Rel Power IPO did not appear overpriced: Govt

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday said Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Power IPO did not appear to be overpriced, if the over-subscription to the public issue is taken into consideration.

"Going by the level of the over-subscription to the IPO of Reliance Power, it appears that the Reliance Power was not overpriced," Minister of State for Finance P K Bansal told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

To another query, Bansal said 6,567 grievances pertaining to refund of orders relating Reliance Power IPO were pending with SEBI as on March 15, 2008.

Reliance Power, which raised close to three billion dollar through an initial public offer earlier this year, was oversubscribed by about 73 times.

However, despite an impressive response to the IPO, the stock made a disastrous debut on bourses and dipped below the issue price on the first day itself.

On the day of listing the closing price was Rs 372.30 against an issue price of Rs 450, Bansal said.

He was responding to a query whether the government is aware of manipulated higher price band of Reliance Power Ltd, which was listed 20 per cent lower the price band fixed by merchant banker of RPL.