The Hindu Business Line : Gujarat chemical firm to list on Singapore bourse today

MEGHMANI Organics Ltd, a Rs 250-crore pigment and agro-chemical manufacturer, will be the first Indian company to list its equity shares on the Singapore Stock Exchange when it begins trading tomorrow.

The Ahmedabad-based private limited company has just completed a S$17.3-million (approximately Rs 46 crore) Singapore Depository Share (SDS) issue that was managed by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Meghmani's public issue of equity shares that came amid a slew of Chinese issues in the City State was overbought 16 times. The company had offered Singapore investors a little over 10 crore SDSs at an invitation price of S$0.28 (about Rs 7.40) each. Every two SDSs represent one underlying share of Re 1.

"We have opened the gateway for our brothers," an elated Mr Jayanti Patel, Executive Chairman of Meghmani, told Business Line. Asked why the company decided to go to the Singapore exchange instead of any Indian bourses, Mr Patel said the company had an Indian issue in mind after two years.

The Singapore-based ASC Capital and the Hong Kong-based JF Electra Fund of Jardine Fleming hold about 12 per cent and 13 per cent respectively of the company's equity. The promoters will hold 62.5 per cent of the equity capital after the issue.

The company intends to spend Rs 15 crore from the issue on new product registration and export promotion. It would spend another Rs 15 crore to increase pigment manufacturing capacity and setting up production and developing facilities for off-patent pesticide molecules.

Meghmani is a leading producer of green pigment and blue pigment, both inputs for making printing ink and paints.

The company had revenues of a little over Rs 150 crore in the first eight months ended November 30, 2003. It made profit after tax of Rs 17.8 crore in that period.