REALTORS RUSH FOR IPO APPROVALS | zameensantosh's Blog

Seven Cash-Strapped Realty Cos File Red Herring Prospectus with Sebi to Raise Rs 14,000 Cr

The cash-strapped realty sector is scurrying for an initial public offer (IPO) cover with several builders approaching market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to seek approval to rise around Rs 14,000 cr or $3billion.

At least seven realty companies, including Lodha Developers, Sahara Prime city, Emaar MGF and BPTP, have either filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with Sebi since Friday or plan to do it tomorrow.

“Every company intending to do an IPO is in a hurry to file DRHP, as any delay beyond September 30 will force them to get their books audited again, which might delay the whole process,” a banker handling one large realty firms IPO said. The banker didn’t want him or his client to be named for regulatory reasons.

The audited balance sheet is valid for six months for filing prospectus. In case the company files the DRHP after six months of the annual report, it needs to incorporate audited numbers for proceeding six month period.

Emaar MGF, , a joint venture between Delhi-based MGF and Dubai-based Emaar, Sahara Prime City, Lodha Developers and Kumar Developers filed DRHP with Sebi on Tuesday. Delhi-based Ambience filed the prospectus last Friday, while Delhi-based BPTP, Sriram Properties will likely file tomorrow. BPTP, however, denied it was filing DRHP tomorrow.

Emaar MGF plans to re-launch its IPO to raise 3,850 cr for 10% stake dilution. In addition, the promoter is also divesting 1.17 cr shares to mop up around Rs 400 cr. This means Emaar MGF is looking at a valuation of Rs 38,500 cr, as against a valution of Rs 70,000 cr last times round.

Sahara group’s realty arm Sahara Prime City plans to rise up to Rs 3,450 cr through initial share sale.

Mumbai-based Lodha Developers plans to raise Rs 2,700 cr, while BPTP and Ambience plan to raise Rs 2,000 cr and Rs 1,100 cr respectively. Kumar Developers and Sriram Properties expect to raise Rs 400 cr and Rs 600 cr respectively.

“We will use the IPO funds to retire high cost debt, pay for government license fee for our land and in developing our projects,” says Ambience chairman Raj Singh Gehlot.

Led by real estate companies, the stock markets have been rallying this year with benchmark sensex registering a gain of 75% since January to close at 16,852 on Tuesday.

Several listed realty firms, including DLF, Unitech, Indiabulls Real Estate, Sobha Developers and HDIL, went in for successful qualified institutional placements (QIP) or promoter stake sale rising over $2 billion. The ability of listed realty players to raise funds gave privately-held firms the confidence to test the primary market which saw a slump following the fall of realty firm Emaar MGF’s IPO early 2008.

All listed realty companies were quick to tap the QIP route when markets improved because they were the ones who were most leveraged. Once again they are the ones leading the IPO rush because of the same reason.

Debt-ridden developers’ internal accruals too haven’t picked up significantly as buyers have been slow to return to the property market. Some of the developers are also under pressure from private equity (PE) funds, which earlier invested in those companies, to go public as it would give the PEs an exit route.

Courtesy:- ET dt:- 30-09-09