Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 1082 Sun. June 17, 2007  
   
Business


Indian real-estate firm raises $2.24b in IPO


India's top real-estate firm DLF raised 2.24 billion dollars in the country's largest initial public offering, which closed Friday, a banker involved in the sale said.

The company sold 175 million shares at a price of 525 rupees (12.8 dollars) a share on strong fund demand, with the offer oversubscribed 3.47 times.

"The result is the strongest vote-of-confidence in India's continuing domestic economic growth story and the outlook for the rapidly growing real-estate sector," said Patti McLaughlin, of DSP Merrill Lynch, a global co-ordinator to the issue.

DLF received bids for 607.2 million shares, according to data available at the National Stock Exchange.

At least 60 percent of shares were reserved for funds while another 10 percent were set aside for strategic investors and the remaining shares open to retail investors, the company said in its prospectus.

The funds portion of the issue was oversubscribed 5.12 times, while the non-institutional portion was oversubscribed 1.14 times, the bank said.

Analysts have said retail investors bid less aggressively on concerns about high interest rates in India and a related weakening of real estate prices which could have a negative impact on DLF's growth.

The company aims for a listing at the major stock exchanges by early July.

Demand for housing and office space in India has boomed in the last five years, with annual economic growth at about eight percent.