The Rs 3,477-crore follow-on share sale of world?s seven-largest steelmaker Tata Steel was well received by all categories of investors, despite prevailing weakness in the secondary market. The issue witnessed more than six times demand for the shares on offer on Friday, the final day of the share sale. The issue, which opened on Wednesday, received bids for over 290 million shares against 48.67 million on offer, generating demand worth over Rs 20,000 crore.

The portion reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIB) saw about 10.4 times subscription, the non-institutional investor or the wealthy category witnessed subscription to the extent of 7.2 times, while the retail portion was subscribed about 1.6 times. Meanwhile, the employee quota saw less than 6% subscription.

The issue has got tremendous response considering the discount to the market price was not much,? Jayasankar, executive director, Kotak Investment Banking. More long-only funds compared to hedge funds have invested in the issue to take part in the growth story of a fundamentally strong company,? said Brijesh Mehra, head ? investment bank, RBS.

LIC, ICIC Pru and Prudential Partners of Singapore were some of the institutional investors who put in large-sized application on Friday, said a banker involved in handling the issue.

According to merchant bankers, institutions put in bids in the range of $25 million (Rs 114 crore) and $300 million (Rs 1,370 crore). The issue managed to garner over two lakh retail applications. Tata Steel, on Tuesday, had raised Rs 508 crore from 33 anchor investors by allocating 8.3 million shares at Rs 610 apiece. Nomura, Macquarie Bank, Credit Suisee, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Reliance Life Insurance and Bajaj Allianz were some of the anchor investors. The company is expected to price the issue at the top end of the price band of Rs 594-610 per share, which will help the company mop up Rs 3,477 crore. The company will utilise the issue proceeds to repay a part of its $10 billion debt and on expansion of its unit.

Shares of Tata Steel closed at Rs 630, down Rs 4.2, or 0.66% on NSE on Friday. New shares are expected to list on February 4.