The Hindu Business Line : Info Edge India plans IPO

LAUNCHING PAD: Mr Ambarish Raghuvanshi, Director & CFO, Info Edge (India ) Ltd, with Mr Sanjeev Bikhchandani, MD & CEO, at a press conference to announce the company's IPO in Mumbai on Thursday. - Paul Noronha

Mumbai , Oct. 26

Info Edge (India) Ltd, a provider of online recruitment, matrimonial classifieds and related services in India (through its Web sites naukri.com, jeevansathi.com, etc.), proposes to enter the capital market with a public offering of 53.24 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each through a 100 per cent book building process.

It will be the first time an Internet company will offer an IPO in India.

The company plans to raise Rs 154.4 crore - Rs 174 crore based on a price band of Rs 290-320 per share. The offer constitutes 19.5 per cent of the fully diluted post issue paid-up equity capital of the company. The issue opens on October 30 and closes on November 2.

The company will use issue proceeds to purchase or lease real estate for their offices, to acquire companies and use alternative delivery models such as messages through mobiles, etc.

Of the total issue, 5.32 lakh equity shares will be reserved for the employees putting the net issue to the public at 47.91 lakh equity shares.

At least 60 per cent of the issue will be given to qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) of which, 5 per cent will be allocated to mutual funds only; up to 10 per cent will be given to non institutional bidders and remaining 30 per cent to retail individual bidders on a proportionate basis.

Company performance

The company recorded total income of Rs 84.06 crore for fiscal year 2006 (Rs 45.12 crore). Net profit stood at Rs 13.29 crore (Rs 0.31 crore).

The business of the company comes through its four sites naukri.com for recruitment, jeevansathi.com, the online matrimonial division, 99acres.com, the online real estate classified division and Quadrangle, an offline executive search division.

The company plans to diversify into other segments of online classifieds market like automobile, educational and industrial products and also expand in the Middle East and South Asia.

ICICI Securities Ltd and Citigroup Global Markets India Pvt Ltd are the book running lead managers to the issue.