Petronas of Malaysia has picked up about 10% stake in Cairn India, the subsidiary of Scottish oil firm Cairn Energy Plc, that is likely to be listed on the BSE by the end of next month.Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) subscribed to 176.53 million shares of CIL in a pre-IPO private placement, Cairn said in a statement today."The pre-flotation private placement closed on November 22, and 209.67 million Cairn India shares have been placed at a price of Rs 176.48 per share raising a total of Rs 3,700 crore ($822.47 million)," it said.The balance of 33.14 million shares are being subscribed by a combination of Indian and international institutional investors including Videocon.As a result of the private placement, the net offer to the public in Cairn India would be reduced from 538.47 million shares to 328.80 million shares.Cairn had originally planned to raise at least $1.8 billion through sale of 538.47 million shares of CIL through the proposed initial public offering (IPO).Cairn Energy Plc chief executive Bill Gammell said: "We are delighted to have gained such substantial backing for our pre-flotation placing. The positive response confirms our belief that this is the best strategy for Cairn to develop and grow our world class business in India."
