2 Indiabulls executives quit ahead of public issue

Indiabulls, the online brokerage, has lost two of its key personnel with just a few more weeks to go before the launch of its initial public offer (IPO). The two officials held a substantial amount of stock options.

Gajendra Nagpal, president (brokerage) and Vishal Trehan, vice-president (operations), have quit the company.

Gagan Banga, head of national sales and marketing, told Business Standard that the officials' quitting had nothing to do with the IPO.

"Our organisation has some performance parameters and we will have to deal with those who fail to come up to the parameters," he said.

He said that the company's IPO is on schedule and it  will be filing its draft prospectus with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) in a day or two.

Banga said the revised filing includes the latest financial results for the quarter ended June 2004, and the IPO would hit the markets in the second week of September.

Both the senior executives are believed to have between eight to ten lakh worth of stock options, though no confirmation was available.

The company plans to sell 2.71 crore equity shares in its maiden IPO, to raise funds to propel its expansion.

Indibulls has a whole host of venture capital firms as investors, including hedge-fund Farallon Capital Partners LP, Transatlantic Corp, Infinity Technologies Trustee Pvt Ltd and LN Mittal's India Fund.

These funds hold close to 20 per cent of the company's equity. Indiabulls has 70 locations spread across 62 cities. The brokerage house offers a full range of financial services and products ranging from equities to insurance.