IRFC share price gains around 1% as OFS opens for retail investors; fails to get fully booked from institutional buyers

PSU stock Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) share price advanced around a percent on Thursday, February 26 as retail portion of its offer for sale (OFS) is scheduled to open today. This means individual investors will be able to place their bids on the stock today.

The stock advanced as much 0.7% to its day's high of ₹105.30.

The IRFC OFS by the Indian govt did not receive full participation from institutional investors on Wednesday, February 25.

Institutional bidders placed offers for around 22.34 crore IRFC shares, accounting for 94.98% of the more than 23.52 crore shares set aside for them under the OFS. Based on the indicative price of ₹104.12 per share, these bids translated into a value of roughly ₹2,326 crore.

The floor price for the offer has been fixed at ₹104 per share.

Meanwhile, on the equity front, the government chose not to exercise the oversubscription option in the ongoing OFS. In an exchange filing on Wednesday, Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd said the promoter had initially planned a base offer to sell up to 261,370,120 equity shares, representing a 2% stake, along with a greenshoe option to offload an additional 2%. However, the oversubscription option will not be utilised.

Following the proposed divestment, the government continues to hold a substantial 86.36% stake in the railway sector financing company.

IRFC Fundraise

Separately, in a post-market exchange filing on Wednesday, IRFC announced that it has signed a loan agreement to raise funds equivalent to $400 million in Japanese yen. The borrowing will be undertaken through the External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) route. The five-year loan is unsecured and benchmarked to the Tokyo Overnight Average Rate (TONAR).

The company also said it has partnered with a banking consortium comprising the GIFT City branches of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and MUFG Bank for the transaction.

This fundraise follows a similar move in December 2025, when IRFC had successfully raised Japanese yen equivalent to a $300 million facility, the company added.

Meanwhile, the firm posted a record net profit of ₹1,802 crore in the December quarter, while its Assets Under Management climbed to ₹4.75 lakh crore.

The company is also undergoing a strategic transformation under its IRFC 2.0 roadmap, which seeks to move beyond the traditional single-client structure centred on the Ministry of Railways to a multi-client model, covering the wider railway ecosystem and allied infrastructure sectors.

IRFC Share performance

The PSU stock has been under pressure recently, down 8% in past 1 month, 11% in 3 months and 15% in 1 year. However, it has given multibagger returns, surging 325% in 5 years.