Dredging Corp public offer sold 13 times

The Dredging Corporation issue of 5.6 million shares has received the highest subscription for a public offer of the government's stake in a big-ticket company. The issue, which had a price band of Rs 385-400 a share, closed today with over 13 times subscription.

This beats the 11.3 times subscription received in the CMC offer for sale. Even the Maruti initial public offer (IPO) had received a subscription of 10 times the issue size.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation issue opens tomorrow in a price band of Rs 680-750 per share.The lead managers to the issue have agreed not to charge any commission on participatory notes aimed at attracting large foreign investors.

The Dredging Corporation scrip today hit an intra-day high of Rs 500 but closed with a 0.87 per cent gain at Rs 490.95.

Merchant banking sources said the 25 per cent retail component of the issue was subscribed almost six times while the 50 per cent institutional component was subscribed 20 times.

Uday Kotak, chairman of Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, the book running lead manager to the issue, told Business Standard: "We are delighted at the very successful government disinvestment programme. Dredging Corporation is one more success story."

In the current batch of four offers that have closed till date, the IPCL offer was subscribed 3.16 times, the IBP offer close to 3 times and CMC 11.3 times.

The Gail issue closes tomorrow and has already received bids amounting to almost 400 per cent of the issue size. The Dredging Corporation offer had received bids for 14.1 million shares till Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Maharashtra initial public offer closed yesterday with more than six times subscription, according to merchant banking sources.

SBI Caps, the lead managers to the issue, said the issue had got a tremendous response but did not give the final figures.

The PSU bank's fixed-price offer was for 100 million equity shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 13 per share aggregating Rs 230 crore. A lead manager to the issue said it got a good response because of the attractive pricing compared with its peers listed on the stock exchanges.

Meanwhile, the Power Trading Corporation issue of 58.4 million shares has been subscribed almost six times with bids for 325.7 million shares, according to the Bombay Stock Exchange website at 8.30 pm.

The Petronet LNG issue of 260.9 million shares was subscribed over 60 per cent with bids for 158.2 million shares. The Power Trading issue closes on March 8 and the Petronet issue on March 9.