Specialist graphite and graphene producer Tirupati Graphite has proposed to potentially undertake an initial public offering (IPO) and is expected to publish its registration document, which has been submitted to the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for approval.
The company, which has operations in Madagascar and India, is considering applying for admission of its ordinary shares to the official list of the FCA by way of a standard listing and to trading on the main market of the LSE.
Tirupati CEO Shishir Poddar says that, in the company’s journey to become a fully integrated graphite and graphene company, serving a diversified market space, it has worked hard to establish multi-jurisdictional, cash-generative and sustainable operations.
“Having delivered on this initial strategy, we look forward to the next phase of growth and development as a listed company on the LSE.”
He adds that graphite and graphene are critical sustainable materials that are in increasing demand owing to their extensive and unique properties and applications, including in lithium-ion batteries, halogen-free flame retardants, thermal management and more.
“We are the only UK-registered natural graphite producer. Having established our maiden primary mining operations in Madagascar and downstream flame retardant graphite processing capabilities in India, we are well placed to further our modular growth plans to provide a complete basket of primary and specialty graphite products to a range of global consumers.”
Further, Poddar says that, through the company’s offering of high-quality graphene, Tirupati intends to remain the forerunner in the growing commercialisation of this nanomaterial.
“We very much look forward to this exciting new phase, which we believe will provide us with greater visibility and opportunity for growth as we build our market share. We welcome the opportunity to share with you further details of our company and listing plans in due course.”
Tirupati is a developing fully integrated, flake graphite and graphene company, which is substantially de-risked and with first modules of primary and specialty graphite brought into production in 2019.
The company owns three complementary, revenue-generative businesses with established low capital intensity and favourable operating cost structure.
Tirupati’s current and planned activities include exploration for mining, primary processing and production of flake graphite for industrial applications, downstream processing for high-purity, expandable, micronised and shaped/spherical flake graphite and graphene manufacturing for high-tech applications.
The company states that it operates in a trending, high-growth graphite market, the drivers being electric vehicles, flame retardants, thermal management and composite materials.
In terms of the potential transaction, should Tirupati succeed, the public offer would comprise new shares to be issued by Tirupati with net proceeds from the issue of the new shares to be used to build second phase of production across its established portfolio, support future growth, working capital and other general corporate purposes.
Any additional details in relation to the potential offer, together with any changes to corporate governance arrangements would be disclosed in an intention-to-float announcement and/or the prospectus, if and when published.
Tirupati has engaged Optiva Securities to act as bookrunners to the IPO.