Prestige plans public offer this month

BANGALORE: Bangalore-based real estate developer Prestige Estates is planning to tap the capital markets with an Initial Public Offer (IPO) this month. Prestige had earlier planned to raise Rs 1,200 crore through the IPO route.

It had filed the draft red herring prospectus with the Securities Exchange Board of India last November for the public issue for divesting a 15%-20 % stake. The IPO was slated for May this year but the realtor deferred it due to poor market conditions.

“The IPO will open before the Coal India public issue (on October 18). The company has identified anchor investors to which it would be diluting up to 20% ahead of the opening of the IPO. Prestige shares will carry a price band of Rs 200 to Rs 250 per share,” said one source with direct knowledge of the development. A message sent by ET to Irfan Razack, CMD, Prestige Group, did not elicit any response.

The pre-money valuation of the privately owned Prestige group is between Rs 4,500 crore to Rs 5,000 crore. Its three co-promoters are Irfan Razack, Rezwan Razack and Noaman Razack, who have shied away from private placements at the holding entity level several times in the past.

For the issue, the group has appointed Enam Securities, UBS, JP Morgan and Kotak Mahindra Capital as its book running lead managers. For the year ended March ’09, the company had a total income of Rs 914 crore with PAT of around Rs 160 crore.