveillance projects, laying of fiber optic networks, and implementation of enterprise IT applications. Also offers digital services including unified communications, Wi-Fi as a service, e-tendering/e-auction services, and consulting services.
National Long-Distance telecom services
Internet Service Provider services
IP-1 infrastructure services
Project execution for Railways modernization and operations
Project execution for non-railway entities
Provides neutral telecom infrastructure including National Long Distance (NLD) services, Internet Service Provider (ISP) services, and Passive Infrastructure (IP-1) services such as leased lines, VPN facilities, internet leased line services, tower collocation, dark fiber, and data center services.
Undertakes ICT projects including National Optical Fiber Network, telecom and IT services related projects, enterprise specific IT & ITES projects, Wi-Fi projects, city surveillance, and system integration services.
Provides long-distance telecommunications services
Provides internet service provider services
Provides infrastructure provider services including data center services, telepresence, dark fiber leasing and tower space
Implementation of railway projects including e-Office, VSS projects
Implementation of other government projects including COD, KFON and Hartron
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
- • Among the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in India with pan-India optic fiber network(p.91)
- • Diversified portfolio of services and solutions(p.91)
- • Key partner to the Indian Railways in digital transformation(p.91)
- • Experience in executing projects of national importance with robust pipeline(p.91)
- • Strong track record of financial performance with consistent dividend payments since Fiscal 2008(p.52)
- • Professionally managed with strong corporate governance and experienced senior management(p.91)
- • Pan-India optical fiber network with exclusive railway right-of-way(p.127)
- • Largest neutral telecom infrastructure provider in India among Key IT/ICT Companies(p.125)
- • Highest net profit margin and operating profit margin among peers(p.130)
- • Debt-free company with internally funded operations since Fiscal 2013(p.130)
- • Profitable since Fiscal 2007 with consistent dividend payments(p.130)
- • Strategic relationship with Indian Railways enabling preference in mandate awards(p.129)
- • Diversified service portfolio across telecom, infrastructure, data center and ICT projects(p.128)
- • Highest RoCE of 14% among Key IT/ICT Companies in Fiscal 2020(p.130)
- • Pan-India optical fiber network with nationwide coverage(p.204)
- • Mini Ratna (Category-I) PSU status with strategic government backing(p.204)
- • Diverse revenue streams across telecom services and projects(p.235)
- • Data centre infrastructure and advanced service offerings(p.204)
- • Largest neutral telecom infrastructure provider with extensive fiber network(p.284)
- • Extensive optical fiber coverage across India with high-capacity DWDM network(p.284)
- • Highest net profit margin among key telecom and IT/ICT companies(p.286)
- • Highest operating profit margin among Key IT/ICT companies(p.286)
- • Consistent profitability and dividend payments since 2007-2008(p.286)
- • Zero debt with strong liquidity position(p.286)
- • Government backing as Mini Ratna Category-I PSU(p.284)
Weaknesses
- • Wholly-owned and controlled by GoI, susceptible to government policy changes and public interest directives that may not be profitable(p.50)
- • Registered and Corporate Office not owned; lease execution pending and all regional offices/facilities are leased with short-term renewal requirements(p.49)
- • Dependence on related party transactions not on arm's length basis with no assurance of commercial favorability(p.49)
- • Insurance coverage may be inadequate to cover all losses, particularly for natural disasters and malicious acts(p.51)
- • Liable for wages of contract laborers if independent contractors default on payment obligations(p.51)
- • Inability to access historical legal and secretarial information with discrepancies in available records(p.24)
- • Small employee base of 467 permanent employees limiting execution capacity(p.142)
- • High dependence on Indian Railways revenue for strategic projects(p.128)
- • Leased premises for corporate and regional offices with no ownership(p.47)
- • Limited retail broadband subscriber base of 305,746 users as of January 31, 2021(p.128)
- • Significant impairment losses on NE projects indicating poor project execution(p.185)
- • High concentration of receivables with significant provisions for expected credit loss(p.227)
- • Major revenue dependency on single customer (NLD service)(p.235)
- • Substantial tax disputes and contingent liabilities(p.193)
- • Revenue recognition issues and pending customer disputes(p.185)
- • Heavy dependence on government and PSU customers for significant revenue(p.288)
- • Loss of major customer project without renewal prospects(p.289)
- • Significant impairment losses on NE project assets(p.263)
- • Revenue reversal due to government policy changes affecting project economics(p.288)
- • High capital work-in-progress with unfinished projects(p.267)
- • Significant contingent liabilities from tax disputes(p.264)
- • High impairment losses on NE projects due to difficult working conditions(p.319)
- • Significant unrecovered subsidy on NE projects with minimal receipts(p.318)
- • High provision for expected credit loss indicating collection risks(p.305)
- • Significant revenue concentration risk with pending customer settlement(p.318)
Opportunities
- • 5G infrastructure development requiring significant fiber network expansion creating massive investment opportunity(p.107)
- • Leasing of fiber networks can accelerate India's 5G readiness and reduce investment requirements(p.107)
- • Low rural tele-density providing significant scope for wireless subscriber expansion and service delivery(p.106)
- • Internet of Things creating newer revenue streams across healthcare, education and transportation domains(p.107)
- • Work-from-home trend accelerating demand for wired broadband and VPN services(p.111)
- • Rising data consumption and digital transformation driven by government initiatives like Digital India(p.111)
- • 5G infrastructure build-out requiring fiberization of telecom towers across India(p.131)
- • Government broadband initiatives (BharatNet) covering 2.5 lakh gram panchayats(p.113)
- • Backhauling demand growth driven by 4G adoption and data offloading(p.114)
- • Indian Railways LTE network migration and High Speed Mobile Communications Corridor project(p.132)
- • Government e-governance and digitalization initiatives driving VPN and data connectivity demand(p.118)
- • Significant demand for data centers from work-from-home and digital India acceleration(p.115)
- • Railway passenger services expansion including Content on Demand and Wi-Fi across 8,731 trains and 5,563 stations(p.117)
- • Nationwide broadband infrastructure deployment mandate(p.204)
- • Retail broadband expansion through Rail Wire initiative(p.204)
- • Railway modernization and digital transformation projects(p.204)
- • Monetization of pan-India network through commercial services(p.204)
- • Expansion of data center and managed hosting services(p.285)
- • Growth in government digital transformation projects(p.285)
- • Expansion of RailWire retail broadband services in rural areas(p.285)
- • Growing demand for managed security and SOC services(p.285)
- • Expansion of Video Surveillance System project across railway stations(p.277)
- • Growth in NLD telecom services with expanding customer base(p.307)
- • Expansion of data center and IP-I services(p.307)
- • Growth in railway project execution capabilities(p.307)
- • ISP services subscriber growth and capacity expansion(p.307)
Threats
- • Natural disasters, terrorism, civil unrest and pandemic diseases could adversely affect results and financial condition(p.54)
- • General economic slowdown in India and globally could adversely affect business performance and growth(p.54)
- • Rising inflation could increase business costs without proportional ability to pass costs to customers(p.55)
- • Significant change in Government of India's economic liberalization and deregulation policies could adversely affect business(p.55)
- • Adverse change in India's credit rating could materially affect ability to raise financing and profitability(p.55)
- • Increasing regulatory burden from changing tax laws and compliance requirements(p.56)
- • TRAI non-compliance could result in penalties, withheld approvals, conditional approvals or license cancellation(p.49)
- • Intense competition from large pan-India telecom operators with scale advantages(p.141)
- • Price compression and margin erosion in triple play services from aggressive JioFiber pricing(p.116)
- • Data security risks with significant increase in cybercrimes and data breaches in telecom sector(p.119)
- • Marginal price declines offsetting higher bandwidth migration growth in VPN segment(p.113)
- • Regulatory uncertainty regarding spectrum allocation and VSS deployment for Indian Railways(p.132)
- • Telecom sector consolidation limiting infrastructure investment and network expansion(p.114)
- • Wired broadband market underpenetration risk from bundled mobile offerings without landline expansion(p.119)
- • Project implementation delays and funding uncertainties(p.185)
- • Regulatory risk through license fee and revenue-share obligations(p.216)
- • Competition from private telecom operators and infrastructure providers(p.204)
- • Dependence on government and railway projects for revenue(p.236)
- • Exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations and input price volatility(p.197)
- • Intense competition from larger telecom and infrastructure companies(p.291)
- • Regulatory changes affecting license fees and AGR definition(p.287)
- • Risk of subsidy termination on government-funded projects(p.288)
- • Rapid technological obsolescence requiring continuous capital investment(p.289)
- • Adverse economic conditions affecting government spending and customer demand(p.289)
- • Risk from government policy changes affecting project profitability(p.288)
- • Dependence on railways revenue share as major cost driver(p.305)
- • Regulatory spectrum license exposure and bandwidth cost volatility(p.306)
- • Interest rate sensitivity affecting deposit income(p.308)
- • Inflation impacting operational costs(p.318)
Promoters
| Name | Role | Pre-Issue | Post-Issue |
|---|---|---|---|
| President of India, acting through the Ministry of Railways, Government of India | Promoter/Selling Shareholder | 100.00% | 72.84% |
| The President of India acting through the Ministry of Railways | Promoter | 100% | 72.84% |
| Government of India | Promoter | 100% | — |
| President of India acting through the Ministry of Railways, Government of India | Promoter | 100% | 72.84% |
| President of India | Promoter | 100% | — |
| President of India, acting through the Ministry of Railways | Selling Shareholder / Promoter | — | 20% |
Leadership
Jasmeet Singh Marwah · Company Secretary and Compliance Officer
Auto-extracted from the company's RHP using AI, with each fact linked to its source passage (hover any row to see the quote & page). Provided for research only, not investment advice — verify against the official RHP before relying on it.
RailTel IPO FAQs
What is the lot size of RailTel IPO?
The minimum lot size of RailTel IPO is 155 shares. One lot costs ₹14,570 at the cut-off price.
When does RailTel IPO open and close?
RailTel IPO opened for subscription on 16 Feb 2021 and closed on 18 Feb 2021.
What is the listing date of RailTel IPO?
RailTel IPO listed on 26 Feb 2021.