INDIAN Petrochemicals Corp (IPCL) has become the first government-owned company to raise money on international markets.
The company has raised US$85 million through an issue of global depositary receipts (GDRs).
Goldman Sachs was the lead manager and Merrill Lynch the co-lead manager of the Euro-issue for the 25 billion rupee (about HK$6.19 billion) company in which the Indian Government has a 65 per cent equity stake.
It is expected that when the GDR is priced in London, it will be at around $4.65, a discount of about 13 per cent on the prevailing price of 166 rupees on Indian markets.
IPCL commenced its road shows with little fanfare in the last week of November, but managed to generate a good response, partly because of its promising outlook and the booming Indian petrochemicals sector.
The company has been a benefited from the high prices of plastics in India.
Corporate observers say that IPCL has been able to secure reasonable terms for the issue, considering the extremely difficult conditions that Indian companies face in international markets at the moment.
