Cube Highways Trust opens ₹20,430 crore road InvIT offer for sale
Cube Highways Trust has opened a ₹20,430 crore offer for sale to list its road infrastructure portfolio, securing heavy institutional pre-commitments despite flat early retail demand.
Cube Highways Trust opened its initial public offering on Wednesday at a price band of ₹151 to ₹152 per unit, marking the transition of the privately held road infrastructure trust to the public markets. The offering is structured as a 100% offer for sale by existing unitholders, meaning the trust will not receive any proceeds. At the upper price band, the trust is valued at approximately ₹20,429.86 crore.
The issue has already secured substantial backing from institutional investors. Ahead of the public subscription, the trust raised ₹1,687.5 crore from anchor investors, allocating 11.1 crore units to 59 funds at the upper price band. Participants included global banks such as Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, major domestic mutual funds like HDFC AMC and SBI Mutual Fund, and insurers including SBI Life Insurance and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
Azim Premji-backed Prazim Trading and Investment Company has emerged as a significant backer. The firm acquired an additional 1.97 crore units worth ₹300 crore through the strategic investors' portion, bringing its total investment in the trust to ₹950 crore. Overall, the trust secured ₹1,250 crore from five strategic investors prior to the public issue.
Despite the institutional support, early public demand has been tepid. By midday on the first day of subscription, the issue had received bids for just 2% of the shares on offer, with institutional investors yet to submit bids. Furthermore, the grey market premium stands at ₹0, indicating the shares are trading at the issue price with no premium or discount.
Brokerages have largely backed the issue for long-term investors. Sushil Financial Services and SMIFS both issued "Subscribe" ratings, citing the trust's diversified highway portfolio, investment-grade balance sheet, and consistent distribution track record. Marwadi Shares & Finance also recommended subscribing, estimating the fair enterprise value of the trust at around ₹36,842 crore as of March 2026 based on its pipeline of committed and right-of-first-offer assets.
The listing, managed by Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, HDFC Bank, HSBC Securities and JM Financial, is expected on July 29. The float provides a liquidity avenue for early investors in Indian road assets, testing public market appetite for large-scale infrastructure trusts amid a pipeline of future acquisitions.
