Namaste London: Indian cos raise $1.5 billion on St

NEW DELHI: It’s destination London for India Inc. Over $1.5 billion has been raised by Indian companies in 2007 on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The turnover of Indian companies on LSE’s trading platform has reached a record level of $6.4 billion in the first seven months of 2007, compared to $5.2 billion for the full year 2006.

Hindalco, Mahindra & Mahindra, Ranbaxy, Reliance Industries and Tata Motors are some of the Indian companies that are trading on the London exchange.

Of the $1.5-billion funds raised this year, $725 million has been raised from the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) by seven India-centric funds and $766 million from the main market.

“London is an important financial market for Indian companies and the 44 global depository receipts (GDR) trading on the exchange have a high volume of liquidity. The International Order Book (IOB) of the exchange is the trading platform for depository receipts and the world’s only liquid and transparent trading platform for GDRs,” LSE manager (business development, India & international) Ibukun Adebayo said.

There are 24 Indian companies that are listed on the exchange. A further 12 Indian companies that are listed on other international stock exchanges trade on LSE. In addition, there are now 20 India-focused entities on the AIM.
Subex Azure raised $366 million in March and admitted to trading on the Professional Securities Market (PSM). In August, Symphony International Holdings became the first India-focused fund to list shares on London’s main market using the Chapter 14 listing route by raising $182 million. London-listed Axis Bank issued fresh GDRs to the tune of $218 million in July and admitted the same to PSM.

In comparison to the 24 companies that are listed in London, there are 15 depository receipts on the US bourses. However, the trade volume is higher on the US exchanges. “Some of the Luxembourg-listed securities that admitted to trading in London are small and attract low secondary market activity. However, the new admissions into the exchange such as Indiabulls are sufficiently large and can sustain liquidity and attract new investors through the London markets,” Mr Adebayo added.