Cube Highways Trust has officially fixed the price band at ₹151-152 per unit for its ₹5,000-crore IPO launching on July 22. The anchor book will open on July 21, while the issue will close on July 24. At the upper end of the price band, the InvIT is valued at ₹20,429.86 crore. The privately listed infrastructure investment trust has been trading since April 19, 2023, following a private placement that raised ₹5,226 crore at an offer price of ₹100 per unit. As per latest market data, the trust's units closed 2.29 percent down at ₹153.4 on the National Stock Exchange on July 14. The IPO comprises an offer for sale (OFS) with proceeds going entirely to selling unitholders, as the InvIT will not receive any funds from the issue. The minimum bid has been set at 95 units with subsequent bids in multiples of 95 units. According to latest reports, Cube Highways Trust InvIT IPO GMP is ₹0, indicating shares are trading at the issue price of ₹152 with no premium or discount in the grey market.
Cube Highways Trust has secured commitments worth ₹1,250 crore from marquee strategic investors ahead of its ₹5,000-crore IPO. The five investors will subscribe to 8.22 crore units at the upper end of the price band. The strategic investor portion accounts for 25 percent of the overall offer, with units allotted to these investors locked in for 180 days from the date of listing. Under the agreements executed on July 13, Prazim Trading and Investment Company, an entity associated with Premji Invest, has committed ₹950 crore by subscribing to 6.25 crore units. HDFC Life Insurance Company and HDFC Pension Fund Management will invest ₹100 crore each, while Axis Max Life Insurance Ltd and WhiteOak Capital REIT & InvIT Alternatives Fund I have committed ₹50 crore each. The InvIT operates 27 road assets spanning 8,754 lane kilometres across India, including major stretches such as Delhi-Agra, Ghaziabad-Aligarh, Farakka-Raiganj, Jaipur-Mahua, and the Narketpally-Addanki-Medarametla road. It also owns toll-operate-transfer projects covering Hazaribagh-Ranchi, Lucknow-Raebareli, Jhansi-Lalitpur, and sections of the Madurai-Kanyakumari corridor. The portfolio has an average residual concession life of 18 years as of March 31, 2026.
Among the selling unitholders, BCI IRR India Holdings, an affiliate of Canada's British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), will sell units worth ₹811.8 crore, while Seventy Second Investment Company, an investment vehicle of the Abu Dhabi government, will offload units worth ₹542.1 crore. Sponsor group entities Cube Highways and Infrastructure and Cube Mobility Investments, part of the Cube Group, will together sell units worth ₹3,646 crore. The Cube Group is backed by I Squared Capital, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority-backed Platinum Rock B 2014 RSC, Varese IRR LP (BCI) and Mubadala Investment Company. Up to 75 percent of the net offer (excluding the strategic investor portion) has been reserved for institutional investors, while the remaining 25 percent will be allocated to non-institutional investors. The issue is being managed by Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, HDFC Bank, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India), and JM Financial, which are acting as the book-running lead managers. KFin Technologies Ltd has been appointed as the registrar to the issue.
Cube Highways Trust InvIT IPO is expected to list on BSE and NSE on Wednesday, July 29. The basis of allotment will be finalized on Monday, July 27, with refunds initiated on Tuesday, July 28 and shares credited to demat accounts on the same day. The decision to list publicly was driven by growing domestic investor interest in InvITs, as noted by Vinay C. Sekar, Chief Executive Officer of the Investment Manager. "We have been listed through a private placement for the last three years. What we have observed is a significant upswing in the interest that Indian investors, including domestic investors, have evinced in this product, from both the institutional and individual sides. There is clearly an increasing understanding of this product," Sekar said. He added that the public listing would broaden the trust's access to capital and improve liquidity and price discovery. "The idea is that this will open up wider pockets of capital for the trust and also will lead to better liquidity and price discovery."
As of FY26, the trust had assets under management (AUM) of ₹36,842 crore. Net debt, including deferred payments, stood at ₹17,768 crore, translating into a net debt-to-enterprise value (EV) ratio of 46.82 percent, while its debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 4.21 times. Toll assets accounted for around 85 percent of assets under management, with annuity projects making up the remaining 15 percent. The trust distributed ₹10.09 per unit in FY24, ₹11 per unit in FY25, and ₹13.77 per unit in FY26. Sekar noted that the growth in distributions is due to two factors: "One, organically, because of toll assets, the revenue keeps growing. The second factor is that the addition of assets also increases the distribution." The trust currently owns a portfolio of 27 highway assets, comprising 18 toll-based and nine annuity-based projects spread across 12 States and one Union Territory. Sekar said the sponsor, Cube Highways and Infrastructure V Pte. Ltd., has simultaneously committed four additional highway assets to the trust through binding agreements, with the acquisitions proposed to be executed largely through a preferential unit issuance.
