Mortgage lender Home First Finance Company (HFFC) is set to launch its initial public offering (IPO) to raise up to Rs 1,200 crore, Economic Times reported.

Share Market Live

NSE

HFFC, a mortgage financier in the affordable housing segment, is backed by private equity funds Warburg Pincus (WP), True North and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC

According to the ET report, the IPO will allow existing investors True North, GIC, Bessemer Venture Partners along with founder PS Jayakumar to partially exit their respective investments, for the second time in less than six months.

True North is the largest shareholder in the company with a 33 percent stake followed by WP with a 25 percent stake.

In early October, WP had invested Rs 700 crore in the company which included about Rs 625 crore of secondary sale by existing investors and a Rs 75 crore infusion into the company, the report added.

True North, GIC and Bessemer along with PS Jayakumar will all see their stakes reduce by 20 percent to 25 percent through the offer for sale. WP will not tender any shares as its stake is locked in for a year, it said.

The company has time till March end to complete the sale, according to SEBI rules.

Home First Finance CEO Manoj Viswanathan told ET that WP's investment which was completed in October was a positive pre-IPO signal as a large investor was ready to invest in the midst of uncertainty while also giving us some capital.

"The IPO will further provide capital and cement our investor base," Viswanathan told the newspaper.

HFFC, founded by former Citibankers Jaithirth Rao and P S Jayakumar in 2010, had received SEBI approval as early as February last year but the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the IPO.