Cairn Energy India's initial public offering (IPO) of 32.88 crore shares will open on December 11 and close on December 15 at a price band of Rs 160-190 per share. Cairn expects to raise Rs 6,247 crore from the country's second largest IPO. The biggest offer was ONGC's IPO of Rs 10,500 crore in 2004.Announcing the details of the IPO, Rahul Dhir, CEO of Cairn Energy India, said: "the money raised will be sufficient to meet exploration and development expenses of $1.5 billion in the next three years... A cross-section of investors, including some of the most respected, have validated the valuations."Dhir said the company will invest close to $2 billion in its operations over a three year period. This includes a $1.5 billion investment in the Rajasthan blocks, a $150 million investment in exploring the 10 new blocks it expects to be awarded under NELP 6 and $100 million investment in other projects.It has already placed 209.67 million shares worth Rs 3,700 crore in a pre-IPO private placing at a price of Rs 176.48 a share. A majority of these shares were picked up by the Malaysian state owned oil company Petronas.Cairn India, which has been exploring and operating development and production assets for more than 12 years, is estimated to have reserves of 754 million barrels of oil equivalent. Most of the reserves are estimated to be contained in the Rajasthan block.The oil explorer is expected to operate about 20% of India's oil production by 2010 on the assumption that the country's crude production remains the same level and Cairn is able to meet the production target of 150,000 barrels oil per day from the Rajasthan block's northern fields, the company said in a statement.The issue being is being managed by DSP Merrill Lynch, ABN Amro Rothschild and JM Morgan Stanley.
